CORKBRICK EUROPE

Market

Target market

CORKBRICK can be used to build interior and exterior structures in general and furniture in particular. Although it can be seen as a substitute to classic structures and furniture, in reality CORKBRICK will be understood as a new and unique solution to some structures and furniture because of its variable application and dimension. With CORKBRICK the user can assemble and disassemble everything in minutes, with no tools or glues.

It can be used in households, offices, fairs, hotels and public spaces like museums, airports, art galleries, etc. The application is very wide and we believe that our customers will find even more useful and fun applications for the CORKBRICK system.

We aim to reach 0.1% of the total 200m+ EU households in 10 years, starting from Scandinavia, Germany and Holland first, and then expanding to the rest of the EU.

The business market is very attractive too, but this is our secondary market as we aim to create a community of CORKBRICK fans first that will help us later in promoting to the business environment.

CORKBRICK EUROPE will focus only in the EU market to be able to deliver door do door.

The EU furniture market is worth more than €80 billion and the RTA/DIY (Ready To Assembly/ Do It Yourself) segment represents 10% of it, outperforming the furniture sector average in terms of both consumption and production.

We believe that the CORKBRICK concept can overcome most threats and weaknesses identified by a SWOT analysis of the EU furniture market.

Characteristics of target market

Assuming our total potential market is 10% of the total 200m EU households, and that they spend €125, we believe that our total potential market is worth more than €2.5 billion. We will start by addressing the €8 billion RTA/DIY furniture market in the EU.

Representing 24% of the EU population, millennials are our priority target because we believe they are more responsive to the flexibility, dynamics, natural and sustainable characteristics of CORKBRICK. They are also easier to reach by internet.

We will be addressing the needs of millennials looking for a useful, easy, dynamic and natural solution to improve the spaces they live in. Something consistent with their dynamic and moving life-style.

CORKBRICK, besides its flexibility and easy handling, is an excellent soundproofing and thermal isolation solution that offers unique applications other solutions can't match.

We believe millennials are used to purchasing and researching on internet and are therefore easier to engage. After the initial penetration we plan to reach the X generation, using the millennials influence.

CORKBRICK lends itself to the consumer culture that seeks creative, easy to assemble and flexible interior design and furnishing options. We believe it appeals to those consumers who simply want simple, affordable and durable home solutions that do not require even basic assembly skills.

Marketing strategy

Our objective is to inspire creativity and engage our customers with the CORKBRICK concept. We believe that by engaging and rewarding our customers and fans, we will be able to grow together, developing a transparent, fair and sustainable business.

In order to create and nurture a close relationship with our customers we will focus on a direct marketing strategy, benefiting from two facts:

1) Our target customers are used to purchasing over the internet
2) The cost of delivering CORKBRICK from our factory in Portugal to anywhere in the EU is relatively low due to the light weight material. Therefore, we feel we don't need intermediaries to sell.

Geographically, we will start by focusing in Northern Europe as we believe that CORKBRICK's usefulness and uniqueness is better recognised in these markets. We will then spread to other countries.

We will begin by focusing directly on millennials' households, people already interested in DIY, Lego, design, architecture, sustainability and innovative solutions, reaching them directly through internet and social media in particular.

To engage our users and fans, we intend to launch the 'CORKBRICK COMMUNITY MARKETPLACE', a crowd sourced gamified collaborative design and build program for expanding our CORKBRICK construction component system.

This would allow "corkies" to expand our line of product sets while allowing them to make money on their ideas. Think of it as a community based open sourced design culture. Corkies will use CORKBRICK PLAY to create and design a personalised CORKBRICK solution such as shelves, beds, tables, chairs, and will be rewarded every time a customer orders a CORKBRICK set they created.

In parallel, we intend to promote our concept and "way of life" producing creative presentations in public spaces like museums, art galleries, airports and other non-obvious places to surprise the audience and get media attention.

Competition strategy

There are many European companies operating on the RTA/DIY market – but to our knowledge, none offer similar concept to CORKBRICK. We believe that none offer the simplicity, flexibility, dynamics, natural, durability, sound and temperature insulation characteristics that CORKBRICK offers. Everblock, IKEA, 3 B, Alsapan, Argos, Arte M, Bauwens, Burstadt Furniture, Composad, Schmal, Decorative Panels Furniture are among the most relevant competitors. They all sell RTA furniture and some offer interior structures too, but still rely on classic assemblies and big showrooms to expose and sell their products.

We will centre our competition strategy on three pillars:
1) an intimate, fair and mutual rewarding relationship with our customers (CORKBRICK CLUB MEMBERS)
2) an efficient value chain and direct sales
3) an aggressive and fair pricing that will position CORKBRICK as the best value to our customers

CORKBRICK will differentiate by nurturing a close and dynamic relationship with its customers. CORKBRICK offer unique characteristics ideal to a "club" mindset - Like Lego fan club but for adults and for real- The CORKBRICK CLUB.

To instil and reward creativity from our fans, we will allow any customer to create and share CORKBRICK applications and setups through our web platform, using a special virtual reality software - CORKBRICK PLAY.

CORKBRICK PLAY will allow any user to build with CORKBRICK in any environment (at scale) with their PC or smartphones. Users can use CORKBRICK PLAY to create and order or just to create and share. We will reward all creations shared by CORKBRICK PLAY users that are bought by customers.

We plan an aggressive pricing strategy, with our product 10-25% less expensive than our competitors due to the efficiency of our value chain.