Analysis of IKEA’s marketing

For this project we have decided to focus on IKEA, the world’s current biggest furniture and household goods retailer that has branches all over the world. IKEA has remained successfull for many years and we think that it is worth to analyze the marketing strategies that help this brand keep the loyalty of its customers.

For starters let us discuss IKEA’s core positioning. IKEA aims to sell stylish and comfortable ready-to-assemble furniture to people at a low price, so that as many people as possible could afford to have an amazing life without having to spend all of their savings. This idea is reflected in their slogan «The Wonderful Everyday», that has appeared in a lot of their commercials.

Now we can talk about IKEA’s target audience. It mostly consists of young or middle aged people who need affordable furniture. People who have just bought their first houses or apartments might need cheap but fashionably designed household goods, the same goes for young parents who need to save money to support their children. People who like DIY will be attracted by the prospect of assembling the furniture themselves.

One of the reasons why IKEA’s marketing is so successfull is that the brand tries to gain the attention of as many people as possible through the usage of various chanels for digital marketing. IKEA uses a lot of different social media sites, email marketing, search engine optimisation and so on and so forth.

IKEA builds a closer connection to its consumers by doing collaborations with influencers on social media or with other popular brands. For example their collaboration with Disney, which is loved by children all over the world. The kids would be happy to acquire something that reminds them of their favourite characters so their parents would be more likely to buy IKEA’s products.

We want to analyse IKEA’s marketing management through the lense of Uses and Gratifications Theory, but before that we should talk about what this theory is. This theory proposes that people chase certain goals in their media consumption, be it a desire for intertainment, a desire for comfort or something else. IKEA uses the knowledge of their audience’s wishes to successfully promote their products. For the purposes of the analysis we’ve decided to use Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, it will help us with organisation.

Now we can apply the theory of Uses and Gratifications to IKEA’s communication, starting with the discussion of how the marketing appeals to the audience’s physiological needs. IKEA’s websites and apps give the consumers an easy access to digital brochures that contain all the information about products that will help rhem satisfy their need for sleep, storing food, etc.

The need for safety and security is satisfied by the emphasis on the affordability of their products and the comfort they bring. People know that they don’t have to worry about prices suddenly rising or the poor quality of the furniture and it makes them feel safe.

The need for love and belonging is met through the depiction of various kinds of relationships in marketing. The decoration of a house or the act of assembling furniture is depicted as a group activity which makes the audience think about doing this with their own family members or friends.

To satisfy self-esteem needs IKEA posts tutorials and tips on their website and official youtube account. Giving the audience knowledge on how to successfully perform different tasks gives them a sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction.

And last but not least is the need for self-actualisation. IKEA encourages people to be creative and share their creativity with everyone else who uses IKEA’s products, this way people can show an artistic side of themselves to the world.

In conclusion, we have examined IKEA’s marketing strategies and used the theory of Uses and Gratifications to analyse it and understand why it succeeds at attracting such a wide audience. We can recommend IKEA to put more effort into developing more different interactive forms of content to strengthen its relationship with its customers and ensure their loyalty, because the more people are directly involved the more likely they are to develop an attachment to something.