Ikea 's Failure Of Japan

The philosophy states “ Our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. Our business idea is to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional, home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them.” IKEA needs to create products following this motto but have these products molded to the tastes and styles of the U.S. population. The prices must still be low but IKEA must force the message that even though the price is low that does not mean the quality of the product is poor. This message will be key for expansion in the U.S. to be a success. IKEA must maintain their shopping experience as that is a strong competitive advantage, and tweak their philosophy so it fits the American lifestyle. If they do this then they will have success in expansion.

As explained in the “bargaining power of consumers”, it is hard to substitute the products that are offered by IKEA. This is further intensified by the fact that IKEA has formed a brand perception that makes it stand out amongst its

In 1951, to reduce product returns, he opened a display store in nearby Älmhult village to allow customers to inspect products before buying. It was an immediate success, with customers traveling seven hours from the capital Stockholm by train to visit. Based on the store’s success, IKEA stopped accepting mail orders. Later Kamprad reflected, “The basis of the modern IKEA concept was created [at this time] and in principle it still applies. First and foremost, we use a catalog to tempt people to visit an exhibition, which today is our store. . . . Then, catalog in hand, customers can see simple interiors for themselves, touch the furniture they want to buy and then write out an order.”2 As Kamprad developed and refined his furniture retailing business model he became increasingly frustrated with the way a tightly knit cartel of furniture manufacturers controlled the Swedish industry to keep prices high. He began to view the situation not just as a business opportunity but also as an unacceptable social problem that he wanted to correct. Foreshadowing a vision for IKEA that would later be articulated as “creating a better life for the many people,” he wrote: “A disproportionately large part of all resources is used to satisfy a small part of the population. . . . IKEA’s aim is to change this situation. We shall offer a wide range of home furnishing items of good design and function at prices so low that the majority of

Considering the previous mission statement with a unique customer vision IKEA is clearly antagonistic with specific customers’ needs. That lack of adjustment to customer needs is the main reason for not getting the same results in China than in Northern Europe.

The problem was the company’s not paying attention to local needs and preferences. US market, IKEA’s management realized that a standardized product strategy should be flexible to respond to demands, and has adopted a more balanced strategic focus by giving priority to global and domestic concerns.The current approach emphasizes on global market coordination to reduce standardization of activities and acquire both economies of scale and scope. While overall its subsidiaries follow instructions from the corporate head office in Sweden, subsidiaries in the US are given more autonomy, to respond effectively to the local business

IKEA had to start designing more of its furniture in house and found a manufacturer who would produce IKEA-designed furniture. In this process, the manufacturer was in Poland where they found it is 50% cheaper than to manufacture in Sweden, allowing him to cut prices even more. Here the furniture industry continued to evolve with new technology and cost savings.

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.

Once IKEA identified and understood the consumers (i.e. abandoning metric measured appliances and beds for American standards of size and comfort), they were able to double revenues, from $600 million in 1997 to $1.27 billion in 2002. From this analysis, it is possible to infer that IKEA combined their already successful cost leadership strategy with the properly identified needs of its target market, the American consumer. With this modification of the value chain, IKEA increased revenues and is pointed in the right direction to achieve their growth goals for 2013. As seen in Appendix 1, their projected growth is well into 8% per year, in relation to total projected growth.

IKEA implements new product service design and development to offer their quality products at a cheaper price to suit people’s contemporary needs and circumstances. They focus on the price and quality, design and function, environment and health of their new product service design and development to minimize waste and

Unfortunately, for IKEA, I am well-aware of its main weaknesses, which are; its limited product designs, and its DIY concept for customers that prefer items assembled. Essentially, this weakness provides Zappos with a unique opportunity to capitalize on the market of unsatisfied IKEA customers. For example, Ferrell & Hartline (2014) explains that, “some customers may not appreciate IKEA’s do-it-yourself approach. Moreover, IKEA targets young, cost-conscious customers who want stylish furniture. However, these same consumers also like convenience and usually have the money to pay for it. Consequently, for them, the time and effort involved in shopping for furniture, bringing it home, and assembling it may not be worth it. Furthermore, some customers enjoy having a conversation with a salesperson and getting individual ideas and advice from employees. Therefore, these customers may continue to buy furniture from traditional retailers” (p.498).

IKEA target on specific new market and segments with the existing product characteristic: low price, joint venture and brand reputation. The international expansion could help them to increase market share, reduce cost, increase profit and acquire customer.

The high level of customer involvement is one of the key features of the IKEA concept. With their unique self-serviced warehouses, customers are required to collect their flat-packed items before proceeding to checkout. Customers are also involved in the assembly of their purchases after transporting them home in their private car. Because the company’s furniture are designed to be shipped disassembled and sold to the customer flat-packaged boxes IKEA saves a lot on shipping costs. As one of the company’s mantras said; “We don’t want to pay to ship air”.

As IKEA stores are located away from the urban areas, many customers may only patronize the stores during weekends. Hence, the store may be relatively quiet during the weekdays and highly packed with shoppers over the weekends. In the case of IKEA, although it adopts the self-service concept in their stores, it actually still maintains a high level of contact with their customers. To ease and facilitate consumer’s shopping, IKEA provides catalogues, measuring tapes, shopping list and pencils. In addition, IKEA stores are designed to have a ‘family shopping experience’ with customer services and facilities such as a restaurant, day care facilities and a Swedish shop. Parents can leave their kids in a supervised play area, or keep their children with them in pushchairs provided (Slack, Chambers and Johnston, 2007). The key point about IKEA is that it is different to the rest of its industry. In typical furniture stores similar products are grouped together and the final delivery of products to customers may take several weeks.

IKEA is the largest furniture chain in the world, and in 2011 the Swedish company operated over 270 stores in 25 countries. In 2011 IKEA sales soared to over $35 billion, or over 20% of the global furniture market. Most of its stuffs believed IKEA will massive growth throughout the world in the coming decade because IKEA could provide what customer wanted: good design, and good made contemporary furniture with an affordable price. In one word, IKEA’s global approach focuses on simplicity, attention to detail, cost consciousness, and responsiveness in every aspect of its operations and behavior. (Jones, 2013)

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.