Ladle

IKEA, since its inception in 1943, has continually shown itself to be a dominating force in the furniture industry. When then 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad make the decision to use his father’s money to start a local catalog, he likely had no idea what it would one day become. Only a short eleven years later, Ingvar opened his first inaugural store. At that point in time, it was the largest furniture retail store that the country had ever seen. The success that the retail store experienced led Ingvar and company to begin to realize the mass potential that they had created within their small niche. People didn’t care so much what the furniture looked like, as long as it was functional and affordable. They didn’t even really care about reliability; continuing to buy from IKEA after they realized that the furniture would likely break down if they ever had to transport it themselves. This unique niche, combined with a strong company culture of cutting costs and being as efficient as possible, led IKEA to the long-term success that they still are experiencing to this day. However, this isn’t to say that it has all been without struggle.

As IKEA began to expand both domestically and globally, they found themselves running into problems that they hadn’t anticipated. A chief concern was that there wasn’t going to be a big enough global market to satisfy their sales goals. The sale of cheap furniture was a relatively new and emerging market, and IKEA was afraid that it wasn’t going to catch up quick enough. People just weren’t used to buying such cheap furniture. For years it had been the norm to pay an arm and a leg for a sofa, expecting it to last ten or more years. For this reason, people felt a sort of emotional connection to their expensive furniture, and often resented paying so little for something that they had normally paid so much for. Also, consumers had to consider the fact that a sofa would be incredibly difficult to transport. People would often have to pay...