Week-5
IKEA Case Study
Khanjanben Patel
King graduate school, Monroe college
MG 660 Strategic marketing
October 14, 2018
Abstract
Marketers must have a through knowledge of consumer behavior. Consumer behavior is the study of how consumer as an individual and as a group select, think, feel, buy, use and act to goods or products to satisfy their needs and wants. Certain factors influence consumer behavior like cultural, social and personal. Doing research into these factors can provide clues to marketers to reach and serves consumers more effectively. Serving consumers as per their buying behavior makes company successful. IKEA is a good example for this. It is the largest furniture retailer in the world, with approximately 360 stores in 43 countries. IKEA makes and design their product as per market need. This feature makes IKEA more powerful than its competitors in the furniture retail market.
IKEA Case Study
What are some of the things IKEA is doing well to reach consumers in different markets? What else could it be doing?
Whenever IKEA expands its stores in a new country, it studies that country’s market, consumer need and behavior first before design any product. When IKEA expanded its stores in China, it gave importance to the local taste of China. IKEA placed plastic placements with “year of the rooster” themes, which sold quickly. When IKEA realized that U.S shoppers were buying vases as drinking glasses because they considered IKEA’s glasses too small. So, IKEA changed their glass design and size as per U.S market need. IKEA changed its showroom design as per U.S consumer perspective. IKEA realized that U.S consumers think that IKEA sold only European size beds. So, IKEA quickly changed its U.S showroom design which featuring king size bed and a wide range of styles. Some of the great things IKEA is doing to reach consumers are as below
– Provide stylist and customized products.
– Provide products according to the need of consumers of the country
– Low price furniture stores
– Product adaptation according to the need of different market
– Flat packaging concept which makes easier for customers to transport furniture. It makes storage and transportation easier and cheaper for the store.
What else it could be doing?
IKEA can expand its market in South Asia and African countries. IKEA has not more stores in South Asian countries. In South Asia, some countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines have huge market for furniture, so IKEA should expand its market in these countries.
– Start online retail business
– Make use of social media to get customer feedback and to increase awareness of products worldwide.
– IKEA can go for environment friendly products and technology
– IKEA can use catalogues for easy look out of products and customers convenience.
IKEA has essentially changed the way people shop for furniture. Discuss the pros and cons of this strategy, especially as the company plans to continue to expand in places like Asia and India.
There are some pros and cons of strategy which IKEA changed as per consumer buying behavior.
Pros:
Peculiar marketing campaigns which produce excitement and awareness of its product.
IKEA’s low-cost concept keeps it on top position compared to its competitors in furniture retail market.
IKEA provides low cost with good quality.
Provide products as per market and consumer needs.
Family oriented place.
IKEA provides its products using unconventional names, so customers can easily recognize its products.
Displaying wide variety of products and the layout of shop designed in a one-way format, so customers can easily see everything at one place.
Provide flat packaging system, so it makes transportation easy for consumers.
Its products are affordable to everyone.
Cons:
Lack of product innovation.
Designing of the shop can be immense for the customers because they may not decide from where to start.
Lack of proper technology available for marketing and advertising, so consumers may go to another place.
Changing social trend can inhibit the growth of sales of IKEA.
These all are some pros and cons of strategy which IKEA used specially when it plans to expand in Country like India. To expand its market in India IKEA should do proper market research and try to do innovation in its product as per Indian market needs. Indian consumers are used to with mall type showroom designs. In that situation one stop shop design will not be successful in Indian retail market. Pollution is one of the biggest problems in Indian market. So, IKEA must apply some environment friendly procedures in its product design and manufacturing process. Indian furniture market is dominated by small local shoppers. So, entry of the global played like IKEA will be more challenging. In India IKEA would apply specific strategy as per Indian consumer behavior. India has abundant rubber wood supply, so IKEA can use this local raw material for manufacturing of its products that would save raw material and transportation cost. Indian consumers are amongst the most perceptive consumers in the world, so IKEA must apply different strategy from its ordinary one. India is culturally diversified country, so IKEA must apply certain marketing strategy as per local Indian consumer buying behavior. Indian consumer always take advice from architecture to design home furniture. So, IKEA should do promotion and marketing campaigns specially for architectures who influences Indian consumer behavior for buying furniture products.
References
Kotler, P. ; Keller, K.L. (2015) Marketing management, 15th edition
http://indianonlineseller.com/ 2017/01/5- furniture-retailers-making-A-Mark-in-the-Indian-market
IKEA Case Study
Heading 1
The first two heading levels get their own paragraph, as shown here. Headings 3, 4, and 5 are run-in headings used at the beginning of the paragraph.
Heading 21
To add a table of contents (TOC), apply the appropriate heading style to just the heading text at the start of a paragraph and it will show up in your TOC. To do this, select the text for your heading. Then, on the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, click the style you need.
Heading 3.
Include a period at the end of a run-in heading. Note that you can include consecutive paragraphs with their own headings, where appropriate.
Heading 4.
When using headings, don’t skip levels. If you need a heading 3, 4, or 5 with no text following it before the next heading, just add a period at the end of the heading and then start a new paragraph for the subheading and its text. (Last Name, Year)
Heading 5.
Like all sections of your paper, references start on their own page. The references page that follows is created using the Citations & Bibliography feature, available on the References tab. This feature includes a style option that formats your references for APA 6th Edition. You can also use this feature to add in-text citations that are linked to your source, such as those shown at the end of this paragraph and the preceding paragraph. To customize a citation, right-click it and then click Edit Citation. (Last Name, Year)
References
Last Name, F. M. (Year). Article Title. Journal Title, Pages From – To.
Last Name, F. M. (Year). Book Title. City Name: Publisher Name.
Footnotes
1Add footnotes, if any, on their own page following references. For APA formatting requirements, it’s easy to just type your own footnote references and notes. To format a footnote reference, select the number and then, on the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, click Footnote Reference. The body of a footnote, such as this example, uses the Normal text style. (Note: If you delete this sample footnote, don’t forget to delete its in-text reference as well. That’s at the end of the sample Heading 2 paragraph on the first page of body content in this template.)
Tables
Table 1
Table Title
Column Head
Column Head
Column Head
Column Head
Column Head
Row Head
123
123
123
123
Row Head
456
456
456
456
Row Head
789
789
789
789
Row Head
123
123
123
123
Row Head
456
456
456
456
Row Head
789
789
789
789
Note: Place all tables for your paper in a tables section, following references (and, if applicable, footnotes). Start a new page for each table, include a table number and table title for each, as shown on this page. All explanatory text appears in a table note that follows the table, such as this one. Use the Table/Figure style, available on the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, to get the spacing between table and note. Tables in APA format can use single or 1.5 line spacing. Include a heading for every row and column, even if the content seems obvious. A default table style has been setup for this template that fits APA guidelines. To insert a table, on the Insert tab, click Table.
Figures title:
Figure 1. Include all figures in their own section, following references (and footnotes and tables, if applicable). Include a numbered caption for each figure. Use the Table/Figure style for easy spacing between figure and caption.
For more information about all elements of APA formatting, please consult the APA Style Manual, 6th Edition.
