Brand Bytes #3
What’s your war story? Didn’t go to war? Maybe you’ve been to IKEA instead.
Most of us have an IKEA story — that time when you finished assembling the newly bought PAX wardrobe and then realised you attached the doors upside down, or when you forgot to get handles for your Kallarp kitchen and spent 5 months prising open cabinet doors with whatever was at hand, mastering your break-in skills before you made it back to IKEA again.
It isn’t usually a smart move in terms of brand experience to make it harder to use the products. But it’s brilliant if you use it to create unique a unique brand experience that gives users a story to tell and share. Add to that the pride you feel when you’re finished assembling your Billy bookcase. Users who work on or influence their end product, have a more intense connection to said product. IKEA has built an enormous business — and a much-loved brand — around making the annoying and cumbersome task of DIY cool.
Add to that their goal; ‘To be the leader of life at home’. They visit Mr & Mrs Real-People at home and observe how we live in order to create the products we actually need rather than what we might think we need (we all know the story about faster horses vs. cars). They for instance learned that Americans tend to store more of their clothes in drawers compared to other markets, which led to deeper drawers for the American IKEA customers (there’s a pun somewhere in there…).
Most, but not all, product developments, start with a user trend or a gap in the market. For IKEA UK, that gap was somewhere in between British housewives with a love of chintz, and a new England in the wake of Tony Blair’s election victory, bringing with it a need for newness outside of parliament as well. IKEA aimed to convince Britain that they needed to bring the newness into their homes — out with the old-fashioned furnishing and in with IKEA’s modern living.
The initial campaign was initially targeted particularly at women, who by and large make the vast majority of decisions related to furniture in the home. It was a “call for women to sort of reject the past and reject feminine models of the home”, according to Naresh Ramchandani, creator of IKEA’s UK launch campaign. The low price point which had set them apart from their competition in other markets, further allowed them to democratize the attractive and functional Scandinavian design for modern homes in the UK.
The recognisably Scandinavian touch is an intrinsic part of the IKEA brand. The logo is not only one of the most recognisable logos in the world, but also a nudge to the Swedish national colours. Add to that, the IKEA name is a quirky acronym of Swedish names and despite its unusual sound it’s probably the easiest thing to pronounce in the whole store. All combined, it becomes a fun and cheerful brand which is rather memorable, or even iconic
