Wicker Emporium captures millennial market with affordable, sustainable home décor and strategic marketing choices
By Charlene Boyce A recent post on a blog for restaurant franchises terms millennials the current tastemakers, and this sentiment is echoed in many industries beyond quick service restaurants. Capturing the attention and loyalty of the millen- nial generation has become the “white whale quest” of many a traditional brand manager. Wicker Emporium’s President, Raj Kapahi, is one Captain Ahab who seems to have figured out the way to catch the whale. Wicker Emporium was founded in 1972 by Raj’s father, Madan, who, as a recent immigrant, noticed an unserved gap in the furniture business for light, affordable wicker and rattan. Madan soon realized that more stores would be more profitable, as it would free him to do his own wholesale purchasing, so he quickly spread out, opening another store the next year in the neighboring city of Dartmouth, and a third soon after in Fredericton.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • AUGUST 2016
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