IKEA

Contemporary Marketing - IKEA

Introduction3

IKEA's Product Identification4

IKEA's Market Place4

Review & Findings5

IKEA's Integrated Marketing Communications Plan5

Objectives of the Plan5

Strategies for the Plan6

Paid Media6

Media Objectives6

Strategies7

Execution7

Cable Television7

Print Media7

Digital Media7

Outdoor8

Radio8

Budget8

Public Relations8

Out of Store9

In Store9

Direct Marketing9

Objectives9

Sales Promotions10

Objectives10

Analysis12

Qualitative Methods13

Focus Groups13

Copy Testing13

Quantitative Methods13

Data Delivery13

Price15

Product15

Position/Place16

Promotion16

Recommendations17

References18

Contemporary marketing - IKEA

Introduction

IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. Kamprad started his modest business in the southern region of Sweden. Furniture that represents the concept and ideologies of IKEA was not part of Kamprad's plan from the start. Previously he used to sell pens, seeds and Christmas cards. There on he started advertising his products and soon the demand grew large enough for him to handle alone. In the year 1948, furniture was added in his product portfolio. IKEA's core competency lies in the fact that the furniture the company sells is made from local manufacturers, and the wood used by the manufacturers came from a forest close to Kamprad's home (ikea.com, 2014, pond).

In 1951, Kamprad published his first product catalogue and since the company has issued 208 million copies in around 30 different languages (IKEA Systems B.V., 2014, p.n.d). Following the huge success and appreciation of his catalogue, Kamprad established his first showroom in the city of in Älmhult, Sweden. Seven years later, Kamprad introduced the world with flat packed furniture that needs self-assembly. IKEA did not expand its operations in international markets until the 1980s and following the success it achieved in the United States, IKEA has been expanding its business all over the globe. At present, IKEA's operates in 41 countries with 26 Distribution centres, 11 Customer distribution centres and has approximately 287 sales stores in 28 countries (ikea.com, 2014, p.n.d).

IKEA's Product Identification

At present, IKEA offers its customers approximately 12,000 products that consist of furniture for bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms and patio. IKEA designs its products that are cost effective from scratch to finish and aims to deliver its products to their customers at the minimum price possible. This work behaviour represents IKEA's low cost philosophy, as they aim to offer their customers stylish and innovative products that are affordable for the masses especially the middle class (Beverland et al., 2007, pp. 1082-1093).

IKEA's Market Place

In today's world, if we were to ask the middle class as to whom their ideal furniture provider is, we would get different opinions that involve value judgments. The common American would say Restoration Hardware or Ethan Allen, none the less many would argue that these two are very costly and therefore they prefer not to invest in their products (Aaker et al., 1999, pp. 137-146)

On the contrary, Swedish furniture retailer, IKEA, works tirelessly to overcome these stereotypes and offer a variety of well designed and fully functional furniture to the masses at minimum possible cost (Inter IKEA Systems B.V., 2011). Despite being challenging, IKEA has been able to rise to these challenges and in many ways have even gone beyond (Gehlhar et al., 2005, pp. 25-28).

Review & Findings

In order to critically analyze the various marketing mix elements used by IKEA, in this paper we ...