When a cheap new chair is no bargain at all!

It's the value proposition that is being too often forgotten – even by professionals.  

Three recent experiences tell a story of their own.

First experience: We recently had a client visit our Brisbane showroom who explained that they had furnished a retail branch with budget replica furniture. They liked the look that they’d achieved on the day they put the furniture in place ... but just a few months later they had recorded more than 7 separate workplace health and safety incidents in the office that resulted from failure of the furniture. They took the product back to the retail store they purchased it from to be promptly told if they were using the product in a commercial application that they had voided their warranty so were ‘on their own’ so to speak!

Second experience: I noticed a large quantity of replica Eames chairs being unloaded from a truck to go into a large corporate office on the opposite side of the street. It appeared to be the greater part of a full truck load. To my amazement the next day what looked to be the same truck was back in the same spot and yet again there was a large load of the same replica chairs on the footpath. I remarked to the driver that it must have been a very large order indeed if he was delivering two large loads within two days ... whereupon he retorted not too subtly that I was not grasping the situation ... for in fact these were the same chairs that had been on the footpath the day before. The client had (within 24 hours) already experienced so many issues that they were now sending them back!     

Third experience: I had lunch with the owner of some of Australia’s most successful luxury car dealerships and he mentioned that he’d recently made an interesting discovery about furniture after buying a set of beautiful Scandinavian dining room chairs for his home. He was sensitive to the cost of the chairs but his designer encouraged him to see it as an investment. A while after taking delivery of his beautiful chairs he visited a colleague’s home for a weekend barbecue. On arriving at the dinner destination he commented to his host that they obviously shared good taste as they both had the same dining chair. To which his host quickly commented that while he liked the look – it was a shame they fell apart so quickly!  This surprised my story teller as he’d had no issues with his chairs.  He’d assumed they’d both acquired them from the same place but on further enquiry discovered that the bbq host had used a replica furniture outlet (and regarded his purchase as a major disappointment and a real waste of money)!  

With the rise of reality television shows focusing on domestic property makeovers ... the replica furniture world has gained a lot of airtime and with that credibility (or so it would seem). 

Last year, I visited a popular outlet for replica furniture here in Australia when accompanied by two of my Swedish industry colleagues. They became quite distressed. They simply couldn’t understand how Australians could accept such an establishment. I explained that as long as the word ‘REPLICA’ prefaced any other name or description on the product that it was deemed legal. And that was the telling point. They proceeded to explain that in Sweden the owners would be charged with a criminal offence and almost certainly jailed. In Sweden you simply can’t sell something that is so obviously a ‘knock off’ of somebody else’s product.   The very idea is incredibly offensive to them.

I note that in the Speaker Series on Friday of this week’s DENFAIR that yet another session will be dedicated to protecting and supporting authentic designs in our industry. This is the second moral point. When we ‘knock off’ someone else’s idea or design it is after all no less than theft – no matter how some may choose to justify it.

Thirdly, do you really want to be filing reports on multiple cases involving members of the public or employees who have been injured by a collapsing chair or a sudden break in the furniture components?

I’m not talking about quality products that bear some resemblance. Heck – if that was the case my mother would think that every car on the road is a copy of something else. After all, they all have 4 wheels, a front windscreen and something under the bonnet – no I’m talking about the sad reality that every week thousands upon thousands of Australians go out and buy something that they think looks great ... some even think it is the original and in that moment don’t understand why anyone would pay more. 

Imagine, if you will, that some cashed up new enterprise started making cars in some other part of the world that look exactly like Mercedes AMG or top of the line BMW. Imagine that they looked identical except that the materials used in the body and interior were decidedly inferior and that the engine under the bonnet was more like that used in a basic scooter. All those who know as much about cars as my mother would be easy meat!  Except that the cheaper imitation would be a huge disappointment to any who thought they were acquiring something like ‘the real thing’   

The point is that thankfully such copies don’t exist in the more tightly controlled auto world ... but more importantly people recognise that if they can’t justify the dollars for a Lexus they can acquire an affordable and very reliable option from Toyota or numerous other brands with well priced versions. The Toyota brand is not an imitation of the Lexus. It is a genuine product in its own right, that existed in fact even before the luxury brand did and a very practical choice for a commercial application – with no risk posed for the owner – unlike the safety and performance concerns if a new replica Beemer or Benz was suddenly on the market for $12,990!!

Likewise it pays to remember that furniture buyers don’t have to resort to risky replica products – when there are genuine lower cost brands on the market. They may not share the exact look of that top of the line brand ... but it is a proper commercial grade product that will be a far safer, far better option where budget dictates.  As an example – with a genuine designer chair like the Swedish RBM Noor offering options starting from around $200 for projects and good value options offered by Pedrali, Emeco and others ... the question is why on earth are we resorting to nasty knock-offs? 

As another example ... if you put a Rolex label on a $2 watch ... will you feel good about wearing it? 

The watch won’t even work by Day 3 and most people I know have too much self-respect to wear the fake. Some may wear it as a joke. A statement to say that they don’t take themselves too seriously but if you handed a $2 fake to your long standing employee on their retirement don’t expect too many others in the team to hang around for their turn. It depends what you want to say about yourself – especially in the commercial world! If you only paid the $2 it could be argued that you don’t have much to lose except questions on your judgement – so we’ll just call it a costume jewellery piece!?     

The real problem is that even some of our most respected designers (whom I count as some of my favourite people and good friends at that) when anxious to bring a project in under budget – are now feeling increasing pressure to ‘go over to the dark side’ and use the cheapest of replica products on their project sites.  So is there any real danger here?  One of the greatest dangers is to the future of the interior-design industry itself. I call it scoring an own goal on your own practice. 

Once upon a time, when a designer was engaged they would introduce the client to a selection of product that was only known to those in the industry, who specialised on commercial projects and were essentially unknown to the public at large. When designers start using replicas from the widely recognisable domestic retail outlets ... they become no more than stylists and while that is still a service in its own right ... it takes the mystery away from the designer’s magic. It makes the client think ‘I could have done that myself’ and when the product fails in the commercial application – they blame the designer /specifier for not doing their due diligence and meeting the professional standard to which they are called ... so an all round PR disaster for the future of interior designers everywhere!

It used to be the ignorance of a client, uneducated in the difference of product, that got caught in this situation. I was pleased when my luxury car dealer associate had been encouraged by his designer to get the real thing – an end result that he now feels especially happy about I should add. I see that there are recent findings that 21% of Australians are purchasing a nasty knock off without even realising that they’ve bought something other than an original!  So 1 in 5 of us have been completely duped, mislead, sold-a-dud and may still not know it.

What is the lesson in all this?  Well there are probably a few worth contemplating:

For interior designers:  Back yourselves! If you believe the client should have a better product tell the client you couldn’t take any responsibility for a product that is designed for only occasional domestic use! If you don’t feel you can sell that message to the client – enlist the help of a trusted commercial furniture colleague who can properly demonstrate the difference between a true commercial product and the pretender! At the end of the day, the client only spends more money if they understand what they are getting for it. The true test of the value proposition!

For builders and project managers: While the temptation is there to talk a client in to using a cheap alternative domestic grade product and perhaps even pocket a percentage of the difference – clients who realise they have been sold an inferior product are not likely to be too impressed about it. Our friend with the 7+ WHS incidents would be a great case in point.

For quantity surveyors: Ensure that costings are based on genuine commercial grade product. It causes too much pain in the projects of our nation if this doesn't happen.

For end clients:  Don’t dumb down the importance of your furniture choice. In the last year ... we have recorded a very significant result in furniture buying in our own business. Historically we sold more quality product when designers / specifiers were involved. They carried the authority to influence the client to invest more in their furniture.  That is no longer happening to the same degree. In fact in 2017 we sold far more high end product when the end client was the leading decision maker.  In 2017 ... & note well .. "We sold more quality product to clients when designers were not involved". There is the irony. The designer assumes the client won’t see value in better product and assumes many of their projects are on a super tight budget. The end user client is invested in what performance value they will get from the product and comes away with better value over all.      

One of my Melbourne colleagues visited a major corporate site in recent times. His company has been supplying major fitout furniture packages to this same client for many years. The client had chosen furniture at a proper commercial standard through several stages over a period of quite some years except in one area where more recently they had decided to do a department ‘on the cheap’. While the client endeavoured to use contemporary colours etc to make the replica install look good – just six months later as my experienced colleague toured the offices he was struck by the reality that the newer (but inferior) fitout was already looking quite sad and lacked the appeal and appearance-of-quality that the earlier installations of better furniture portrayed.

But ultimately it is those of us who make our daily crust supplying the market place with quality commercial furniture who must really speak up. We must shout it from the rooftops if necessary ... or jump on our 'blog' soapboxes if that's what it takes.  

The case to make a considered purchase continues. Many organisations brag about being environmentally minded but in fact ... they take a ‘throw-away’ mentality to material hungry items like furniture.  In Scandinavia they will pay on average about 5 times what we do for furniture but the product is a quality, classic piece ... and can be refurbished more than once and still performs a better function and looks a million dollars ... rather than a rather sad alternative.

Ever bought a clothing item that has disappointed you from 10 minutes of taking it from the store? You may have worn it once but then it lived untouched in your cupboard or drawer until you gave it away to charity or sadly just tossed it on a dump pile. With commercial furniture some take the view that they personally won’t actually sit on it – so it won’t matter if the comfort and performance is not that great – just as long as it looked OK when it was wheeled through the front door of the office!

While I didn’t personally handle the transaction myself I was encouraged to overhear a new client, while attended our recent clearance sale, remark that they were happy to buy some of our older stock at a discount because they had tried the cheap new imitation furniture products sold by our competitors and had been stung by the experience! What a shame that so many learn this the hard way.  

But this is not just a fringe issue now. It has impacted the selections on tens of thousands of projects across the country. It is evident in decisions on properties of every description – be it hospitality, education, health or corporate spaces. It can be seen in the foyers of some of our grandest commercial buildings where owners have risked even the star rating on their buildings ... or in their ignorance cheapened their building beyond belief because they wrongly assume that every visitor is ignorant when the truth is that quite a few of those who really matter – actually can pick a fake ... and it suddenly jeopardises the integrity of the entire organisation and diminishes whatever great effort has been made to present as a quality organisation. 

Ironically when a recognised Australian artist who'd had his work copied in Bali and other places saw one such fake-copy given exposure on a current ‘home improvement’ reality TV show ... he took the program to task and they issued an apology and gave him very positive exposure to ‘make it up to him’.  

That very same program however, week in & week out to this day continues to feature furniture product that would be regarded as criminal and unlawful in Sweden. Probably because of a promo (advertising) deal this same organisation gets legitimised, as they promote inferior ‘knock offs’ and unauthorised copies that become increasingly ‘acceptable’ as the public is lulled into thinking this product must be OK. 

In the end those same products are being used far and wide on commercial projects – the length and breadth of the country.  The copy may not be honourable – but at least on the tele show it is used in a ‘domestic’ situation. What is very disturbing, even alarming, is how many of those same ‘rated-for-domestic-use-only’ furniture products are now making their way on to major commercial projects.   This is like using an inflatable toy for genuine lifesaving purposes!  What are we thinking?!    

An industry colleague recently lined up a row of chairs that were all replicas of the one product but at varying degrees of quality. The original furniture item was not cheap but you could buy a range of poorly made versions that ranged in price (some as little as one tenth of the original). To the untrained eye much of the problem is that they all look the same.  Anne Hathaway starred in the film The Devil Wears Prada and her character in one scene stifles a giggle when one of the designers remarks that two green belts from a range of women’s apparel are “so different”!  To Andrea Sachs (Anne’s character) the belts looked identical and she was struggling to take the process seriously. 

If they are the same quality then no great issue ... but when one is intended to look like the other but is actually hugely inferior it is downright misleading ... and here is the point. Sometimes those with considerable influence over the project are now too tempted to turn a blind eye or worse ... may even be complicit in the aiding and abetting of the deception itself. I have actually witnessed those in the industry who coach others on how to convince the client that they are getting the real thing ... while they are being sold a potato or a lemon!

If there is anything that counts for us in a professional environment it is our reputation. If we’ve had any part in letting a client pay money for a product that is not fit for the purpose or allowing them to buy – knowing it won’t make the distance – we deserve to pay for that. Some in the industry may do it through ignorance of their own – but this is still no excuse. The end client in any commercial application has the right to expect that someone in the process will be professional enough to do the due diligence, to pull them up and spare them from a costly & potentially embarrassing mistake. 

In too many cases now, a client will be convinced to opt for an alternative product which ... they are promised ... will ‘save them money’ but while any saving may seem attractive – because the client is ultimately given a vastly lower grade substitute – ultimately the client pays a higher price for a substantially poorer product.  And sadly rather than getting better value the client has just been ripped off!  If you can’t tell the difference between a genuine Rolex watch which is say normally $10,000 and a $10 copy is it a bargain to be delivered the $10 watch and be charged $5,000??!! (... hey “that’s a saving of $5,000”! .... never mind that you have in fact just been overcharged $4,990) @  In furniture terms this is precisely what has been happening way too often ... or the client will pay $100 thinking they can throw it out when it fails but it proves to be false economy from virtually day one as it gives them constant bother and ... where staff are using the furniture ... may very adversely impact their sense of worth – as it becomes very obvious ‘this is how little my bosses think of me’!

Some in the market place take the view – “it’s just furniture – who cares?” ... but actually, as we have learned from some of the more in depth research of our times, furniture is much more important to the human psyche than most have ever realised. Aside from the value proposition of whether we are getting a return on our spend (investment rather than wasted outlay) ... the people who actually use furniture are wanting to do so with confidence. We want our cars to stay on the road and our planes to stay up in the air until they are supposed to land ... and we want our furniture to stay standing!! It is really important to the user’s state of mind. Those who need to sit ... are not always going to be that forgiving if they experience firsthand the wobbles and the breakage, the self-destruction and injury resulting from a poorly made pretender.    If our clients saw the magnitude of the furniture incidences these days they would understand why I feel compelled to dedicate so many paragraphs to the subject. 

I have a client who ‘knows’ very well - when they are getting a cheap furniture product - they know it will only be adequate for that temporary staging exercise or a very short-term project office and in such instance they’d prefer to have some short life product rather than hire something better or attempt to re-purpose later ... and that’s OK – because no one is duping them and no one is being led down the garden path on wrong information.  They go in to that decision with their eyes wide open. 

My client knows very well that when they buy that standard – from other ranges the product won’t have a ‘second life’ or even a long ‘first life’ but they understand the application and are still careful on selection, removing any product that is simply too cheap.   

There have been mixed reactions to recent announcements that in the future most commercial furniture packages will be leased or ‘packaged’ rather than purchased outright from a conventional furniture schedule. Some fear this will lead to even greater use of inappropriate selections and maybe even more replica product being used. The reality is that it comes down to education. As an industry, as individual businesses and as professionals in this field we need to care a little more about preventing an increasingly herd mentality like lemmings to the cliff. We can spare the commercial world from an era of unfit product & the chaos that brings ... that will ultimately cause us to be seen as more dodgy than the used car industry!!

I conclude with one further example that came to mind as I write this article- 

Some years ago, a new supplier promised a new chair that was going to be every bit as good as a near-identical-looking product. At the time we had clients begging us for more economical options. We begrudgingly broke our golden rule and let two clients (in different cities) 'test drive' the product to give us their opinion. We foolishly allowed them to be our guinea pigs. Within the first day we had not one but two separate incidents (both clients) ... where persons in very senior roles had been given the good looking executive task chairs in question ... and our clients were now on the phone ... very clearly distressed that their bosses were rolling around on the floor because the castings under the seat-rests had simply snapped in two and the main part of the chair had tipped the occupant straight to the carpet below!

That was a very long time ago and our business will never allow this to happen again.     

We all have to lie straight in bed at night and that can’t be so easy if we’ve had any part in furnishing a group of people with imitation (artificial) non-genuine pieces that are simply not safe, that are truthfully not going to ‘go the distance’ and ultimately not going to provide anything to the user but ongoing disappointment.  

Is that too harsh? Well ... just talk to those involved in the 3 accounts at the start of this story. Let’s just say they can be called Exhibit A, Exhibit B & Exhibit C ... (or for that matter talk to just about anyone else who has ever bought a really cheap ‘knock off’ piece of furniture)! 

I rest my case.   Aldo Gucci had it right!

Jason Mark is a director of Offiscape, Brisbane and international correspondent for The Meta Collective – now supported in Australia & New Zealand through nine dealership showrooms. Direct enquiries +61 419 827272 www.themetacollective.com

Image of broken Replica Eames chair courtesy of adelaidevilla.blogspot.com