Introduction
IKEA is a household name to many of us and has become synonymous with affordable furniture, delicious meatballs and a fun experience. IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad who had humble beginnings in a small town in Sweden. His family lived on a farm that provided poor crops. Poverty was widespread in the province and families had to be thrifty. Many had to be creative and innovative and became entrepreneurs in order to make a living. Ingvar wanted to contribute to his family’s finances and started his own business selling matches in 1931 when he was 5 years old. It soon evolved to offering Christmas cards, seeds and magazines, stationery when he attended a boarding school, watches and pens when he went to college and eventually furniture in 1948. Throughout his entrepreneur journey, he picked up key principles that can be seen in the IKEA of today.
During his match selling days, he figured out how to keep costs low while still earning profit for his family. He did this by bulk buying matches in boxes and repackaging them for customers
In college, he further realised success that was based on the most cost-efficient distribution of products from the factory to the customer
The introduction of furniture to IKEA came about after the war, the Swedish government was building a lot of new housing and offering home furnishing loans. Ingvar took this opportunity as well as the access to small furniture factories in the province, to introduce his own furniture to his IKEA catalog in 1948. The second brochure donned the headline “to the people of the countryside.” This was later refined by him to capture the company’s vision which was “to create a better everyday life for the many people.” Ingvar’s humble beginnings and innovation to create a furniture brand that would focus on creatively manufactured high quality, low cost products that reduced waste.
Brand Strategy and Identity
IKEA’s brand strategy stems from the singular vision of creating a better everyday life for many people. The way they operate can be seen in what they call ‘Democratic Design’. This principle is used in the way IKEA conceptualises their products to ensure that it meets the brand’s vision and values. It is made up of five dimensions: function, form, quality, sustainability and low price. Function refers to how well the product can be used, form refers to how the product looks like, quality is the materials and the longevity of the product, sustainability focuses on where the materials come from and low price is self explanatory. Many companies may trade off some of these aspects in order to place more emphasis on one or two. However IKEA’s team really takes these dimensions and ensures that their products more or less balance these to create a quality product that can look good in many people’s homes as well as most people can afford. They have definitely been successful in carrying out this strategy as IKEA has become a household name to many and when we think of getting something new and affordable for our homes, we will think of their brand first.
Another aspect of the IKEA brand that stands out is their brand identity. It has become very recognisable to the public, with their bold yellow and blue that is a direct reflection of Sweden’s flag. This direct colour correlation lends to the fact that when we think of IKEA, we will also automatically think of Sweden, and their well known clean Scandinavian design which has become popular in interior design. This brand identity is well used throughout the store to help customers find certain things. For example IKEA staff members all wear a bright identifiable yellow that makes it easy for customers to find them in the large showroom and amongst a crowd of people. Their brand colours are also used throughout the showroom for people to easily identify price tags or for way-finding signage that allow you to easily navigate the place.
Brand Experience
Another reason that IKEA has been so successful in establishing themselves as a fun family brand is because of their brand experience. Ingvar introduced the concept of the showroom early on for customers to come down and actually see and experience his furniture for themselves. This concept has now turned into one of IKEA’s main brand experience points. Families will take trips down and spend hours just going through the large showroom. Their staging of furniture in cosy and beautiful interior sets allows customers now to just view the furniture but to engage with them and immerse themselves in the possibility of what their own home could be.
Small but thoughtful pieces contribute to a memorable experience in their stores. Some examples are their signature bright yellow and blue bags throughout the store for customers to use in lieu of baskets or trollies, and their unique design is also another part of the customer experience that many will remember about the brand. Another are the pencils and measuring tapes that make it easy for customers to write down the pieces of furniture they want as well as take measurements for their specific uses. These make the shopping experience more engaging as well as seamless.
Another important part of their brand is one that isn’t related to furniture at all but very much succeeds in rounding up the IKEA experience and that is their food hall and store. Ingvar found early on that customers would come to his showroom, look at furniture but leave during the day to go get food, thus disrupting the process. Adding on the food hall was definitely a smart business move but the fact the food is good and has become so uniquely synonymous with the IKEA brand, also makes it a good brand move.
Conclusion
IKEA was very successful because it had a visionary founder that had a clear idea of where he wanted to take the brand and there are many important branding lessons we can take away from this.
Have a clear vision and purpose, if everything you do successfully reflects this and reaches your intended target audience, they will be able to get behind the brand and support it
Create a strong and memorable brand identity that consumers can associate with what your brand is about
Map out a strong brand experience that is memorable, helps customers and give them a good impression.
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