Ad campaign features a message about Canadian quality.
“Don’t let just anyone into your home!” is the slogan of a new pan-Canadian awareness campaign that invites Canadians to think about the origins of the furniture they are purchasing.
In order to clearly identify furniture that has been made in Canada, consumers can simply search for the Quality Canadian Furniture label when they are shopping in stores. A new website that is available to the public: www.qualitycanadianfurniture.ca, has also been launched in support of this initiative. This practical portal is designed to facilitate the communication between consumers and manufacturers.
By creating the Quality Canadian Furniture campaign, the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers Association (QFMA) is using a direct, dynamic and fun-filled approach to build awareness among the Canadian public. “Consumers want to know who they are doing business with – all of our studies show that this is a fact,” explains Jean François Michaud, president & CEO of the QFMA. “Today, the majority of the population consults the internet before going into a store to make a purchase1 – that is why we have created www.qualitycanadianfurniture.ca. It’s a site that highlights the vast choice and high-quality that Canadian manufacturers offer. The web site has been created with the needs of female consumers in mind, seeing as they influence up to 94% of decisions regarding home furniture. Within its web pages we are able to explain who we are and all that we have to offer1.”
“As Canadian furniture manufacturers, this unprecedented initiative will finally allow us to better communicate the high-quality of our products to consumers who are more and more enthusiastic about knowing the origins of the furniture they are buying,” agree Terry Clark, president of Acme Furniture in Winnipeg and president of Furniture West - the association of furniture manufacturers for Western Canada and Adam Hoffman, owner and president of BG Furniture in Walkerton Ontario.
While providing plenty of information on trends, decorating ideas as well as practical solutions for furniture upkeep, the site also highlights the advantages of locally-bought furniture as compared to products offered by foreign competition. Canadian manufacturers offer high quality pieces that answer, and sometimes surpass, North American safety and quality standards. Finishing products are of the highest standards and the same can be said for the selected primary materials which are beautiful species of trees that come from the country’s own forests. In addition, the furniture can often be personalized when it is being ordered – this is a feature that is becoming more and more popular among consumers.
About Quality Canadian Furniture: Quality Canadian Furniture regroups more than 100 furniture manufacturers from across Canada. The Canadian furniture industry is estimated at 10.5 billion dollars2 and exports 28% of its products3. The initiative is speared-headed by the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers' Association,a non-profit organization headquartered in Montreal, QC. Its mission, since 1942, has been to promote the Quebec furniture industry and its manufacturers.
Footnotes:
1: Study of the Usages and Attitudes Toward Furniture by Canadian and American Consumers, QFMA, October 2008.
2: Statistics Canada, Monthly Study of Industrial Manufacturers (EMIM), CANSIM tables 304-0014 and 304-0015, March 2010.
3: Industry Canada - % of Manufacturing Shipment Exported, (NAICS 33712 – Household and InstitutionalFurniture Manufacturing), 2008.