Company profile
Vision
'To create a better everyday life for many people'
History
1920s
At the age of five Ingvar Kamprad starts selling matches to his nearby neighbors and by the time he is seven, he starts selling further afield, using his bicycle. He finds that he can buy matches in bulk cheaply in Stockholm and re-sell them individually at a very low price but still make a good profit. From matches he expands to selling flower seeds, greeting cards, Christmas tree decorations, and later pencils and ball-point pens.
1940s-1950s
The roots of a furniture dealer. Ingvar Kamprad is entrepreneurial in developing IKEA into a furniture retailer. This period sees the exploration of furniture design, self assembly, advertising, the use of a catalog and a showroom to reach the many people.
1960s-1970s
The IKEA concept starts to take shape. New IKEA stores open and hero products are developed such as POÄNG and BILLY bookcase. It is a time where concept takes shape and is documented in Ingvar Kamprad's The Testament of a Furniture Dealer.
1980s
IKEA expands dramatically into new markets such as USA, Italy, France and the UK. More IKEA classics arrive such as KLIPPAN, LACK and MOMENT. IKEA begins to take the form of today's modern IKEA.
1990s
IKEA grows even more. Children's IKEA is introduced and the focus is on home furnishing solutions to meet the needs of families with children. The IKEA Group is formed and responsibility for people and the environment is seen as a prerequisite for doing good business.
2000s
IKEA expands into even more markets such as Japan and Russia. Everything for the bedroom and kitchen is explored and presented in co-ordinated furnishing solutions. This period also sees the successes of several partnerships regarding social and environmental projects.
Company structure
‘Ikea's mission is to offer a wide range of home furnishing items of good design and function, excellent quality and durability, at prices so low that the majority of people can afford to buy them.’
IKEA's complicated corporate structure is believed to be designed to protect the Kamprad family from taxes and to avoid the possibility of a takeover of IKEA. Though Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, is often cited as one of the wealthiest men in the world, Kamprad does not technically own IKEA. IKEA is privately held by a foundation, which in turn owns a group that controls the companies that run IKEA's individual operations. Responsible for this tangled web of corporations, foundations and tax shelters is IKANO, a Swedish group also owned by the Kamprad family that is primarily concerned with managing the Kamprad family fortune, though interestingly, in 2008 it owned 25% of Habitat, another
large European based furniture store.
INGKA
IKEA is actually a privately held company owned by Stichting INGKA Foundation, a non-profit registered in Leiden in the Netherlands which is controlled by the Kamprad family. The Dutch foundation, worth US$36 billion in 2006, according to The Economist, was created by Kamprad in 1982 for the stated purpose, "To promote and support innovation in the field of architectural and interior design." Stichting INGKA Foundation is the owner of INGKA Holding B.V.
Kamprad tranferred 100% of his equity in IKEA to the foundation as an irrovcable gift in 1984. It is thought that he did this to protect IKEA from family squabbling - IKEA will never be inherited in whole or part by his three sons (Peter, Jonas and Mathias). Says Kamprad, "My family [will] never [have] the chance to sell or destroy the company."
Ikea group management
IKEA Group Management is composed of: Anders Dahlvig - President and CEO of IKEA Group; Hans Gydell - Group Vice President; Sören Hansen - Chief Financial Officer; Lars Gejrot - Head of Human Resources; Torbjörn Lööf - Head of CS Region West; Peter Högsted - President of the UK division; Ian Duffy - President of the Asia Pacific division; Pernille Spiers-Lopez - President of the North America division; Göran Stark is responsible for Industry Investment and Development; Werner Weber - President of the Germany division and Mikael Ohlsson.
IKEA Group Companies
The IKEA Group Companies are primarily concerned with carrying out the necessary functions to bring IKEA products to market. The companies include Swedwood, IKEA of Sweden, Purchasing, Distribution, and other functions such as Human Services, Internet Technology and Communications.
The key target market comprises those just starting out who are in need of relatively cheap, sturdy furniture. That can mean a young family, college students or single people heading out for their first apartment away from home.
Marketing
I recently visited Ikea at Tempe and had the pleasure of listening to a talk on Ikea as a brand from Peter who was the store based marketing leader. Peter was initially from QLD. She studied contemporary media studies and had a strong interest in popular culture. Peter then went on to add a business degree to her qualifications. She worked in newspapers on the advertising sales team. She soon moved to Sydney with the hope of working on marketing and got a job as a marketing specialist at Ikea then was promoted to marketing manager. This means that Peter works on the in store marketing which is more centered on local underpinning values. Some facts i learnt:
- Ikea has been in Australia for 30years
- Tempe is the biggest Ikea in the Southern Hemispher
- 39,00 square meters
- Covers 20 soccer fields
- The path is 2.5 km
- Can seat 750 people in the resteraunt
- 1743 parking spots
- 350 staff
- opened november 2011
- Doesnt have an Ikea sign post because of low flying planes overhead
- Approx 131000 workers employed
- 26 countries worlwide
- Aprrox 9,500 products
- Largest home furnishings company in the world
- 208 million copies of the Ikea catalouge have been made and are in 30 languages and there are 59 additions
- Catalouge
- PR
- Advertising
- have a go
- New lower price
- we've got kitchens covered
- website
- social media
- local marketing
Cool advertisements
Check out some of Ikeas best ad campaigns.
PR- Doggy High chair for April Fools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPIszdcCcc
Sleepout in Ikea store
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKoCOajRoKE
Have a Go Campain- fight boring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9NsGytJz3I
Graphic Design
Graphic design simplifies. Graphic Design strengthens.
I also spoke to Marcia who works as a graphic designer for Ikea. Marcia looks after signage, graphics, store maintanance. She is responsible for maintinging the Ikea 'tone of voice.'
1 indentity
1 tone of voice
1 story
1 font
Marcia is responsible for conveying Ikeas identity through graphics. he graphics are not fancy, not complicated, honest and fun. Graphic design sells. The graphics involve basic shapes, basic forms and basic colours. Marcia explained that you shouldnt see the graphics, you should see the furniture. Ikea has differnet product groups but the style of graphics never changes.
Product categories: look and feel of branding collateral
Like Ikeas furniture, it’s branding collateral reflects the key concepts and vision of the brand. Ikeas website is simple, clean, easy to read and navigate. The sinage and typography is young and fresh looking, but again easy to read and not hugely decorative or detailed. It’s bright, fresh, simple, young and modern. Everything IKEAs product is about.
Ikeas identity is their furniture. Simple, straight foward, young at heart, natural, typically sweedish, easy to use, functional, good design.
Current interior plans and spaces-Tempe
The famous IKEA one-way shopping aisle, which winds its way through the maze-like product displays, measures 2.5km from entry to exit. At 37,000sq m, the store and its car park for 2000 vehicles cover as much ground as 20 soccer fields.
The new development is almost double the size of the Swedish company's most recently built store at
Rhodes, which has a 1.5km shopping pathway.
The world's biggest IKEA, in Stockholm, covers 50,000sq m. Ikea is all about ‘the bigger the better’. As you follow the arrows around the maze you pass through each dedicated section e.g. children, textiles, kitchen, living room, bathroom etc. It is very clear and well organized. The maze adds a fun, playful aspect to the shopping experience, however, if you forget something in the previous sections, it can be stressful trying to go back and find it. There are designated staff specialising in assisting you in each section and little pads of paper and pencils are available to keeptrack of product codes. At the end of the path you arrive at the checkouts and from there come out to a restaurant selling ridiculously cheap, yummy food e.g. $2 hot dogs, 50cents ice creams. This adds to the Ikea experience. It gives customers something to look forward to after doing a big shop (especially their kids) and it confirms Ikeas values of providing inexpensive products.
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