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An evaluation of IKEA's global position and marketing standing

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 An evaluation of IKEA’s global

position and marketing standing

By:

Mohammed Al-Zghool
Manager, Project Management, Facilities management, Strategic management,
FMP®, PMP®, LEED® Green Associate™
Dammam, Saudi Arabia
mohammed.alzghool@gmail.com
00966-58-2415919
00966-53-5876490

1
Table of Content

Table of Content ................................................................................................................................. 2

Executive summary and Report Objectives................................................................................ 3

Introduction and company overview ............................................................................................ 4

IKEA’s stakeholder analysis and global environment ............................................................. 6

Stakeholders analysis................................................................................................................... 6

Ansoff’s matrix ............................................................................................................................... 7

SWOT analysis ................................................................................................................................ 7

PESTLE analysis ............................................................................................................................ 8

IKEA’s Global marketing ................................................................................................................ 10

Marketing activity ......................................................................................................................... 13

IKEA’s segmentation, targeting and positioning................................................................. 15

Measuring marketing .................................................................................................................. 16

Additional marketing and ethical hot topics ......................................................................... 18

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 20

References ......................................................................................................................................... 20

2
Executive summary and Report Objectives

It is not easy to build a reputed global brand, and is not a matter of a worldwide

accessible website (Moran, 20130), Quality and cost leadership in products may aid

markets penetration but does not warrant long-term success without brand buildings

and products marketing. Firms are required to establish a differentiating vision, adapt

the brand according to different cultures, fully align all strategic elements, maintain a

consistent identity, and build a team of believers (Robinson, 2019).

This report will investigate and analyse IKEA’s marketing techniques and strategies

to evaluate their marketing position and the business environment they are operating

within that is readymade furniture, home applicants and accessories using different

of the theoretical frameworks. We will investigate how IKEA translating their vision

into reality and how they affect people lives from providing affordable, stylish and

quality products to the IKEA sustainability and CSR initiatives to positively impact

people and planet. We will also review their marketing ethical compliance and if they

faced some ethical dilemmas over the course of their operations period worldwide.

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Introduction and company overview

IKEA is the world-leading design-sell and ready-to-assemble furniture, applicants

and accessories retailer, it was established in Sweden in 1948 and grown since then

to have 433 stores, 211,000 co-workers in 50 countries and generating annual sales

of more than 41.3 billion euros in 2019 (IKEA, 2020). IKEA is 39th world top brand

with $15.3 B value (Forbes, 2019). IKEA adopts Franchising that gives the company

the ability to grow internationally, maintain an entrepreneurial spirit, safeguarding

underlying concept and serve their and people’s best interest (IKEA, 2020).

Figure (1): IKEA logo transformation (IKEA, 2020).

They own and operate stores in only 24 countries only, the remaining stores are

franchised (Shoulberg, 2018) for 3% of franchisees annual net sales (IKEA, 2020).

Figure (2): IKEA global presence (Google maps, 2020).

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Franchising system enabled IKEA to grow steadily, develop their concept, lay a solid

foundation for their brand, increase their sales up to 41.3 billion Euros in 2019, and

exploit economies of scale and to manage and keep IKEA’s attractive prices and

global reach (IKEA, 2020). Additionally, IKEA’s enjoys a strong supply-chain that

contains 1,800 suppliers in 50 countries and uses 42 trading service offices

worldwide (TradeGecko, 2018).

IKEA is not just a retailer; IKEA group operates in different sectors to support the group
business
IKEA Systems B.V. and its subsidiaries. Inter IKEA Systems B.V., it is the franchisor and
1 owner of the IKEA Brand.
IKEA Supply AG, IKEA Industry AB and related businesses make IKEA Core business
2 Range that is responsible for developing and designing the overall IKEA product range.
IKEA Supply AG to source and distribute IKEA products to IKEA franchisees. IKEA Industry
AB, a strategic IKEA manufacturer owned by Inter IKEA Group, is closely integrated with
3 Core Business Supply.
IKEA Group functions for legal, finance and other activities To support the core businesses,
4 like IKEA Älmhult AB that owns and operates the IKEA Hotel and Museum.
5 Other IKEA Group support businesses that support goup activities locally and globally.
Figure (3): IKEA group activities and sectors (Inter IKEA Systems B.V, 2020)

IKEA’s vision is to create a better everyday life for people; they are targeting a better

every day for all people impacted by their business by offering a wide range of well-

designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people

as possible will be able to afford them (IKEA, 2020).

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IKEA’s stakeholder analysis and global environment

Stakeholders analysis

Stakeholders are “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the

achievement of the organization’s objectives” (Freeman, 1984). Identifying and

understanding stakeholder increases chances of success strengthen position and

credibility, understanding different ideas perspectives and gaining buy-in and support

(Rabinowitz, 2020). Business stakeholders are consumers, commercial

intermediaries, non-commercial intermediaries and regulatory bodies (Singh et al.,

2005). Stakeholders can be external or external, they are also direct (primary),

indirect and secondary stakeholders (Murphy et. Al, 2012). Murphy et al. (2012) and

Singh et al. (2005) stressed the paramount importance of customers over other.

Direct (Primary) The stakeholders with formal and direct relationship with the
stakeholders organization like owners, suppliers, employees and customers.
The stakeholders with ongoing or abiding interest with the
Indirect stakeholders organization but there is no direct relationship like citizens and socity
and a whole.
The stakeholders who would encompass public and occasional
Secondary
interest in organisations’ activities groups like media, consumer
stakeholders
advocates and local community organisations
Figure (4): stakeholder categories (Murphy et. Al, 2012) and (EBEN Ireland, 2020)

Stakeholders list Stakeholders Category

Owners, employees, managers, shareholders. Internal Direct
Suppliers, distributors, intermediates, agents and Customers. External Direct
Competitors, citizens, society, and governments. External Indirect
Public media, consumer/community organizations, regularity,
External Secondary
NGO’s, sustainability and CSR organizations.
Figure (5): stakeholder broad register and categories.

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To understand IKEA business position, we will use market Audit tools like Ansoff’s

matrix, SWOT analysis and PESTLE to better understand how external factors

influence organizations operations.

Ansoff’s matrix

Ansoff’s matrix is a marketing planning tool that aids a business in determining its

product and market growth and explains how organization gain and retain market-

shares through one or combinations of four different strategies (Ansoff Matrix,2018)

Below is an analysis of IKEA’s marketing techniques using Ansoff’s matrix.

IKEA penetrates markets using their strong brand name and selling
Market cheap, high quality and standardised products. They offer wide range of
penetration innovative designs and exploits economics of scale and huge distribution
network (IKEA, 2020).
IKEA is continuously developing new products to sell to their existing
Product markets; they have 12,000-product range with 2000 new products yearly.
development IKEA heavily investing in R&D, using unique franchising model and
strategic partnerships (IKEA, 2020).
IKEA seeks to find new markets for the existing products; they plan to
Market enter developing markets soon. IKEA heavily invests in technological
development solutions, consumer engagement to enjoy advantage over their
competitors (IKEA, 2020).
IKEA is developing new products to sell to new markets and IKEA
Diversification restaurants and children play areas and day-care within furniture retail
shops can be classified as an example of diversification.

Figure (6): IKEA analysis using Ansoff’s matrix

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a compilation of the company's strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats to help organizations develop a full awareness of all the

factors involved in making a business decision (Schooley, 2019). Below is an

analysis of IKEA’s position using SWOT analysis.

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 Innovative and functional designs;
products standardization; long-term

planning, huge automated
Strengths
distribution centres; ability to furnish
the entire home; adapting local
market tastes; aggressive approach
to sustainability; cost leadership;
economies of scale; strong
franchising system; long-term
relationship with suppliers; strong
global brand, direct interaction
between design and manufacturing
teams.
Weaknesses
Weak marketing-advertising-
promotions techniques; poor balance
of low-cost products and good
quality; limited Visibility, remotely
located locations; relatively
complicated furniture assembly; high
delivery and assembly prices.

Brand visibility improvement;

Opportunities

strengthen their marketing activities; Emergence of substitute products;

strengthen their online shopping increased competition; increased

experience; creating a platforms for
furniture assembly training;
worldwide demand for greener
products; more demand for low
prices; possible worldwide
expansion; opportunities in R&D and
innovation.
Threats
trade barriers; shifts in consumer
tastes; shortage of skilled workforce;
damaged reputation due to a series
of incidents, lack of differentiation,
increasing costs of raw materials;
global economics and financial crisis,
economic impacts due to COVID-19

Figure (7): SWOT analysis of IKEA, Source: (Tyler, 2018), (Amine, 2015), (Leob, 2012), (Kelly-Detwiler, 2014),
(PaulShepherd, 2020), (IKEA, 2020), (Frue, 2018, (Şahin, 2015), (Ringstrom,2020) and (Clifford, 2019).

PESTLE analysis

PESTLE “stands for political, economic, social, technological, legal, and

environmental. It is an analytical tool available to companies to determine how

external factors influence their operations and make them more competitive in the

market” (Hall, 2020). Below is a presentation of IKEA’s external environment suing

PESTLE.

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 Exporting foreign goods in friendly/unfriendly and stable/unstable countries; countries attitude
towards the foreign brands, corruption levels, bureaucracy, decision-making process and
Political
decision maker’s mind-sets and political events and initiatives. Examples are Taiwan and
china political issues, Indian approach “make in India” for foreign investors and BREXIT.
Exporting foreign goods in friendly/unfriendly and stable/unstable countries; countries attitude
towards the foreign brands, corruption levels, bureaucracy, decision-making process and
Economic
decision maker’s mind-sets and political events and initiatives. Examples are Taiwan and
china political issues, Indian approach “make in India” for foreign investors and BREXIT.
Products can be standardized but culture can’t; standardised culture cannot be forced to other
Social cultures. Issue like homosexuality acceptance, using women in marketing in Islamic countries
and marketing materials translation issues are serious matters to be considered.
Demand for online sales and customers interaction platforms, mobile applications, artificial
Technological
Intelligence, cognitive Intelligence, robots, to core businesses.
Each country has its own unique laws and legal system with different levels of global
integration of common interest subjects like safety, labour laws and human rights in countries
Legal
laws and legislations. Things like the Indian regulation to source 30% of originations
inventories from local sources, bad labours working conditions must be considered.
Environmental challenges and sustainability are contemporary hot topics for all businesses.
People awareness is increasing and their demand to change organizations behavior and
Environmental
account them for more responsibility towards the environment especially pollution, climate
change, the use of recycled materials and renewable energy sources.

Figure (8): IKEA PESTLE analysis reviewed explained. Sources: (IKEA, 2020), (Sridharan, 2018), (Frue, 2018), (Limaye,
2018), (Shane, 2018), (Winsor, 2016), (Jeong-ho, 2018), (England, 2016), (BBC, 2015), (France24, 2012), (Quinn, 2012),
(Griner, 2020),(Duken, 2013), (Prabhakar & Bureau, 2012), (Miller, 2016), (Gibson, 2019), (Frankel, 2020),(Staff, 2018),
(Popper, 2011), (Reuters, 2015), (Doyle, 2015).

It is not easy to pitch a brand to a new market due to lack of brand visibility,

unforeseen market conditions, different economic and environmental regulations and

barriers. Moreover, organisations marketing strategy and SWOT are to be

considered. After the previous analysis. I think IKEA should focus on the following

points (without neglecting other less important ones):

 Revolutionize the marketing activities to increase brand and products visibility

retains current customers and gains more.

 Capitalize the online sales platform, social media and mobile applications to

reach more online sales.

 Capitalize on the use of recycled and eco-friendly materials and energy

sources.

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  Understand and respect different cultural uniqueness and avoid getting

involved in politics and sensitive subjects.

 Establish a long-term relationship with intermediates in addition to existing

franchising system to cover more geographic areas.

 Improve the long-term and close distant partnerships with suppliers to

maximise the economics of scale and lower prices.

 Capitalize further on automation, R&D and innovation.

 Gain, train and sustain local human resources.

 Participate in additional CSR initiatives like human rights, child labour, fighting

poverty…etc.

The rest of the report will answer questions on the extent of IKEA adaption to

external environment requirements and conditions, the extent of capitalizing on

their strengths and opportunities? The extent of mitigating and reducing their

weaknesses and threats?

IKEA’s Global marketing

Marketing is “a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups

obtain what they need and want by creating and exchanging products and value

with others." (Kotler et al, 2005). Global marketing is defined as “the firm’s

commitment to coordinate its marketing activities across national boundaries to find

and satisfy global customer needs better than the competition” (Hollensen, 2017).

Marketing planning can aid encountering organizational, attitudinal, process and

cognitive problems and supports organizational progress and the creation of

10
competitive advantage (McDonald, 1992).

Figure (9): McDonalds marketing planning stages (university of York, 2020).

IKEA’s Marketing Mix (4Ps)

“4P theory suggests that the marketing mix - the combination of the 4Ps - is greater

than the sum of the parts. That is, all elements work together to position a product

in the minds of the customer, consumer and wider stakeholders and lead to action”

(University of York, 2020). IKEA marketing mix is as follows:

- Product

IKEA provides 12,000 products in with almost 2000 new and innovative products

yearly, they can furnish a home from scratch, IKEA plans to be 100% circular

products in 2030 using renewable/recycled materials (IKEA,2020). We can say that

IKEA is also a service provider as they have restaurants and playgrounds.

- Price:

IKEA is business based on cost leadership without compromises on quality, this is

achieved through different cost reduction techniques like economic of scale, smart

designs, top-down pricing, flat packaging, long-term relationships with suppliers,

11
use of smart technology, R&D and innovation. (IKEA, 2020).

- Place:

IKEA has 433 stores in 50 countries, all their showrooms are large and located out-

of-towns with restaurants, food shops and Swedish market and children play area

(IKEA, 2020). IKEA’s supply-chain contains 1,800 suppliers in 50 countries and

uses 42 trading service offices worldwide (TradeGecko, 2018). Approximately 22%

of our range produced in China (IKEA, 2020). IKEA also exists in the digital world

through online purchasing and social media.

- Promotion:

The Ikea brand is all about affordable prices. However, IKEA different traditional and

digital promotion channels like the physical and online catalogue, television,

newspapers, different social media portals, sponsorships, and even critical review of

journalists.

Figure (10): 4Ps Marketing Mix (University of York, 2020)

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 Marketing activity

IKEA is pioneering their global marketing activities and stakeholder’s engagement

due to unique provided experience inside and outside their showrooms by using.

integrated marketing communications to “deliver a clear, consistent and compelling

message about the organization and its product” (Kotler et al. 2011). This is done

through:

- Experimental marketing

Buying furniture can be done anywhere but IKEA gives their customers a unique

experience. In terms of giving the consumers a holistic customer experience driven

by emotion and reason (Schmitt, 1999), IKEA is pioneering through using the

shoppable images to position and test their products in an online platform (Leibowitz,

2020). IKEA adding inspiration to their catalogue by creating an application that

superimposes their products in consumers’ homes through the smartphone's camera

(Lunny, 2020). They also responded to “I wanna have a sleepover in IKEA”

Facebook group and provided 100 people to spend a night in the warehouse and

provided them manicures, massages, and bedtime story (Michon, 2019). Visiting

IKEA stores is also an experience that gives consumers the chance to experience

and examine the products and rooms’ designs.

- Customer engagement and content marketing:

IKEA uses content marketing to tell IKEA stories and share with people how they can

improve their lives (Walgrove, 2014). IKEA visits people in their homes as well to

understand their real-life experiences and to collect valuable data that aids proactive

13
marketing decisions. (Goudreau, 2013). IKEA delights customers who pursuit value

and service by improving their "everyday life” through quality, affordable, valued

service and goods (Pontefract, 2016). IKEA seeks regular customer’s feedback as a

vital element of success (Slack et al, 2013). IKEA offers huge maze-like stores,

organized and easy to identify sections, guaranteed warranties, offering restaurants,

free parking, inspiring designs and also providing daycare for their children

(Spandana, 2018).

- Digital marketing and social media engagement:

IKEA is maximizing the use of digital and social media as a core of the marketing

activity with an interactive website, online catalogues and huge and interactive

presence on social media portals where such portals are used to post promotions,

discounts, unique giveaways, events, and news and also to interact with customers

(Duncan, 2019 and Dessy, 2017).

- IKEA’ signature catalogue that respects diversity

IKEA launched their catalogue in 1951 and kept publishing and distributing it since

then, they are printing and distributing 203 million copies of their catalogue in 35

different languages each year, the release of the annual catalogue always bumps

IKEA’s profits and it accounts for 70% of IKEA’s marketing budget (corner, 2018).

Catalogues blend global and local characteristics with variations to reflect cultural

differences and product range, like designing a smaller kitchen in china and avoiding

homosexuality in Russia (Anand, 2019). IKEA uses five different kinds of paper to

account for markets perception of paper quality (Quito, 2017).

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- Moving to relationship marketing:

IKEA is moving away from transactional marketing to relationship marketing to focus

on the retention of customers, establishing loyalty and building long-term

relationships (Manz et al, 2008). IKEA strives toward creating, retaining, and

enhancing customer’s relationships while turning passive customers to retained loyal

customers, this will also achieve good word-of-mouth communications that lead to

successful outcomes and brighter future (Edvardsson et al, 2006).

- Employee satisfaction towards customers satisfaction

The key to an organizations’ success is continuous customer happiness and

satisfaction since they are willing to come back and pay repeatedly and that can be

achieved through employee’s happiness and engagement, this is also considered

marketing that increased 20% of IKEA’s sales (Hyken, 2017). To do so, IKEA

embraces employee initiatives to increase their morale, loyalty, productivity (Lamba,

2018). IKEA was ranked 72nd best 100 to work within 2017 (Fortune, 2018), ranked

31st world best employer (Forbes, 2020) and classified as a certified great place to

work (GreatPlacetoWork, 2018). After all, happy employees will lead to happy

customers (Chamberlain and Zhao, 2019).

IKEA’s segmentation, targeting and positioning

The IKEA segmentation, targeting and positioning involves setting and framing their

marketing decisions according to the marketing strategy and overall corporate

strategy. This helps marketers to understand, prioritize, develop and deliver suitable

messages and techniques that engage with different audiences (Ferrell, 2014).

IKEA’s is targeting certain products towards certain markets to attract a certain

15
market segment (Steenkamp & Hofstede, 2002). They are positioning their products

to meet market needs based on a segmentation strategy that target all consumers

especially younger ones who focus on lifestyle and space-saving (Blome, 2015).

Below show more details:

Segmentation Segmentation
Targeted customer
variables criteria
Region The whole world
Geographic
Density Urban areas
Age 22 and older
Gender Male and female
Young and single people
Demographic
Life cycle stage Newly married
Families of all sizes
Occupation Students, employee and professionals
Loyalty degree Hard loyal, soft loyal and switchers
Benefits sought Cost effectiveness
Behavioural Personality Easy going and determined
Non-users, potential first-time users and regular
User status
user
Social class Lower class, working class and middle class
Psychographic Resigned, struggler, mainstreamer and
Life style
explorer
Figure (11): IKEA segmentation, targeting and positioning based on (dudovskiy, 2017).

Measuring marketing

Marketing measuring includes things like profits, revenues units sold or outputs,

brand recall evaluation, measuring purchases from behaviour changes (Kliatchko,

2008). It is important to oversee and investigate IKEA’s financial performance

(IKEA, 2020) to oversee their marketing effectiveness:

- IKEA retail sales grew by 6.5% to EUR 41.3 billion but gross profit dropped from

4,691 in 2018 to 4,551 in 2019.

- IKEA managed to increase its revenues steadily over the course of the years.

16
- There was a drop in profits in 2016 and relatively steady profits since 2017.

Figure (12): annual IKEA revenue from 2008 until 2018 (IKEA, 2020) and (Milne, 2019).

Figure (13): annual IKEA profit from 2009 until 2018 (IKEA, 2020) and (Milne, 2019).

Is IKEA exploiting their strength and improving their weaknesses? Are they ignoring

their surrounding environment? Do IKEA benefit from their marketing efforts?

IKEA is aggressively investing and spending on current strengths and opportunities

to beat their weaknesses and threats. IKEA is focusing on sustainability, renewable

energy, online sales, innovation, R&D and technological advancement. Despite that

fact that more spending results in fewer profits but this will pay off in both short and

long terms. Further investigation on investing strengths and opportunities shows:

1. IKEA online sales were up nearly 50%, to account for more than 10% of total

retail sales (Butler, 2019).

2. 60% of IKEA’s range is based on renewable materials and 10% is based on

recycled materials.

17
 3. IKEA is aggressively investing and sponsoring their biggest transformation

since 76 years towards more internet sales and smart home technologies

(Milne, 2019). Additionally, IKEA continuously developing their DIY assembly

application, digital offerings, online catalogues and space10 Innovation (Marr,

2018).

4. IKEA is adopting joint ventures and franchising to break trade barriers and to

overcome cultural ones as well (Chue, et al, 2013). They are also trying

different partnership channels to break different trade and cultural barrier, they

partnered with to launch the IKEA virtual store on the Alibaba e-commerce

platform Tmall (IKEA,2020).

Additional marketing and ethical hot topics

Marketing ethics are “how moral standards are applied to marketing decisions,

behaviors and institutions” (Murphy, et al, 2012). We discussed IKEA’s ethical

behaviors toward people and planet and we will now present additional marketing

and ethical hot topics.

1. Fairtrade and ethical sourcing through IKEA code of conduct for suppliers

(IWAY) as to tackle ethical issues such as the scandal of Indian carpet

suppliers that were using child labour (Bartlett, 2006) and the accusation of

undermining workers’ rights (Reuters, 2018). IKEA launched child labour

initiative to give financial aid the poorer women and provide education for the

children in India's carpet belt that covers 1.5 million people in 650 villages

(Luce, 2004).

2. Data collected from end-users for different business purposes requires 100%

of assured data privacy to avoid unauthorized access and unfair (Ratten,

18
 2013). The collected data and profiling may be used in discrimination based

on ethnicity, gender, religion, location, preferences or sexual preference

(Schermer, 2011) like IKEA’s TaskRabbit cyber-security breach (BBC, 2018).

IKEA enables the consumers to decide how his different data (purchases,

preferences and browsing history) used by the company, users may

choose private sessions (Page, 2020).

3. IKEA plans to have 100% circular products in 2030 using renewable/recycled

materials (IKEA, 2020) to meet market demands/needs and appeals to

different markets (Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008). IKEA is using rice straws residue

into products and packaging material, turning ocean plastic waste into textiles,

and using 100% sustainable cotton (IKEA, 2020).’

4. IKEA is continuously Closing the gaps in cultural adaptability after making

huge mistakes worldwide that offended different cultures like:

- The sexist China advertisement against single women (BBC, 2017).

- Offending women by removal of women from Saudi Arabia catalogue

(Quinn, 2012).

- The bad Thai translation of products sounded like sex acts (Hughes,

2012).

- Literally! writing “Same text but in Arabic” instead of translating the

English text to Arabic in Bahrain store (Desk, 2020).

- Publishing a homosexual advertisement Russia which is rejected there

(Anand, 2019).

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Conclusion

Despite the proven IKEA leadership in the global furniture industry, the competition is

very aggressive. IKEA should continuously assess their external and competitive

environment, capitalize on their strengths and opportunities, strengthen their weak

areas, and mitigate and minimize the bad implication of their environment’s threats.

The strong brand, sustainability, cost leadership and customer satisfaction are vital

for business survival, but they are not enough. IKEA need to improve their visibility,

online operations and revolutionize the marketing efforts to keep ahead of other

rivals and maintain their position.

I Think IKEA is moving in the right path towards sustainability. However, the visibility

and promotion parts f the marketing account for huge areas of immediate

improvement since competitors are working to improve their position as well. IKEA

also should additionally and creatively invest in social media promotions because of

the huge penetration to millennials around the world especially in areas of cost,

quality, sustainability and creativity of their designs; they can also use their online

platforms and social media channels to promote a creative and innovative furniture

assembly education to beat the idea of complex assembly; Sponsorships for the

different charities, sports and good causes will also increase their brand and

products visibility; IKEA is promoting their shopping experience, so create coffee

shop spaces with creative designs and ideas to both enrich people experience and

promote products as well. One more Idea, since most of IKEA's stores, is out of

cities, so IKEA should provide free shuttle busses from and to city centres to attract

more of people that does not own cars. Finally, the opportunities in suitability,

innovation, R&D, and technology is beyond the start and IKEA should strive to gain

more in these areas.

20
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