IKEA
IKEA is a Swedish-founded multinational group that designs and sells ready to assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories created by Ingvar Kamprad. It has been the world’s largest furniture retailer since at least 2008. Indeed, who hasn’t spent hours in IKEA trying to find the best furniture for your home? Widely spread all around the word, Ikea has 338 stores in 41 countries. The question we are going to ask is: how did this brand manage to be the first furniture retailer in the world?
Before we start, lets set up a little historical background.
The IKEA name is formed by the initials of IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kamprad (IK), and the first letters of the names of the farm and village where he grew up — Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd (EA).
In 1943 Ingvar Kamprad created Ikea, which initially sells pens, wallets, picture frames and other items of the same kind. In 1945, Ikea communicated for the first time in the local newspaper. In 1947 Ingvar had the good idea to start selling furniture. At that time the Ikea model is a model of mail order selling. With small means, often the local milkman’s truck, serves as a delivery truck for Ikea.1951, Ikea specializes exclusively in furniture. 7 years later the brand will open its first store of 6700 m2. In 1956, Ingvar Kamprad, develops the first kit furniture, as we know it today.The 1960s saw a rapid acceleration of the brand with the opening of an IKEA in Norway and the selling of kitchen accessories in 1965.
In 1983 the group has more than 6,000 employees worldwide. With rising profits, the company is attacking the American market by first establishing itself in Philadelphia. In 1989, the eastern block collapsed, the end of the Cold War, and in 1990, Ikea took advantage of the situation to become the first Swedish company to establish itself in Budapest, Hungary.
The 90s will be extremely profitable for Ikea, the brand is present in more than 25 countries with 114 stores.
The concept launched by IKEA is to sell furniture that is easily transportable from the shop to the customer’s home. For this reason, IKEA sells a lot of kit furniture, the cost is then extremely reduced. Moreover, the furniture are designed to be packaged in flat packs (reduced transport cost and convenience for the consumer) and easily assembled.
Another smart concept from the Swedish brand is the merchandising of its stores. Indeed, IKEA was one of the first to have its stores so that the consumer is obliged to follow a well-defined path that will take him through the entire store.(like a sort of maze!) The purpose is to encourage compulsive buying to the consumer, who must automatically pass in front of each product in the store before leaving.
One of the key factors in the success of the IKEA brand is its communication policy. The group relies on many large-scale advertising campaigns.
IKEA’s first source of advertising is the distribution of catalogs and brochures, which represents 50% of its advertising budget.
We also see a lot of IKEA TV commercials. Most of them rely on positive themes like joy, well-being… The same goes for the brand’s poster campaigns, as evidenced by these few advertising posters.
The low price is a condition of IKEA’s vision: “to create a better everyday life for the greatest number”. That’s why IKEA is always looking to reduce costs.
Offering products at the lowest price never questions their commitment to providing a good quality. The brand’s purchases are large-scaled, allowing IKEA to negotiate advantageous prices without sacrificing quality.
For the last part of my billet blog, I would like to tell you a few “fun facts” about IKEA. In 2012, a couple decided to get married in an IKEA store! It happened in Maryland USA. They didn’t even privatize the store and they said yes in front of all the clients shopping there! The previous year, in 2011 a British IKEA organized a giant pyjama party in the store ! 100 of person whom had applied on the Facebook page “I wanna have a sleepover in IKEA” were drawn to participate to this occasion. In 2008 the comedian Mark Maloff had to leave his home because of the disinsectisation of his house. So he decided to live an entire week in an IKEA store and made a whole serie of Youtube video about it.
Ikea has a lot a funny and crazy ideas of communication based on trolling. Indeed recently, the brand made fun of the singer Kanye West because he wouldn’t stop asking the brand on twitter to design furniture for them. Seems like Kanye West believes he is good at everything he does and so he believes he could easily design furniture for the brand. It IKEA Australia who finally answered him on their Facebook page by proposing a new bed model who can expend unlimitedly in reference to the singers controversial videoclip “famous” in which we can see Kanye West in the middle of a giant bed with naked celebrities.
A few famous ads :
