This report studies the behaviour of the Italian purchasers of built-in appliances taking into consideration: the sales performance for kitchens and built-in appliances, purchasing criteria by major purchasers of built-in appliances, development of brand-name image and customer satisfaction of major built-in appliances purchasers. The study is based on 173 telephone interviews with kitchen furniture manufacturers, built-in appliances wholesalers and specialised appliances chains. Distribution flows and purchases of built-in appliances are analysed by product (sinks, hoods, hobs, ovens, dishwashers, refrigerators), by customer type (kitchen furniture manufacturers, built-in appliances wholesalers), by geographical area and by price range. The analysis of brand name-image covers 6 years and provides a ranking of the main quoted brands by product (refrigerators, cooking appliances, dishwashers, hoods, sinks) and by type of customer (kitchen furniture manufacturers, built-in appliances wholesalers). The report also studies the development of the criteria used to select the suppliers of built-in appliances. Considered criteria are: Frequency/easy approach with the supplier, Front staff professionalism, Distribution channel reliability, Punctuality in delivering and speed of re-stocking, After-sales technical assistance, Willingness to satisfy customer needs, Prices, Average unit margin on products sold, Product reliability, Wide range of products and models, Aesthetic qualities of the product/design, Innovation, Brand fame/Advertising campaigns, Availability of merchandising material. The opinions on the built-in appliances brands expressed by the interviewed companies are organised according to brand name, type of customer (kitchen furniture manufacturers, built-in appliances wholesalers), customer dimension (large scale customers, small and medium-sized customers), criteria used to select the suppliers of built-in appliances.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Centre for Industrial Studies (CSIL) in its series CSIL reports with number
IT15.