Marketing Strategy - Write up on Ikea Case PDF

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Download Marketing Strategy - Write up on Ikea Case PDF

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The IKEA group is one of the world’s top furniture retailers. Over the years, IKEA has grown into a global brand. The company has a reputation for being very unique. In each IKEA store, there are play areas for children, LCD flat screens airing children’s films, yellow shopping bags that customers could use instead of pushing a cart and lockers for shoppers to secure their valuables so they can be free to shop. Furthermore, each store has a booming restaurant in it with a Swedish menu. Moreover, the company surveys the competition to establish a benchmark and then set its own price point 30% to 50% lower than those of its rivals. Even with all these amenities, IKEA has had a few marketing problems over the decades. One of IKEA’s marketing problems is the downside of shopping there. The way IKEA is set up is very quaint. It’s like being in an actual bathroom, bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc. A person could literally live in IKEA. It takes a customer plenty of time to find the various exits that leads to the store’s foyer. It seems IKEA wants to make sure customers do not leave the store empty-handed after being enchanted by the whole décor of the place. Second, all of IKEA’s furniture comes unassembled because customers are expected to put together the furniture on their own, which can be a pain. Third, IKEA has a pragmatic, cost-cutting sensibility corporate culture that makes them appear as if they were penny pinchers. Fourth, IKEA had a hard time selling to Americans. In regards to their marketing problems, IKEA could always: 1. Make its stores easier for customers to navigate and increase the number of sales representatives for the customers. Although IKEA has a self-service ethos, some consumers may still need plenty of help with their furniture shopping. 2. Lots of other furniture retailers have an option to ship its products to their customers and also assemble it for them for free or at an extra cost. IKEA does not engage in this, which

can create a customer burden. Although it will be an added expense, IKEA could offer to ship its products to customers and assemble it for them for a fee, which, in my opinion, this service will bring in vast amounts of revenue for the company. 3. The focus on IKEA has always been cost efficiency, but this focus gives the company a bad image of being cheap and frugal. In the past, its low-priced furniture was functional at best, but ugly at worst. But, now the company has modified its designs to fit the needs of everybody. IKEA seems to be a mid-range furniture retailer, but it will be more efficient to focus on one aspect. Although the company’s products are aesthetically pleasing, they aren’t built for longevity. 4. IKEA isn’t for everybody, which is why the company had a difficult time initially in the United States. All that has been rendered now due to the company’s promotional strategies on targeting the U.S. market with comedic but practical advertisements.

Out of all these, the easiest course of action would be to figure out what kind of retailer IKEA aims to be in terms of low-end or high-end. It isn’t clever to use highquality materials on furniture surfaces that are visible and lower-quality materials on surfaces that are less visible to the customer. The whole thing seems shady....