Explain The Objectives Of IKEA

2) What factor is the biggest reason for IKEA’s growth and popularity: value or image? What can IKEA do to sustain growth after it loses some cache?

* Diversification can be a good way that IKEA does to sustain growth after it loses some cache. Product innovation and market development such as IKEA’s expanding goal in U.S. market. It is a risky strategy but with careful selection of the right kind of businesses, considerable improvements in profitability can be experienced.  To try and maintain growth, IKEA is considering diversification outside of the furniture market.

In IKEA’s history two different modes of entry were used. Both were met with big success and allowed IKEA to enter new markets very easily, and in a secure way.

IKEA, which is a famous furniture company in Swedish has dominated in furnishing market for many years. Its success delis on its strategies in large part. This report is trying to analyze IKEA’s strategies on the basis of related literature.

IKEA is rumored to be a very standardized retailer, i.e., a certain set of marketing strategies is used that are the same around the world. This indeed sets IKEA, operating on markets in Europe, US as well as Asia and Australia, apart among international retailers. Often the theoretical conclusions in international

IKEA has only two outlets in Singapore, one nearer to the west and the other nearer to the west. By having more outlets such as at places like central area, IKEA would be more accessible and more convenient. This would increase customer flow and also increase sales.

Growth plans and opportunities. Presently, IKEA aims to open 10-20 new retail outlets annually, with forecast of double sales target in a timeframe of five years. These targets can be accomplished through strict control functions and monitoring of inventories to ensure keeping costs at the minimum (Kelly, 2010, p. 3). In fact, in spite of inflation rate and rising cost of raw materials and fuel, IKEA has managed to reduce its average costs by 0.8% in FY2012 (“IKEA Group,” cited in “Strategic Supply,” 2013, p. 4).

IKEA is using a different operation strategy from their competitors. The operation of IKEA has to cope with large volume because their products are highly repeatability and specialised. The variety of products the operation needs to create is low to medium as they offer

Ikea, a global furniture company, has created a strong marketing strategy along with a strong marketing planning process that has help their brand a lot. They have really strong brand recognition, loyal customers, and are increasingly growing. Their marketing efforts have truly help set them apart from their competitors.

In some instances IKEA’s expansion to a new country had lacked sufficient research. This is evident from its expansion to United States and Japan. IKEA entered Japan with a local partner but had failed to win over Japanese consumers as they had underestimated the significance of cultural differences. The rush into Japanese market and Japanese customers’ unacceptance for flat pack and self-assembling their own furniture were some of the reasons for failure. Whereas, in US, IKEA had initially replicates its existing business model and products when in expanded its business operations in that country. However, there arise need to customize its products to cater the local customers’ needs. For instance, American customers demand for bigger beds and closets. Hence, several marketing strategies were also changed for the American

The threat of substitute products and services is low as there are no too many products and services available that can substitute the demand for furniture, home appliances and a range of other products offered by IKEA. For instance the need for furniture or appliances (e.g. chair, mattress) for basic and decent accommodation is inevitable, unless the individual decides to follow

Franchise model does not usually guarantee success. As failure rates may be under reported (Pilling, 1991) IKEA can explore other modes of entry into a new

Ikea's success in the retail furniture industry can be attributed to its vast experience in the retail market and its ability to integrate both product differentiation and cost leadership strategies successfully.

At the outset, it may be useful to characterise IKEA in terms of the characteristics of demand (also known as the four Vs, see Slack et al. p 20). First, IKEA is clearly a high volume operation – as indeed most international retailers are – which lends to systematising operations but which implies capital intensive processes and therefore cost considerations will be crucial. Second, IKEA offers a large number of products (up to 14000 depending on the country/store) so there is high variety in the

IKEA’s strategy before the mishaps in America could be characterized as going against the norm charting their own path to success using low priced manufactures to secure lower selling prices aimed to target those who were of older age and of middle class standing. Their new strategy was to target those of a younger demographic, young married couples, college students, and 20-30 something singles. By reemphasizing design, promoting through hip quirky advertisements, and encouraging consumers to do away with their old furniture, IKEA revenues doubled in a four-year period. IKEA today has adapted somewhat of a local customization strategy where their store layouts will resemble that of many local household layouts as proven by their success in China where they failed to expand beforehand. They also keep their prices extremely low in some areas as China by sourcing a large percentage of products in the area of operation.