Ikea Case

Ikea is a successful global brand with varying presence in geographical markets. Numerically, Ikea has significantly more store locations in Europe than in the growing markets of Russia, China, and the United States however the customer response is quite similar across the board. Ikea's success is overwhelmingly due to the company's innovative product offering and the large market it serves. Ikea stores provide a common experience to customers in all of their locations: a giant warehouse, thousands of furniture goods and accessories, products that are stylish yet affordable and functional. Ikea's target market of the global middle class has demonstrated that it strongly shares buying and spending habits, despite any cultural differences. The leading models of furniture purchased and even the average amount of money spent per store visit is a market trend.

The Ikea brand is strongly linked to design. The design of an Ikea store is organized in the shape of a circle, so that customers can see everything in the entire place by moving in only one direction. This is convenient. At the same time, the circular path is a wide one to allow for some customers to stop and look at products and display setups without hindering the experience or blocking the pathway of others. A restaurant is often placed in the center of an Ikea store, where a customer can step off the circle for a pit stop before resuming shopping with the encouragement of recent nourishment. Product design itself is even more important. The company strives to produce stylish and even beautiful items, although always within cost constraints. If an offering cannot be made affordable to middle class shoppers, it won't be offered at all. Ikea makes inexpensive complementary products to point out all the things the customer never knew they needed and then rotates out a third of its entire catalog line every year to keep items fresh, desirable, and relevant. Additional design considerations include using...