In the summer of 2015, Stephen Kuhl and Kabeer Chopra made their way to Philadelphia to prepare for business school. It was their first semester in the Wharton MBA program. They were both in an entrepreneurship class where starting a business was one of the course requirements. Kuhl and Chopra paired up to complete this assignment. They were brainstorming business ideas and hit upon one to sell furniture online. Both purchased furniture when moving to Philadelphia and found their experiences painful. They thought, let’s work on furniture and see if we can come up with a better way to sell furniture online and create a better experience for buyers. They started doing research on the idea, and the more they dug into it the more they became excited about the opportunity. The furniture industry is fragmented, with the largest players owning less than 10 percent of the market. It is a \($100\) billion market in the United States alone—much larger globally. As they continued thinking about their idea, they realized that most furniture was not sold online, even though a growing percentage of people were becoming comfortable making major purchases online. When people buy things online, Kuhl and Chopra learned, they want it delivered fast and without a shipping fee. Meeting those expectations is challenging when selling traditional furniture, which is big and bulky. Kuhl and Chopra’s challenge was to create a company that improved the entire furniture-buying experience—from how people shop for it, to how it is delivered to them, to how they live with it in their homes, to how they handle it when they move. In other words, create an end-to-end process of selling furniture online that is super convenient for customers. Kuhl and Chopra continued working on the idea and launched their company in spring 2017, the semester they completed their MBA degrees. They chose the name Burrow for their company. Fast-forward to the present. Burrow sells modular furniture that it ships directly to your home in boxes. Customers can assemble the furniture quickly with no tools required. Burrow started with sofas but now sells other furniture items. Some of the firm’s couches are “pet friendly,” including the ability to resist scratches from cats. In the words of one customer, “Kitty claws don’t stand a chance.” The annual growth rate for Burrow, since 2015, is 170 percent. Its sleek contemporary furniture competes with Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, West Elm, and similar furniture brands. Burrow’s marketing program receives credit for a large part of its success. Each of the 4Ps—product, price, promotion, and place (or distribution)—has an integral role in the firm’s marketing program and its success in implementing that program.....

Discussion Questions:

1.Describe Burrow’s positioning strategy. Do you think the strategy is effective? Why or why not?
2.In a short paragraph, describe Burrow’s brand. Comment on the brand’s strengths and weaknesses.
3.What influencers, other than podcast hosts, do you think would be effective for Burrow? What criteria do you think Burrow uses in selecting influencers for its brand?
4.What is the difference between Burrow’s core product and its actual product? Describe its actual product and your assessment of whether the actual product provides an attractive set of characteristics.