Marketing in the Operational Context: the Case of Ikea

* 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 this essay, we will examine the internationalisation process of IKEA, Swedish Company founded in 1943 and the world's lieder in supplying home furnishing at low price with imaginative styles and application facility. In addition, we will describe from the different frameworks that have sought explain the Internationalisation process, the factors that have taken this company to perform its international expansion. From to be a simple local shop in a small town in Sweden 60 year ago, to be an actual powerful multinational with more than 76.000 employees and shops in more than 43 countries.

Today’s world is facing strong influence of globalization in each and every aspect of our lives. It is expressed through: free trade agreements, foreign direct investments, international trade, facilitated movement of labour, capital and resources, as well as a strong competition that eventually gives more power to customers. In addition, it resulted in the economic boom of the developing countries, with substantial dominance of China that mainly benefit from their massive labour force, its low cost and high comparative efficiency. This phenomenon has impacted all industries around the world. In particular, furniture production is going through a trend of moving to China that “in 2002

Furniture is considered in economic terms as an ‘elastic commodity’ and is very sensitive to economic changes. It is an export oriented industry with 53% of production being shipped outside Canada and 95% of exports going to the US. Canada is the 5th largest exporter of furniture in the world operating at various

1. Williams-Sonoma has experienced strong growth in the past year, but this is on the back of a strong economy and in particular a strong new home market. The furniture business is strongly correlated with the strength of the real estate market. In this respect, the company's strategy is largely irrelevant, because within the next five years the real estate bubble will burst and Williams-Sonoma will suffer a major downturn in its own results as a consequence. However, this reality shows that the company perhaps lacks sufficient differentiation, and can only be expected to perform roughly in line with the housing market. It is neither outperforming competitors nor is it underperforming. W-S has sufficient differentiation within the furnishings and home products segment, and has a fairly strong brand name in the segment. The company's status as a mass-market premium company allows it to grow strongly in strong economic times, but also makes it particularly vulnerable to economic downturn, because not only do consumers redecorate at greater intervals, but they will trade down to more affordable stores when they do.

The success of the industry was the huge experiences in the product differentiation, cost leadership and retail market. IKEA unique concept is that furniture is sold in kits that are assembled by the customers at home. The company remains one of the world most successful multinational retailing firms, operating globally. This report will explains IKEA internal and external environment using PESTLE, PORTER FIVE FORCE AND SWOT. Furthermore IKEA globalisation and localisation strategy breakdown will be examined, CSR and ethic and recommendation will be also examined.

IKEA is considered to be a low cost, high quality producer in the furniture industry, therefore it is important to

     In my opinion the most important of these factors is the Supply Chain Management. If the customer is not able to get the product when they want it or the product is always sold out, they will go somewhere else. Wal-Mart has taken the role of

The economy, the trade practices, and agreements are factors that help understand the purchasing power of customers, thus it deals with income, prices, savings, debts, and GDP. When a company has the intent of going for globalization, they have to carefully observe and study those factors, in order to have an appropriate marketing mix and in particular a price that is adapted to the country they are targeting. IKEA is present in industrializing and industrial economies where there is

Kohl’s needs to consider political factors affecting the retail market, which usually pertain to governmental policy. The following represent current political external factors that are present in the macro retail environment in which Kohl’s competes:

An objective of writing this report is to identity and analyzes operation system applied in IKEA, the well-known low cost yet high quality home of furnishing. Function, process and strategy of IKEA operation system will be accessed to identity the core competency that lead to the successfulness of IKEA in the world. Besides, other purpose in complete this report is to analyze the strength and weakness of operation system in IKEA. Operation management is procedure where processes of production or deliver goods and services is being monitoring and managing. Operations management is the activity of managing the resources which produce and deliver products and services (Slack, Chambers and Johnston, 2010). Operations

Ikea was successful in entering the furniture retail market in Sweden because it capitalized on good timing and original ideas. At the time of Ikeas initial phases, furniture prices in Sweden rose 41% faster than other household goods between 1935 and 1946. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea Saw this as a great opportunity to offer quality furniture at a much lower price than other retailers, that the majority of people can actually afford. Ikea was also able to overcome adversity through creativity in business processes. When initially traditional retailers fought against Ikea’s ideas and banned them from selling at the Stockholm Trade Fair, the took orders or got names of customers in order to sell to them after the event. On another occasion, they overcame trouble with the retail cartel by establishing manufacturing sources in Poland instead of Sweden. This actually resulted in lower costs for Ikea and therefore allowed them to sell products at even lower prices than before. They also differentiated themselves from other companies not only through price but also through store design and location. Instead of locating in downtown hubs, Ikea set up its stores in areas with a lot of land to provide ample parking space which went hand in hand with their concept of cash-and-carry retailing. Furthermore, within the stores established many basic practices, such as wide

To take advantage from home furnishing demand in Malaysia, IKEA as the brand-established company wants to introduce their premium quality, unique and varieties type of products range that will attract more consumers. IKEA sold variety of products such furniture, accessories, bathrooms and kitchens as a retail stores. The convenience of the guests must be the top priority when it comes to planning its market development; they offer services and product exactly as per customer needs. Their variety of home furnishing makes guests feel comfortable which adds a touch of elegance and style to customers' homes.

The selected company that portrays the elements of globalization is IKEA, a multinational corporation originated from Sweden, which currently owns and runs 351 stores in 46

The main purpose of this paper is to focus on the how IKEA Company approached its operation management. Particularly, it covers the following: how the company establish and manage customer requirements, secondly how does these customers requirements used for the company’s product and services, then, third covers the operational systems and processes it used in its operation, fourth consists of capacity planning, process layout, and product services/scheduling, inventory and projects were managed in the organization. And, lastly is on why and how monitoring and evaluation of operation were carried out by the company. This paper also provides empirical findings and application of relevant theories that will help readers to really understand