Marketing and Ikea free essay sample

As an augment to the core product, IKEA has their own Restaurant, Food Market and Smaland to help facilitate their Furniture Store and to help enhance their value and appeal. IKEA’s restaurant and food market both serves traditional Swedish food, for example their famous Sweden meatball. After a long day shopping for furniture, customers can head to the Restaurant (usually at the entrance of the store) to grab a bite. They can also purchase Swedish made groceries at their own IKEA Food Market. Smaland is a play area that parents can drop off their children at while they go shopping. Smaland is usually located at the entrance of the store to make convenience for the parents to drop them off and pick them up. 2. 0 TARGET CONSUMER IKEA has a large range of target audience. They want to reach out to everyone who needs new furniture and are willing to assemble it themselves. They especially want to reach out the families with young kids because they have Smaland and facilities that is prams friendly At the same time, IKEA is known for being cheap and well known for their furniture, hence it might attract newly-wed couples who are renovating their new home. Lastly by creating a restaurant, IKEA also increased their target audience, this is because youngsters would be willing to travel to IKEA store just to eat their IKEA meatball. 3. 0 IKEA’S PRODUCT SERVICE DESIGN 4. 4 IKEA’S DESIGN IT’S SERVICE PRODUCT IKEA had to address 4 issues to design a service concept, which is the Nature of Process, Customer Role, Scheduling and Service level. 4. 5 THE FLOWER OF SERVICE There are 2 different types of supplementary services, facilitating and enhancing the supplementary services. Facilitating Information, Order Taking, Billing and Payment. Enhancing Consultation, Hospitality, Safekeeping and Exceptions. IKEA gives out catalogues to their members and information of their products and prices can also be found on their online website. IKEA gives out catalogues to their members and information of their products and prices can also be found on their online website. INFORMATION INFORMATION ORDER-TAKING ORDER-TAKING PAYMENT PAYMENT Payment will be made at the cashier using cash, nets and even credit card. Payment will be made at the cashier using cash, nets and even credit card. After purchasing the products from the physical store, customers are allowed to request delivery their furniture to their home. After purchasing the products from the physical store, customers are allowed to request delivery their furniture to their home. There are staffs stationed at the different sections of the store. These staffs can help facilitate the customers and customers can consult them for opinions or help. There are staffs stationed at the different sections of the store. These staffs can help facilitate the customers and customers can consult them for opinions or help. Receipts will be issued to every customer and delivery slips will also be issued to those customers who opted for delivery. Receipts will be issued to every customer and delivery slips will also be issued to those customers who opted for delivery. IKEA is made to be wheelchair and pram friendly hence help facilitate and add extra value for the customer. IKEA is made to be wheelchair and pram friendly hence help facilitate and add extra value for the customer. EXCEPTIONS EXCEPTIONS In addition to the furniture store, there are restaurant and waiting facilities (seats) for waiting for cabs. Toilets are also available at many locations and it is also wheelchair convenience. In addition to the furniture store, there are restaurant and waiting facilities (seats) for waiting for cabs. Toilets are also available at many locations and it is also wheelchair convenience. HOSPITALITY HOSPITALITY IKEA offers a playground area for parents to leave their children while they shop for furniture. At the same time, larger furniture would be delivered to their homes and it will be well taken care of. IKEA offers a playground area for parents to leave their children while they shop for furniture. At the same time, larger furniture would be delivered to their homes and it will be well taken care of. SAFEKEEPING SAFEKEEPING CORE CORE BILLING BILLING CONSULTATION CONSULTATION 4. 0 OPPORTUNITIES I feel that IKEA already has a lot of supplementary services to help enhance the value of IKEA. Their furniture is sold in a way that customers are allowed to customize their furniture according to what they want. For example, customers can choose the main body frame of the cabinet and the content (numbers of shelves or door handle design) themselves. Hence I feel that in addition to that, IKEA should also have a Powder Coating Service. Powder Coating Service allows customers to choose the colour they want and with this service, it will help to coat the furniture to whatever colour the customer wants. IKEA’s product usually has only a few basic colour, hence by coming up with this service, customers can customize their furniture according to the theme of their house. With this service, I feel that it would help improve IKEA’s image as a customized, ready-to-assemble furniture brand. 5. 0 MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX IKEA uses many different types of marketing communication mix such as Advertising, Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing, Public Relations and Internet. The 3 strongest marketing communication mix IKEA used would be Direct Marketing, Public Relations and Advertising. 4. 1 DIRECT MARKETING One thing IKEA spend a lot of effort to do is to send catalogues to their members. It is their main marketing tool. About 70% of the annual marketing budget is being spent on creating the IKEA catalogue. The catalogue is being produced in 38 different editions, in 17 different languages for 28 countries. The catalogue includes information for the upcoming season. The furniture in the catalogue is being arranged according to themes and there are also prices and names of the product. For convenience sake, they also have an online catalogue. Having a catalogue is good because this helps IKEA collect detailed database and information about their customers. Hence they can directly communicate to their customers if there are special events or promotions coming up. 4. 2 PUBLIC RELATIONS Secondly, IKEA also uses Public Relations as one of their main marketing communication tools. IKEA uses press releases, website information, catalogue distribution and product launches to communicate with their customers. In Australia they had an event that attracted many Australian’s attention. To coincide with a sleeping habits survey looked into by 2,400 people, IKEA got a team of â€Å"sleeper† to ride public transport all around Australia dressed in pajamas â€Å"sleeping†. On top of that, these ‘sleepers’ would be holding a small board with a fun fact regarding sleeping habits and it has IKEA logo sign on it. This would help encourage fellow travelers to consider getting an IKEA bed. 4. 3 ADVERTISING Lastly, advertising is also used by IKEA to support many areas of the business, such as promoting brand awareness, store themes catalogue drops and store opening. Hence, advertising is also an important Marketing communication tool. They have many different ways to advertise themselves, they use a mixture of both traditional and new media marketing tools such as newspaper advertisements, youtube videos and even advertising at the subways and bus stops. They would come up with many different unique ways of capturing the attention of the audience, for example setting up sofa’s at the subway for the passengers to use while waiting the chairs. This advertisement would definitely gain a lot of attention and influence potential customers that their furniture are good and comfortable. 6. 0 APPENDIX * http://www. ikea. com/sg/en/ * http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/IKEA Direct Marketing * http://www. docstoc. com/docs/18523228/the-IKEA-marketing-mixDOC * http://onlinecatalogueasia. ikea. com/SG/en/IKEA_Catalogue/ Public Relations * http://prexamples. com/2012/03/ikea-stunt-hits-public-transport/ Advertising * http://singapore-promotions. com/? s=IKEA Subway Bus Stop Innovative Newspaper