Introduction:
IKEA is a multinational group of companies that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances and home accessories. As the world’s largest furniture retailer, the organization employs almost 160,000 people across 365 stores in 45 countries. (Ikea Case Study, 2017)
Research Question:
What makes Ikea so successful and how could a business implement similar techniques.
Analysis:
IKEA’s holds a high percentage of market share today due to good implementation of standardized business models. This has helped them sore to the top of flat package furniture within the UK specifically but also another 44 countries.
In 2011 the ONS estimated world population to have reached 7 billion on 31st October 2011. The Executive Director of the United Nationals Population Fund, Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, said:- “A world of 7 billion is both a challenge and an opportunity. Globally, people are living longer healthier lives and choosing to have smaller families. But reducing inequalities and finding ways to ensure the well-being of people alive today – as well as the generations that follow – will require new ways of thinking and unprecedented global cooperation” (UN, 2011).
Since 2011 the UK has also highlighted it’s aging population (ACL. Gov, 2017). In this day and age, with an increasingly technologically witty population, Ikea aim to target the ‘Socializers’ in order to get all important feedback to help the company grow. Ikea introduced ‘The Listening Hub’ which allowed key IKEA stakeholders to view what customers were saying about the brand in a digestible and engaging way (Ikea, 2017).
Within a 3 month period in 2016 Ikea had implemented The Listening Hub. It had helped them to discover a number of insights. One Example Brought to the attention of the Digital development team by Brandwatch Vizia was the differences in the perception of the brand’s customer service across different regions (Ikea 2017). Different countries had different views on the companies customer services and they also had different methods of reporting their dismay.
In the US, customer service complaints on Facebook made up to 36/5% of the total conversation during the studied period in 2014, compared to just 5% in the UK over the same time period.
Evaluation:
Ikea is one of the biggest social influencers in the world due to the vast majority of countries they operate in but also due to the product nature. Increases in world population is a boost for the brand as there is an increased demand for more furniture but also innovation in the sense of space saving creations.
‘The Listening Hub’ has helped Ikea’s shareholders develop an understanding of customers needs and wants. It has also be a solid platform for feedback based on consumers experiences with the business. Over ’15 senior stakeholders where engaged over 5 different continents’ (Ikea, 2017) therefore it shows the effect of the feedback can effect stake/shareholder decisions in order for them to create a brand and products viable and acclaimed by their consumers.
Data collected also shows disputes between customer service satisfaction between different continents. In the UK it was recorded that only 5% of products sold received a complaint over Facebook however in the US numbers soared to over 35%. This could relate to our aging population finding it easier to use Ikea products however with nearly a 70% increase in complaints between the UK and US it is definitely something that should be searched more into.
Ahmed Allam
a.badr-allam1@uni.brighton.ac.uk
References
IKEA (2014) The IKEA Group – The Story of How We Work , Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jn2_nZrivQ (Accessed: 17th October 2017).
IKEA (2017) Case Study/ Ikea & The Socializers , Online: IKEA.
The Office for National Statistics (2012) Measuring National Well-being, Social Trends 42- Population, Online: The Office for National Statistics .
ACL.GOV (2017) Aging Population, Available at: https://www.acl.gov/aging_statistics/index.aspx (Accessed: 17th October 2017 ).
IKEA (2017) Ikea Blog, Available at: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/this-is-ikea/ (Accessed: 17th October 2017).