...Executive Summary IKEA is a “privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories”. The company was established in Sweden in 1943 by a 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, who is one the world's richest people in 2013, the company's name is an acronym that consists of the initials of Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd (the farm where he grew up), and Agunnaryd (his hometown in Southern Sweden). IKEA is currently the world's largest furniture retailer and arguably the most successful global retailer. Being one of the biggest global retailers, IKEA benefited a lot by the globalization of its business; IKEA’s target market is the global middle class who is looking for low-priced but attractively designed furniture and household items. The company started as a home-furniture retailer in Sweden over 60 years ago. Throughout the years with the use of effective globalization, “IKEA managed to increase its business revenue and profit by selling and making home-furniture in different countries all over the world, and it has over 300 retail stores in more than 30 countries”. Other than that, they sell roughly 10,000 different products, which attract customers from different places all over the world. The basic assumption behind IKEA's global strategy was “one-design-suits-all”. This case “IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor ” is about IKEA’s development from a...
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...Executive Summary IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer and the world's third-largest consumer of wood, behind The Home Depot and Lowe's. The company is known for its modern architectural designs on various types of appliances and furniture, often associated with a simplified eco-friendly interior design. They are owned and operated by a complicated array of not-for-profit and for-profit corporations. The corporate structure is divided into two main parts: operations and franchising. Older IKEA stores are usually designed in a one-way layout, designed to encourage the customer to see the store in its entirety as opposed to a traditional retail store. IKEA has suppliers in 50 countries, roughly ⅔ of purchasing is from Europe with about ⅓ from Asia but for most of its products, but the final assembly is performed by the end-user. They also have 28 distribution centers and 11 customer distribution centers in 16 countries using flat packs, transporting goods where possible by rail and sea, and utilizing fuel-saving techniques that allow them to be cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Their consumers are often the means of out-bound logistics, responsible for picking up and transporting the products. There's no room for wasted space in product packaging. Logistics roles exist at every stage in the supply chain at IKEA, from the moment a product leaves the manufacturer to the moment it is in the hands of the customer. The in-store logistics manager uses a proprietary...
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...I. View Point II. Time Context In 1943, IKEA was established by Ingvar Kamprad. The company sold fish, Christmas magazines, and seeds from his family farm. In 1948, Kamprad added furniture to his product line. In 1949, IKEA published his first catalog distributed for free. In 1953, Kamprad could no longer use the milk truck to take goods to the train. As a solution in this problem, in the same year he bought an idle factory nearby Almhut and converted it into a warehouse. In 1956, IKEA developed a concept which is self-assembly furniture which later became an integral concept of IKEA. In 1957, IKEA started to exhibit and sell its products at home furnishing fairs in Sweden. In 1958, an expanded facility at the Almhut location became the first IKEA store. In early 1960, Polish-made goods were to be found on more than half of the IKEA catalog. In 1965, IKEA opened its first store in Stockholm, Sweden‘s capital. By 1973, IKEA became the largest furniture retailer in Scandinavia with nine stores. By the late 1980’s, IKEA met with considerable success, particularly in West Germany, where it had 15 stores. In 1985, IKEA opened its first United States store in Philadelphia. By the early 1990’s, the company found that things are not going well in America. Its European-style offerings did not always resonate with American consumers. To handle this situation, IKEA reemphasized design and started promoting the brand with a series of quirky hip advertisement aimed at younger...
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...or more than a decade, WRI’s Sustainable Enterprise Program (SEP) has harnessed the power of business to create profitable solutions to environment and development challenges. BELL, a project of SEP, is focused on working with managers and academics to make companies more competitive by approaching social and environmental challenges as unmet market needs that provide business growth opportunities through entrepreneurship, innovation, and organizational change. Permission to reprint this case is available at the BELL case store. Additional information on the Case Series, BELL, and WRI is available at: www.BELLinnovation.org. IKEA AND THE NATURAL STEP In September 1995, Jan Kjellman took over as president of IKEA North America, the U.S. and Canadian subsidiary of the Swedish furniture giant. At IKEA s headquarters outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Kjellman sat at his desk, located in an open, brightly sunlit bay. His assistant, also the service center office manager, sat at a nearby desk a few feet away. Co-workers walked through one side of the bay, heading for the coffee room. On the landing below the president s office was a pedestal bearing a large gray rock. It was from the rocky and poor land in ˜lmhult, a small village in the province of Sm land, Sweden, where IKEA s founder was born and where the design and production core of IKEA s business was still located. Kjellman pondered the success of his predecessor, Gor n Carstedt, who had moved back to Sweden...
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...company is a specialty store but rather the breadth of their product offering. If a company could be considered an expert in a certain type of good, it is a specialty store. (www.educationportal.com) Company Introduction IKEA is one of the best private furniture based companies in the world which started in a small village of Agunnaryd in Sweden. A company which has the experience of working for more than 6 decades around the globe, which currently is operating in 40 countries around. IKEA is a company which has always focused itself towards creating a better future for the people by producing reliable furniture at a low cost. The basic concept of the company is based on southern Sweden which has thin soil and poor people and they use their hard work to survive. The genius behind the company made sure that all these values were transferred to the company and its core values were designed around the basic inherited values. IKEA is a privately-held, international home products retailer that sells flat pack furniture, accessories, and bathroom and kitchen items in their retail stores around the world. The company, which pioneered flat-pack design furniture at affordable prices, is now the world's largest furniture retailer. IKEA was founded in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar...
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...Challenges Faced By IKEA:- Here are some of the challenges I found from the case study- * I kea’s low valued products used excessive space on load units due to packaging design which resulted in poor efficiency in both transportation and warehouse operations that created unnecessary costs. * Involvement of suppliers was a challenge as solving the problem affects the packaging design as it affects the product design too as it got to adapt to the new packaging design where manufacturing processes are affected too. * To discover new ways to reduce unnecessary space in packaging without altering the product design. * Eliminate the problems related to filled air that takes a lot of unnecessary space during transportation and storage by finding out new methods for packaging. * Another challenge would be Increase in density of the packaging would create overload and to balance the load on the trucks is to use lightweight products to fill up the left over space. That is in short to Load balance the products of different volumes to fill transportation units in regard to both weight and volume. * For the above balancing scenario it is important to convince suppliers for a cluster supplier concept by storing one company’s product by another supplier in order to reduce space related problems. Strategic Implementation:- * Implementation of cluster supplier concept for Glimma tea candles where a major supplier of IKEA takes responsibility for storing...
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...click on the "print" button in your browser to print this page. The IKEA Concept The IKEA Concept is founded on a low-price offer in home furnishings. Concept The IKEA Concept is based on 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. Rather than selling expensive home furnishings that only a few can buy, the IKEA Concept makes it possible to serve the many by providing low-priced products that contribute to helping more people live a better life at home. The IKEA Concept guides the way IKEA products are designed, manufactured, transported, sold and assembled. All of these factors contribute to transforming the IKEA Concept into a reality. How the IKEA Concept Began The IKEA Concept began when Ingvar Kamprad, an entrepreneur from the Småland province in southern Sweden, had an innovative idea. In Småland, although the soil is thin and poor, the people have a reputation for working hard, living frugally and making the most out of limited resources. So when Ingvar started his furniture business in the late 1940s, he applied the lessons he learned in Småland to the home furnishings market. Ingvar's innovative idea was to offer home furnishing products of good function and design at prices much lower than competitors by using simple cost-cutting solutions that did not affect the quality of products. Ingvar used every opportunity to reduce costs, and he scraped...
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...IKEA Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda With a 1988 turnover of 14.5 billion Swedish kronor (U.S. $1 SKr6 in 1988) and 75 outlets in 19 countries; IKEA had become the world's largest home furnishings retailer. As the company approached the 1990s, however, its managers faced a number of major challenges. Changes in demographics were causing some to question IKEA's historical product line policy. Others wondered if the company had not bitten off too much by attempting major new market entries simultaneously in two European countries (United Kingdom and Italy), the United States, and several Eastern bloc countries. Finally, there was widespread concern about the future of the company without its founder, strategic architect, and cultural guru, Ingvar Kamprad. IKEA BACKGROUND AND HISTORY In 1989, furniture retailing worldwide was a fragmented industry in which small manufacturers and distributors catered to the demands of their local markets. Consumer preferences varied by region, and there were few retailers whose operations extended beyond a single country. IKEA, however, had repeatedly bucked market trends and industry norms. Over three and a half decades, it had built a highly profitable worldwide network of furniture stores (see Exhibit 1). COMPANY ORIGINS IKEA is an acronym for the initials of the founder, Ingvar Kamprad, his farm Elmtaryd, and his county, Agunnaryd, in Smäland, South Sweden. In 1943, at the age of 17, Kamprad began his...
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...Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK Department of Business Administration, Lund University, P.O. Box 7080, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden c Department of Communication Studies, Lund University, Campus Helsingborg, PO Box 882, SE-251 08 Helsingborg, Sweden b a r t i c l e in fo Available online 29 September 2010 Keywords: IKEA Retail internationalisation Retail marketing mix Standardisation Sweden the UK China abstract IKEA is often cited as an example of a ‘global’ retailer which pursues a similar ‘standardized’ approach in every market. This paper systematically assesses the degree of standardisation (and adaptation) of four commonly identified retail marketing mix activities – merchandise, location and store format, the selling and service environment, and market communication – within three countries. These countries – Sweden, the UK and China – represent different cultural settings and are markets in which IKEA has been operating for different lengths of time. The data upon which the comparison is based was generated from personal interviews, in-country consumer research, company documentation and third party commentaries. The conclusions drawn suggest that whilst IKEA operates a standardized concept, degrees of adaptation can be observed in customer facing elements, and in the supporting ‘back office’ processes which support these elements. These adaptations arise from differences in consumer cultures and the length of...
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...03 | 3. Symptoms | 03 | 4. Indentify the problems | 04 | 5. Generate the alternate solution | 04 | 6. Analyze the alternative | 05 | 7. Recommendation | 05 | 8. Implementation | 06 | 9. Conclusion | 06 | Abstract The IKEA Group, one of the world’s top furniture retailers, has emerged as the fastest-growing furniture retailer in the US. To become one of the leading furniture retailers in such huge and promising market, it has set an ambitious goal to have 50 stores around the US by 2013. IKEA has 4 branches in Los Angeles alone. From 1997 to 2001, the revenues of IKEA doubled from $66 million to $1.27 billion in five years. Looking at the growth rate over the past decade, it seems possible for IKEA to reach this goal. However, IKEA faced several challenges: American’s mind-set, competition from established furniture retailer and different customer’s preference. To address to these challenges, IKEA needs to apply market leader strategy expanding total market size, defending and developing its market share to achieve this goal. . Thus, brand awareness gives IKEA a great power in the US market. However, IKEA’s motto is “low price with meaning”. “With meaning” for US market is different from the other markets. If IKEA cannot capture what US customers want, its offerings will become “low price and no meaning”. Introduction IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer was founded in 1943 by Kamprad. Its first showroom was opened...
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...Case Report Marketing Case 8: IKEA’s Global Strategy: Furnishing the World I.Situation Analysis IKEA is a privately-owned international furniture manufacturer known for its low prices and unique style. The company’s vision is to create a better everyday life for its customers by offering a great selection of well-designed, practical home furnishings. Since IKEA has chosen this sort of affordable and distinctive marketing strategy, the company has been very successful in its expansion throughout the world. IKEA has been successful with a relatively standardized product and product line in a business with strong cultural influence. This is because: The founder formulated IKEA’s mission which states that IKEA offers wide variety of home furnishings of good design and function at prices so low that the majority of people can afford them. Such wide variety could fit a wide variety of cultures and tastes. The case studies also states that the assortment of goods are universally accepted. The principal target market of IKEA is similar across all countries and regions and is composed of people who are young, highly educated, liberal in their cultural values,white collar workers, and not especially concerned with status symbols.Most people in the IKEA target market are liberal in their tastes,preferences and cultural norms hence making them easy to accept and appreciate IKEA’s standardized products. II.Problems Found in Situation Analysis ...
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...IKEA Executive Summary Founded in 1943 by entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA first began with sales of inexpensive products such as pens, watches, and jewelry. Soon after, IKEA started selling furniture and published a catalog in 1951. With its Scandinavian and contemporary style, IKEA's business model of furnishing simplicity and do it yourself furniture has taken the company from a catalog based company to a multimillion dollar company. The company has grown to over 253 outlet stores in 37 countries and making itself known as a global brand of do it yourself furnishings at a lower cost than most furniture retailers Marketing strategies IKEA’s success is based on principal marketing strategies that remain the same throughout the world, which include a catalogue that is printed in 52 editions in 27 languages and has a worldwide circulation of 200 million copies, and the use of the colors of the Swedish flag blue and yellow in the IKEA logo. This is combined with an emphasis on customer freedom and choice with regard to buying and taking home products, and low prices intended to create a “sale” mentality amongst customers. This aggressive price strategy coupled, with a wide product range catering for every potential lifestyle and life stage of a consumer, can best summarize the company’s recipe for success. The fact that IKEA targets all age groups and households makes it an attractive proposition to a wide spectrum of most countries’ consumers, especially amongst depressed...
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...The reason behind choosing the IKEA is because IKEA is one of the world’s most successful retailers. IKEA is a global furniture brand inspired by the egalitarian society of its Swedish heritage and appears to the public to be forever Swedish. It expands its retail stores all over the world including North American, European Middle East and Asian countries but also spreads a kind of its own a highly strong business culture and values with a strong Swedish image to other countries through the establishment of business there. History: IKEA was founded in 1943 in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad. Kamprad was born in 1926 as the son of a farmer in Småland, a region in southern Sweden. At the age of five Ingvar Kamprad starts selling matches to his nearby neighbors and by the time he is seven, he expands to selling flower seeds, greeting cards, Christmas tree decorations, pencils and ball-point pens. In 1943, at the age of 17, Kamprad became an entrepreneur and created a commercial company called "IKEA." The word IKEA was an acronym of his name and “Ingvar Kamprad” and the address, the name of his farm and village: “Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd”. Company initially sold fish, vegetable seeds, and magazines to customers in his region. Then in 1950 IKEA added furniture and home furnishings to the product line. IKEA entered new markets around the globe in the 1980s. IKEA expands dramatically into new markets such as USA, Italy, France and the UK. Operating Environment: Ikea is the world's largest furniture...
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...IKEA Analysis Report Your Name Argosy University IKEA’s Marketing IKEA has a unique perspective with the approach they use in marketing. The starting point begins with customers’ needs (IKEA, 2013). The focus is on local marketing versus mass marketing and competitors. This differentiates IKEA from other home good suppliers by anticipating what consumers are seeking and many times providing exactly they desire before they realize they need it. The marketing task is simple, “To build the IKEA brand and inspire people to come to the stores” (IKEA, 2013). The marketing mix is a combination of items that work together; it is often referred to as the four p’s in marketing. Price, Promotion, People, and Process are the four p’s that IKEA has embraced. Price is within their controls, they offer quality home goods at low affordable costs. They are able to keep costs low with designing from within, sourcing raw materials for production, and selling in their own stores. Promotion is achieved with iconic bold blue and yellow colors signifying a brand with value. IKEA uses many forms of media in their promotional marketing strategy; the annual catalogue is the most popular. The catalogue highlights many new home goods and accessories with interior suggestions that are attention grabbing and captivating. The catalogue has become a staple of what is new and trending in the homes of many customers. IKEA’s website is another interactive way it reaches a distinct local market, along...
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...ABSTRACT Distribution logistic plays an important role in international companies or in Multinational Corporation. It is because most company preferred more competence in the complex and global market. Nowadays customers more concern about how long their ordered product reach to them rather than worrying how the company will deliver the products. As a consequence, time can be used as an indicator in distribution logistic. This research is conducted to explain the consequences of distribution logistic and the way IKEA will gain competitive advantage by utilizing it. We will identify the key elements in distribution logistics and find the competitive advantages of IKEA through analyzing the case study of IKEA and they are: speed, dependability and last but not least is flexibility. Keyword: IKEA, Distribution logistic, Competitive advantage. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND Logistics management is the governance of supply chain functions. Logistics management is important not solely to producing and assembly industries, that are goods-oriented, however conjointly to selling, transport and alternative distribution or service- oriented industries. Daskin (1985) defined logistics as “the design and operation of the physical, managerial and informational systems needed to allow goods to overcome time and space”. Another definition promulgated by the Council of Logistics Management Ballou (1992) is: the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective...
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