IKEA Analysis
Today IKEA is progressing towards being one of the top furniture retailers in the world. In 2002, they served 286 million customers through 154 stores resulting in $12 billion in revenue. Although IKEA has several stores placed around the world, they are not always thought of as the most popular furnishing store in America. All the stores are self-service and are based on a do-it-yourself shopping experience. There are few contacts with customer service representatives within the stores, except for when the customer enters the transaction phase of their buying experience.
IKEA is proud to find the most cost efficient manufacturers for their products to in turn sell for a lower price to their customers. By replacing quality with low prices, IKEA has to step out of the normal standard of what a traditional furnishing store offers and take part in what is called a reverse positioning marketing strategy. Examples of the things that IKEA lacks are customer contact with employees, deliveries, assembling purchases, quality of products, style and culture adjustment. Lack of American adaptation has hindered the growth of IKEA by preventing them from being as successful as they are in other countries.
IKEA describes it’s customer as a person who adapts willingly to change, has a do-it-yourself mentality and is an early adopter of new technology. This person is most likely to be young, maybe a college student or a newly married couple that is living in an apartment or buying a starter home. This person dwells in a heavily populated area where land is abundant to accommodate the large-scale store and parking facilities. The products purchased are used for an array of household fur ...