Marketing Practices of a Retail Business: The Case of IKEA
Introduction
Marketing in a nutshell, is defined as the art of selling products. However, marketing does not only aim to sell products. It involves a deep understanding of the customer and identification of products or services that will satisfy their needs and wants. Marketing according to (2003) is a philosophy that leads to the process by which organizations, groups, and individuals obtain what they need and want by identifying value, providing it, communicating it and delivering it to others. Marketing is strategically concerned with the direction and scope of the long-term activities performed by the organization to obtain a competitive advantage. Marketing according to (2000) is about satisfying wants and needs and in the course of doing so facilitating the achievement of an organization’s objectives. By paying attention to customer wants and needs, organizations are more likely to achieve their objectives in the marketplace.
IKEA was created by Ingvar Kamprad 60 years ago. The Swedish company was based on the idea that as long as the price was right, customers would be prepared to travel out of town locations, queue, collect their purchases and assemble the furniture themselves ( 2005). The mission of IKEA was formulated by its founder. IKEA”s mission is to offer wide variety of functional furniture for the house, of a quality and at a price affordable by a majority of people. The core principles of IKEA that seeks to achieve the mission are quality and economy. The principle of quality is applied at three points in the life of the IKEA products – creation, range and use.
1. Creation – IKEA designs its own products. Each product has a name rather tan a code because IKEA wants its products to be part of the family.
2. Range – Each item for sale in the stores, whether furniture or other products, is part of a coherent whole, designed in accordance with the expectations of a specific segment which can be young or old, high or low income, modern or classic, etc.
3. Use – IKEA furniture is submitted to three types of trial which test strength and workability as well as surface and resistance ( 1999).
IKEA’s designs and styles are very popular to its customers because it is able to blend quality, stylish designs and affordability. These characteristics make IKEA products very attractive to the customers. The IKEA design approach according to (2007) retains a strong Scandinavian identity seen in the use of natural wood, minimalist shapes, high technology, new materials and strong colors (as shown in the photos below). The company has extended the image of 20th-century Scandinavian Modernism and ensured that is has become an immensely widespread domestic living style.
Research Question
The research aims to answer the question what is the marketing practices of IKEA? More specifically, it aims to answer the following questions:
1. How does IKEA segment its market?
2. How does IKEA develop its brand?
3. What is IKEA’s marketing mix strategy?
4. What are IKEA’s marketing communication strategies?
Research Objectives
The main objective of the research is to investigate on the marketing practices of IKEA. The research also aims to accomplish the following:
1. Determine how IKEA segments its market.
2. Identify the ways by which IKEA develops its brand.
3. Identify the marketing mix strategies of IKEA.
4. Determine the marketing communication strategies of IKA.
Research Method
The research method that will be employed is qualitative in the form of a case study. The qualitative case study is an approach to research that facilitates exploration of a phenomenon within its context using a variety of data sources. This ensures that the issue is not explored through one lens, but rather a variety of lenses which allows for multiple facets of the phenomenon to be revealed and understood. According to (1998) a qualitative research involves an interpretative, naturalistic approach of the subject matter. Qualitative research is about studying things in their natural settings. This is one of the reasons that the researcher preferred the quantitative methodology over the qualitative because through this methodology it was possible to quantify both the samples (experimental sample- the student-teachers and the control sample- students of other professions) and measure the data for analysis. Quantitative studies are studies in which the data can be analyzed using conventional statistical methods (2001). Researchers who take a quantitative approach often work within positivism, as this paradigm frames the world as a collection of apparently independent phenomena to be counted, measured and otherwise catalogued as the prelude to deducing the rules or laws underlying them and giving them coherence ( 2001).
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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