...elsevier.com/locate/jretconser Standardized marketing strategies in retailing? IKEA’s marketing strategies in Sweden, the UK and China ˚ Steve Burt a, Ulf Johansson b,n, Asa Thelander c a University of Stirling, Institute for Retail Studies, Stirling Management School, 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...
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...IKEA ANALYSIS REPORT Dan Pinzon Argosy University Abstract This report explores the notion of values-based service, and how a company like IKEA creates value for customers and other stakeholders. In order to better understand the IKEA environment we will look at IKEA’s marketing strategy, beginning with its products, services, and other attributes that contribute to its value proposition. Following, exploring how IKEA creates a well-defined market position, and how they differentiate their offerings from competitor offerings. Included in this report is an assessment of IKEA’s strategy by analyzing its sources of value in its value chain, an explanation of its intangible products and benefits, and why IKEA considers its customers to be critical stakeholders. This report concludes with an establishment of several key performance measures that enables management to integrate IKEA’s values in its operations. Introduction In 1943 Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad founded the now furniture giant IKEA. He began by going door to door selling pens, wallets, and watches. When he began selling his low priced furniture, his competitors immediately tried everything to stop him. The local suppliers were banned from selling him raw materials, and he was not allowed to showcase his furniture in industry expeditions. So Ingvar began to innovate, building his own furniture and buying raw materials from other countries. As the company grew globally, IKEA realized the need to adapt to...
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...Standardized marketing strategies in retailing? IKEA’s marketing strategies in China, Sweden and the UK Steve Burt University of Stirling Department of Marketing, Institute for Retail Studies STIRLING FK9 4LA, Scotland, the UK. Ulf Johansson* *Contact author Department of Business Administration Lund University P. O. Box 7080 SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden e-mail:ulf.johansson@fek.lu.se Åsa Thelander Department of Communication Studies Lund Universitety, Campus Helsingborg, P O Box 882 SE-251 08 Helsingborg, Sweden Paper accepted for presentation at the 1st Nordic Retail and Wholesale Conference in Stockholm (Norrtälje), 6-7/11, 2008 Abstract 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 marketing literature, as well as empirical evidence, argue convincingly for the more adaptation (to different markets) in different national markets. But is IKEA so standardized in marketing strategies? So far there are quite few, and very dated, empirical studies of IKEA marketing strategies (yet many refer to IKEA as having a standardized marketing strategy). Here marketing activites are conceptualized to concern: Merchandise - putting together an assortment of products (e.g., national and retailer brands, pricing and pricing...
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...HISTORY: IKEA is a globally famous home furnishing retailer. IKEA was founded by a 17 years old boy Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. It has grown rapidly and today it is the world's largest furniture retailer, known for its cost control, operational details and continuous product development, allowing it to lower its prices while continuing its global expansion. Since then, the IKEA Group has grown into an international retail brand with 131,000 co-workers in 41 countries generating annual sales of more than 24.7 billion EURO. IKEA carries a range of approximately 9,500 products, majority of which is flat-pack resulting in reduction in costs and packaging. This wide range is available in all IKEA stores and customers can order much of the range online through IKEA’s website. IKEA stores include restaurants and cafés serving typical Swedish food. They also have small food shops selling Swedish groceries. The biggest sales countries are Germany, USA, France, UK and Sweden. Competitive prices are one of the foundations of the IKEA concept and help to make customers want to buy from IKEA. This low price strategy is united with a wide range of well designed, useful products. IKEA’s products provide for every lifestyle and life stage of its customers, who come from all age groups and types of households. This is vital in times when the retail sector is depressed, as it increases IKEA’s potential market. I have selected The Home Depot for comparison with IKEA which are one of the largest...
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...Author Author Strategic Marketing Plan for IKEA in INDIA [Document subtitle] Strategic Marketing Plan for IKEA in INDIA [Document subtitle] Contents Introduction 2 About IKEA 2 1.0 Analysis of Indian Market 3 1.1 Micro Analysis 3 1.1.1 PESTEL Analysis 3 1.2 Micro Analysis 4 1.2.1 SWOT Analysis 4 1.3 Impact on Hofstede Culture Dimension 5 a) Collectivism vs Individualism 6 b) Femininity vs Masculinity 6 c) Avoidance of Uncertainties 6 d) Power Distance 6 1.4 Porter’s Diamond Model 7 2.0 Global Marketing Objective 7 2.1 Porter’s Generic Strategy Mix 8 2.2 Ansoff’s Marketing Strategies 8 3.0 Mode of entry 9 4.0 7 P’s of Marketing 10 a)Product 10 b) Process 10 c) Price 10 d) Physical evidence 11 e) Place 11 f) People 11 g) Promotion 11 References 0 List of Figure Figure 1: SWOT Analysis 5 Figure 2: Hofstede Dimensions 7 Figure 3: Comparison of Entry Mode 9 Introduction India is developing country, populated with 1.2 billion people. India’s economy is of very worthwhile. The current analysis shows India is expected to be considering in Top 5 economies in the world. Due to powerful economic development in past few decades, the living standards of Indian nation are improved and improving day by day. The people of India are establishing themselves in the field of information technology and in other industries. They also step up in urbanization and trend of using foreign band has increased much. The retailing...
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...S ustainable sourcing and procurement Sourcing and procurement as driving forces for sustainable business b y Helen van Hoeven, Lean & Green Foreword President Obama recently said that there are only two kinds of car companies: those that sell hybrid cars and those that will sell hybrid cars in the near future. The same is true for sustainability in supply chains. There are companies that source and sell more sustainable products and there are those that will do so in the near future. With a world soon populated by nine billion people and over two billion new middle-class citizens, traditional sourcing and selling will simply be a no. You are either on the pathway to sustainable development or you are out of business. The challenge of sustainability is reshaping the relation ship between business and society. Industry needs to better manage natural resources and significantly lower its global ecological footprint. And companies need to engage much better with suppliers and workers in the emerging and developing economies. The mission of the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) is to upscale and accelerate the mainstreaming of sustainability in international commodity chains. IDH joins the forces of business, non-governmental organisations, labour unions and governments. We bring diverse stakeholders together in focused and result-oriented sectoral coalitions that implement ambitious improvement programmes. These programmes tackle social, ecological and economical bottlenecks...
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...IKEA in India: An Opportunity for Success James Baskerville, Irina Damianoff, Jacquelynn Mantel, and Teressa Paulus Indiana Wesleyan University Assignment ADM510 Team Project Paper Team Project Paper Rubric: The Team Project report was graded according to the rubric below |Criteria |Points Possible |Point Achieved | |Spelling, grammar and mechanics - Excellent |15 | | |Description of the Organization – good detail |20 | | | Opportunities for Global Expansion – great research |30 | | |Challenges to Global Expansion |30 | | |Expansion Options and Recommendations – team did a great job with the analysis and support |30 | | |APA citations & references page |15 | | |TOTAL |140 | | ...
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...2 Vision and Mission 2. Business model 3. Study of the competition 4. Marketing 4.1 Positioning 4.2 Differentiating values 5. Financial management 5.1 Financial facts and figures 5.2 Risk Analysis 6. Strategic development 6.1 SWOT Analysis 6.2 Future strategies 7. Conclusions 1. Company’s presentation 1.1 History IKEA is a multinational Swedish company that sells retail furniture and home furnishings and decor, at a low price and with a contemporary design. The word IKEA is made up of the initials of its founder Ingvar Kamprad (IK) plus the first letter of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, which are the farm and village where he grew up, respectively. It was founded in 1943 in the province of Småland, Sweden. It’s logo is blue and yellow, as it represents the colors of the Swedish flag. In 1943, Ingvar Kamprad started its business by selling goods by mail in a village in southern Sweden. The idea was to sell items that cover different needs, at affordable prices. Thus began selling pens, wallets, picture frames, watches, jewelry etc. In 1947, expanded his business to selling furniture and four years later published the first catalog IKEA furniture, then took the historic decision to focus exclusively on home furnishings, and leave the other articles. The catalog became a symbol of the company and its main marketing channel. By 1953, IKEA sells by catalog only, but the competition with its closest rival led to...
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...Company Description IKEA started up with the woods of southern Sweden with the inspiration by the founder at 1943 in Switzerland. The founder of IKEA is Ingvar Kamprad. The company name is inspire by the first letter of the name of founder, Ingvar Kamprad (IK) and the name of the place that he grew up, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd (EA). IKEA’s vision is “to create a better everyday life for the many people” (IKEA/MY/EN, 2014). Besides that, the company’s business idea is to offer a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at affordable prices so there will be many people able to purchase them (IKEA/MY/EN, 2014). Now, IKEA had established in about 40 countries with 345 stores, such as France, China, United States and so on and it’s still growing. IKEA is positioning as good quality furniture with low price. IKEA is known as a values driven company with a passion for life at home (IKEA /GB/EN, 2014). IKEA has offers varieties of home furnishing products with affordable price to people. IKEA furnishing products are designed to let customers easy to carry back to home and install it by themselves. IKEA promote that the furnishing products provided is a way to a beautiful home to fulfill with love and make life better. IKEA’s stores decorated in a way that how actual home look like. This design is making for the convenient of people to get inspiration on what to put in their home by choosing the products they want. IKEA’s furnishing products can be classified...
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...below, I declare that: I am the author of this assignment and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully disclosed and acknowledged in this assignment I also certify that this assignment was prepared by me specifically for this course I certify that I have taken all reasonable precautions to make sure that my work has not been copied by other students I confirm that I have understood the College’s regulations on plagiarism I confirm that research resources are fully acknowledged Signature: Mounir TIZI Date: 26/01/2015 1 To be corrected by: Mr Deji Sotunde. By: Mr Mounir TIZI. 2 Abstract This paper focuses on highlighting some characteristics of the international home furnishing company, IKEA. Also, a discussion on the current operations of the company was carried out using different tools like porter’s value chain analysis and SWOT analysis. Additionally, in this...
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...IKEA WRITTEN REPORT SUMMARY Introduction:............................................................................................................................................ 3 First question: .......................................................................................................................................... 3 IKEA’s business model: ........................................................................................................................ 3 IKEA’s strengths and weaknesses:....................................................................................................... 4 IKEA’s competences: ........................................................................................................................... 5 Summary about IKEA’s successful: ...................................................................................................... 7 Conclusion: .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Second question: ..................................................................................................................................... 7 The drivers of their internationalization: ............................................................................................ 8 IKEA’s internationalization strategy: ................................................................................................... 9 IKEA’s...
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...OVERVIEW OF IKEA HISTORY Ingvar Kamprad: The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, began his business career as a young boy selling matches purchased in bulk individually for a profit to his neighbors near Agunnaryd. As his business grew, he expanded to selling fish, seeds, Christmas decorations and eventually, pencils and ball-point pens which were a new phenomenon in 1935. He was very clever in utilizing his resources - he delivered his goods by bicycle, and later used the local milk delivery vehicle to make deliveries. IKEA: In 1943, with a gift from his father, Ingvar established his business, using his initials, Ingvar Kamprad, the name of the farm on which he was born, Elmtaryd and the village nearby, Agunnaryd for the acronym. At this time, he was selling everything from pens and wallets to watches and nylon stockings by going door to door and selling directly to his customers. By 1945, the first advertisements for IKEA began showing up in local newspapers and he had developed a rudimentary catalog. IKEA Store: The first full IKEA store opened in Älmhult in 1958. With 6700 m2 (72,118 ft2), it was the largest furniture display in all of Scandinavia. In 1963, the first IKEA store outside Sweden opened near Oslo in Norway, followed by the flagship store in Stockholm - a whopping 45,800 m2 (492,987 ft2) circular store inspired by the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The success of this store, and difficulties in serving customers due to an overfilled capacity led to...
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...IKEA Case Study Strategic Marketing Plan Review Table of Content 1.0 Executive Summary Pg. 3 2.0 IKEA Company’s Proflie Pg. 4 3.0 Segmentation Base on Applied by IKEA Pg. 5 3.1 GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION 3.1.1 TARGET MARKET SEGMENTS Pg. 5 3.2. DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION 3.2.1 TARGET MARKET SEGMENTS: Pg. 6 3.3 PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Pg. 6 3.4 BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTATION 3.4.1 TARGET MARKET SEGMENTS Pg. 7 3.5 IKEA’S POSITIONING STRATEGIES Ph. 7 4.0 Customer Value Provided by IKEA Pg. 8 4.1 Strategy of Best product values offered by IKEA Pg. 8 & 9 4.2 Best Price value strategies offered by IKEA Pg. 9 4.3 Best Service Value Strategies offered by IKEA Pg. 10 5.0 MARKETING PROPOSAL PROGRAM Pg. 11 5.1 PRODUCT STRATEGIES Pg. 11 5.2 PRICE STRATEGIES • The Long-Term Aspiration of IKEA • Reducing a lower price in several ways: • The Short-term Aspiration of IKEA Pg. 12 & 13 5.3 PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES Pg. 13, 14, 15 & 16 5.4 PLACE STRATEGIES Pg. 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 6.0 Conclusion Pg. 21 7.0 Referencing Pg. 22 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The selected company for discussion is IKEA group where company is renowned for their D.I.Y concept which makes them the sovereign furniture retailer in the industry. In this report, the first scope of the discussion will be accentuating on the segmentations and target market segments on how IKEA is based according to their company...
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...Localization Strategies of Transnational Retailers in China A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS By Wang Yue (王玥) Supervised by Prof. Yang Zuxian (杨祖宪) Southern Yangtze University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China June, 2006 Contents Acknowledgements----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------i Abstract & Key Words-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------ii 1. Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 1.1The Problem and the Study Objective----------------------------------------------------------1 1.2 Current Study-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 2. Localization----------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 2.1 The Definition of Localization ----------------------------------------------------------------3 2.2 The Importance of Localization Strategy to Transnational Retailing---------------------3 2.3 Three Layers of Localization for Transnational Retailing----------------------------------4 3. Retail Transnational in China------------------------------------------------------------------------7 3.1 The Status Quo of Chinese Retail Environment --------------------------------------------7 ...
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...IntMk-CStud-4.qxd 26/05/2005 14:05 Page 563 section 4 case studies cases 4.1 Wal-Mart’s German Misadventure 4.2 Handl Tyrol: Market Selection and Coverage Decisions of a Medium-sized Austrian Enterprise 4.3 Blair Water Purifiers to India 4.4 A Tale of Two Tipples 4.5 Kellogg’s Indian Experience 4.6 Strategic Alliances in the Global Airline Industry: from Bilateral Agreements to Integrated Networks 4.7 GN Netcom in China 4.8 IKEA: Entering Russia 4.9 The ‘David Beckham’ Brand 563 571 574 583 586 590 594 599 604 case 4.1 Wal-Mart’s German Misadventure I don’t think that Wal-Mart did their homework as well as they should have. Germany is Europe’s most pricesensitive market. Wal-Mart underestimated the competition, the culture, the legislative environment. — Steve Gotham, retail analyst, Verdict Retail Consulting, October 20021 We screwed up in Germany. Our biggest mistake was putting our name up before we had the service and low prices. People were disappointed. — John Menzer, head of Wal-Mart International December 20012 ‘Don’t look now:’ low prices all year round! With thanks to Walmart 563 IntMk-CStud-4.qxd 26/05/2005 14:06 Page 564 section 6 case studies section 4 German blues For the world’s largest retailing company, Wal-Mart, Inc., the German market was proving difficult to crack. By 2003, even after five years of having entered Germany, Wal-Mart was making losses. Though Wal-Mart did not reveal these figures, analysts estimated...
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