IKEA

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER

MARKETING & BRAND STRATEGY

IKEA

W1465770 Thi Ngoc Linh Trinh W1417329 Le Van Huong W1461118 Po-Lin Chen

IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team Table of content 1.

Company Background ........................................................................................................ 4

2.

Marketing mix strategy ...................................................................................................... 5

3.

Customer analysis .............................................................................................................. 5

4.

Benefit Positioning ............................................................................................................. 6 4.1.

Attribute ..................................................................................................................... 7

4.2.

Benefits ...................................................................................................................... 7

5.

Market Environment .......................................................................................................... 8 STEP Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 8 Social .................................................................................................................................. 9 Technological ..................................................................................................................... 9 Economic .......................................................................................................................... 10 Political ............................................................................................................................. 10

6.

Competitors analysis ........................................................................................................ 11 Product ................................................................................................................................. 12 Price ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Place ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Promotion ............................................................................................................................ 14

7.

SWOT matrix analysis....................................................................................................... 19

8.

Conclusion and recommendation .................................................................................... 22

9.

Reference ......................................................................................................................... 24

10.

Appendix ...................................................................................................................... 25

Appendix A – Attitudes towards shopping for the home .................................................... 25 Appendix B – Consumers use stores and online interchangeably....................................... 25 Appendix C – Housing market is recovering. ....................................................................... 26 Appendix D –Consumer Confidence is getting better. ........................................................ 26 Appendix E – People spend more money on saving and entertainment than furniture/ home improvement. ............................................................................................................ 27

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

1. Company Background IKEA was founded in 1943 by a Sweden 17 year – old boy, named Ingvar Kamprad. The company's name is an acronym that consists of the initials of Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd (the farm where he grew up), and Agunnaryd (his hometown in Småland, South Sweden). IKEA offers a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at a very suitable price that as many people as possible will be able to afford.

IKEA entered the UK in 1987; the first store was located in Warrington. It now has 19 stores within the country. Since IKEA opened its first UK store in Warrington a quarter of a century ago, the Swedish business's product lines have become a fixture in the nation's homes.

British people have bought eight million Billy bookcases. One in five people sleep on an IKEA mattress, and it's even been suggested that one in 10 babies are conceived in IKEA beds (Castella, 2012). According to the latest figures from Stocker (2012), IKEA has also continued to see an upward trend in its market share. From 2007 to 2008 IKEA UK saw a market share uplift of 0.2 percentage points leading to a total market share of 5.4%. Up to the end of quarter three 2009, the company has seen a further shift of 0.7 percentage points to 6.1%.

The product range of IKEA is the one that is simple and straightforward, with products that are hard-wearing, easy to live with and affordable. The IKEA contains a lot of products from home furniture to office. For example, IKEA provides furniture from living room, bed room, kitchenand even children’s IKEA.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

2. Marketing mix strategy Product

Rather than being sold pre-assembled, much of IKEA's furniture is designed to be self-assembled. Their products are visually appealing, modern, and generally easy to use and put together.

Price

Their prices are less expensive than most competitors, and their stores are outside city centres to keep prices even lower.

Place

IKEA builds its own distribution systems. The stores are mainly located outside the city centre.

Promotion

IKEA is using catalogue, which has been proven to be successful in the past. In addition, the company focuses on the advertisements on TV and the Internet.

3. Customer analysis IKEA defines its global target market as “Young people of all ages�. The company focuses mainly on younger people with higher education, medium income, who are not very status conscientious.

Demographics

Geodemographics

Age: Adults, middle age (25 45 years old)

Country:

Psychographics

Behaviourgraphic

Purchasing frequency: Occasionally

The UK Lifestyle: Care about the quality of life;

Gender: Male and Female

Income: Middle income (500 GBP to 1500 GBP)

Like modern design; Area: Major urban cities, Suburb (London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham)

Spending carefully

Benefits: A stylish house; A dream of home

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4. Benefit Positioning

Product Related: Home furnishing, Attributes Non-Product Related: Price

Types of Brand Associations Brand Image

Functional: Decoration Benefits

Favorability, Strength and Uniqueness of Brand Associations

Experiental: Feeling warm and comfortable with beautiful furniture Overall Evaluation (Attitude)

4.1.

Attribute

Product-Related:With the increasing sales every year, IKEA is ensuring the trustworthy among the customers. However, IKEA is suggested to focus more on the design in order to compete with other brands.

Non-Product Related: The price of IKEA is reasonable for British living standard due to low cost.

4.2.

Benefits

Functional: The living standard of British people is increasing therefore they concern more about the decoration of the house. This is a good sign for IKEA since the brand has become quite familiar to everyone. In addition, with the financial crisis lately, the low cost operated

by IKEA will be an advantage comparing to other competitors.

Also, in some special occasions such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year Eve... IKEA could increase their profit because the people need to decorate their houses as well as gain more customers.

Symbolic: IKEA aims for young families so that they can demonstrate the image of a family which has 3 people (father, mother and child).

IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

5. Market Environment STEP Analysis Social   Opportunity  

Threaten

 

People have higher  sense of design People like to browse online for ideas and inspiration Growing demand for greener products People become more  eco-awareness, more interest in refurbishing and recycling furniture Seeking higher quality of products People looking for unique instead of the same style

Technological Internet become more important when people make a decision

Economic   

Only 43% prefer to shop in-store rather than online







Political

Growing housing market Consumer Confidence is getting better Growing demand for low priced products



Government schemes to stimulate house buying

House prices still look too high relative to income Furniture and home improvement would not be the first choice when people have cash People spend carefully and compare price online



OFT investigates the fake price promotion in 2013

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

Through the STEP analysis, there are some important issues IKEA should carefully deal with.

First of all, economic environment become more stable after long-time recession. The growing brings the revival of housing market and consumer confidence; however, consumers still spend money carefully. Moreover, Internet plays a vital role nowadays.

People usually search information and compare the price online before purchasing the products.

Social The opportunity in social aspect is that in addition to the functions of furniture, the consumers have gained more awareness on design. According to Mason (2013), they like to browse online for ideas and inspiration every day (Appendix A). Design becomes a more important element while they decide which product to buy. Moreover, people have high awareness of green products as well. The environmentally friendly become the common thought.

However, there are some threatens. Because consumers become more eco-awareness, they tend to choose long-lasting furniture instead of purchasing new ones every few years. They might prefer refurbishing and recycling furniture, and even consider buying the secondhand ones. Secondly, based on the recovery of economic, the concern of environment and the awareness of design, buyers are seeking for higher quality of products. Thirdly, the social trend shows that people want to be unique. They want to develop their own housing style rather than using the same decorations and furniture to build the totally same style with others.

Technological Mason (2013) also states that internet has become the important tools while consumers make a decision from getting information to purchasing the products. 41% of consumers would look online before visiting a store, and 31% will read customer reviews online before buying (Appendix B).

On the other hand, less than 45% buyers say they prefer to shop in-store rather than online (Appendix B). It shows the potential of online shopping which would have huge impacts on

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team substantial retailers. However, only 25% think it easier to find the furniture they want online.

It means furnishing’s website should really improve the user interface design and contents.

Economic Fortunately, undergoing the long pain of recession, the economic become better in 2013.

Regarding to Perks (2013), it’s definitely a good news for furnishing retailers because the housing market finally rebound (Appendix C) and people are not only gaining the consumer confidence (Appendix D) but also being encouraged to buy houses. Predictably, the next step for those people will be buying the furnishing products.

Nevertheless, the prudent consumption is lasting from recession time and most consumers still compare the price online carefully (Appendix A). People would like to spend much less money on home improvement than savings or entertainment (Appendix E).

◄ Mitel’s forecast about furnishing retailer’s market shows the positive growing in next five years.

(Source: Mintel 2013)

Political The UK government has invested more money on stimulating the housing market in 2013 (EXPRESS, 2013). This makes the houses affordable to the citizen and encourages the house purchasing, which would also benefit the furniture retailer in the end.

However, BBC News (2013) claims that some furniture retailers have been accused of misleading their customers with fake prices in August 2013. Since then, the promotion of the retailers has been carefully investigated.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

6. Competitors analysis In reality, furniture retailer market in the UK can be divided into two groups, including furniture specialists and non-specialists that sell furniture. IKEA can be counted as one of the main leading furniture specialists in the UK. In terms of furniture specialists, there are three main competitors that IKEA have face, including DFS Furniture, Nobia (UK) and Steinhoff (UK). According to Mintel (2013), IKEA reachered highest share of furniture retailers sales in 2011 with 12.8%, followed by DFS, Nobia and Steinhoff with 6.8%, 4.6% and 4.3% respectively. In addition, IKEA was the only one that witnessed the increase in value share in 2012 with 13.2% while others decreased slightly. As can be said, IKEA is still being on this way to improve although facing the high competitive market as furniture market in the UK. Furthermore, beside some big furniture specialists, IKEA also have to compete with many non-specialists that sell furniture such as Argos, B&Q, John Lewis, M&S Home and Next Home (Mintel, 2013). Especially, Argos can be considered as one of the biggest competitors of IKEA due to its target customers and market strategy. Mintel (2013) also states that Argos is the only non-specialists furniture company entering the top five of leading retailers of furniture having the highest share of furniture spending in 2012 in the UK. If considering this criterion, DFS obtained the highest share of furniture spending in 2012 with 5.9%. IKEA & Argos shared the second position with the same proportion 5.2%, followed by Nobia and Steinhoff with the similar rate, 3.9%.

Figure 1: Leading furniture retailers: Share of all spending on furniture, 2012 (Adapted from Mintel, 2013)

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team This section will compare the operation performance, financial data and the marketing mix of those furniture specialist and non-specialist to identify their current position in customers’ mind as well as strengths and weaknesses of IKEA in furniture market in the UK.

Product All of five brands intend to provide wide range of products with many different product categories such as bathroom, bedroom, dining, kitchen and living room, except Nobia which specializes on kitchen equipment and small proportion of bathroom furniture (Nobia, 2013; DFS, 201; IKEA, 2013 & Steinhoff, 2013). Another exception is Argos with its extension on technology market (Argos, 2013). As can be seen, while furniture companiesaiming atthe middlemarket segment like IKEA and Argos try to offer wider range of products to customers, three remaining companies only concentrate on their strength fields. It could be said that the more focusing on the high-end customers, the fewer products ranges the company offers to customers. In other words, Argos might be the most competitive company of IKEA due to their similarity between product categories and target market segment.

IKEA

DFS

Nobia

Steinhoff

Bathroom

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Bedroom

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Dining

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Home decoration

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

Home office



Kitchens



Laundry



Lighting



Living room



Textiles Garden Technology



Argos 

 



 























 

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

Price In fact, IKEA is both market leader in UK furniture market and low cost leader. In other words, IKEA focuses on the cost leadership strategy to have price advantage in comparing with other competitors. Low price helps IKEA’s products become more available and affordable to customers, so sale revenue can increase dramatically and cover all price cut. It could be said that low prices are the basic concept of all IKEA’s products as well as business idea and vision. Argos once again competes closely with IKEA in terms of price when it also offer low price strategy to the same target market segment – young buyers who looking for stylish and fashionable furniture at a low cost. The other three companies, Steinhoff, especially Nobia and DFS seem to be less competitive to IKEA than Argos since its higher target market segment and different pricing strategy.

Place Generally, except Nobia which have multiple retailers to provide its brand – Cargo to customers, all four companies have built its own distribution network. In other words, only Nobia applies indirect distribution strategy to sell its products to the end user via marketing intermediaries, IKEA, Argos, DFS and Steinhoff sell their products directly to the end user.

With indirect distribution strategy, the brand Gower of Nobia is delivered to the end user by selective distribution method when it only chooses two retailers in the UK to sell its products (Nobia, 2013).

Furthermore, while other competitors place their stores in both inside and outside of city centre, IKEA only focus on outside areas. It may help IKEA reduce its cost which can lead to low price to customers. However, it also might be one of the disadvantages of IKEA. Locating stores far away from the city centre can cause the inconvenient for customers, especially when they just want to purchase small items that they can carry out by themselves easily.

In addition, beside the traditional purchasing method, all of companies offer two more ways to ordering goods including direct call and online shopping. There is the way to encourage customers to purchase their products when location issue becomes customers’ concern.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

Manufacturer

Manufacturer

Retailer

The end user (Reproduced from Kotler & Armstrong, 2013)

Promotion Interestingly, achieving more share of furniture spending does not mean that these brands spend money the most on advertising, except DFS whichstill was the domination with 17% of the total advertising expenditure in the UK 2012 (Mintel, 2013). In fact, besides some big brands, there are some of smaller non-specialist furniture companies entering in the top ten brands having the highest advertising expenditure in 2012 such as B&Q, Homebase and Dreams (the same rate at 6%). IKEA and Harveys which belongs to Steinhoff share the fourth rank with the same rate at 4% while another brand of Steinhoof – Bensons claimed 3% of the total advertising spend in the market.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

Figure 2: Main media advertising expenditure on furniture and furnishings, 2012 (Adapted from Mintel, 2013)

Furthermore, in terms of advertising tools, both IKEA and Argos is mainly based on the catalogue to advertise their products to customers. DFS also establishes its own catalogue while Steinhoff and Nobia only use their homepage to reach customers. It might be disadvantages of Steinhoff and Nobia because IKEA, DFS and Argos also develop their website for a long time.

The table below will summarise the main comparison among IKEA and its competitors in the furniture industry in the UK 2012.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

Competitors review

Product/ service range Over 9,500 home furnishing products, including a wide range of flat pack furniture

Product/ service quality Providing wide range of quality which matches the price of the product.

Product/ service design Urban, contemporary, transition

Specializes in living room furniture and is the UK market leader in sofas and upholstered furniture Few sell only furniture Owning 3 brands in the UK: Magnet, Gower & Interior solutions

High quality (ten-year guarantee)

Price

Distribution

Customer Service

Advertising

Low

-Stores located outside of city centres -Home shopping -Online order - Direct call

- Online shopping - Online advertisement - TV Advertising - Billboard advertising - Catalogue - Digital app

Traditional

High

- A policy of having relatively few stores serving large catchments - Store located inside and outside of centre city - Call direct

- Kitchen and bathroom installation service - Assembly service -In-store picking service - Kitchen planning service - Home delivery -Home delivery -Installation service

High quality

Contemporary

High

-Have dealer to provide products -Online - Direct call

-Full cycle service: prepurchase, purchase and post-purchase

- Online shopping - Online advertisement - Blog

Owing 3 brands in the UK: Benson for beds, Cargo &Harveys

Average

Traditional

Low to Average

- Home delivery - A centralised customer service function

- Online shopping - Blog - Online advertisement

Wide range of home furnishing products

Average

Contemporary, urban, transition

Low

-Online -Store outside of city centre (hundreds stores in the UK) - Direct call - Three ways of ordering goods – instore, over the phone and online - Store located inside of city centre.

- Home delivery - Customer service focuses on providing an experience that is enjoyable as well as efficient.

-The main shopping website - Catalogues - Digital app - Online advertisement

- Placing more emphasis on the emotional appeal of its adverts - Digital app - Catalogue - Online advertisement

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team This section will base on the two criteria including price and design to estimate the position of IKEA in customers’ mind.

Price High

Design

Contemporary

Traditional

Low

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team From the competitive analysis, IKEA’s strengths and weaknesses also stated: Strengths 

A strong international brand with high

as the consistency in product quality and

standard and quality.

The need for low cost products in order to keep the low price of products. 

Most of IKEA’s stores are located outside

functional products at low prices.

of the city centre and may not be

Constantly using innovations to drive cost

accessible to pedestrians. 

DIY concept may not appeal to everyone.

IKEA has been trying to apply the

Some of them may feel intimidated

strategy aiming at cutting down

because of the diversification of products

unnecessary material and increasingits

and lack of assistance.

use of waste or recycled material in the 



It established diversified product

down. 

Because of its global business size and scale, it might be difficult to control the

portfolio with well-designed and 



reputation and market presence as well

range worldwide 

Weaknesses



It needs to maintain good

production of each item.

communication with consumers about its

One of the most differences of IKEA is

environmental activities and eco-friendly

that it offers customers an opportunity to

production process.

be a part of the value chain when they can play a direct role from the selection, assembly to transportation of their selected furniture.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

7. SWOT matrix analysis

Opportunity  Internet become more important when people make a decision  People like to browse online for ideas and inspiration  Growing demand for greener products Threaten  People become more ecoawareness, more interest in refurbishing and recycling furniture  People spend carefully and compare price online  People looking for unique instead of the same style.

Strength  IKEA develops its product plans to reduce the unnecessary materials in products and increase the use of waste or recycled materials  A strong concept based on offering a wide range of well designed, functional products at low prices  They are unique in that customers are allowed to be part of the value chain by playing a direct role in the selection, assembly and transportation of their furniture.

SO strategy: Maxi – Maxi

Weakness  IKEA needs to improve communication with its consumers and stakeholders about its environmental activities  The need for low cost products in order to keep the low price of products.  The location areas of their stores which are located outside of city centres and may not be accessible to pedestrians.

Establish a new eco-friendly product line.

Recycle station – customers can exchange their old products to the new one with 20% discount.

Encourage the people who could not go to IKEA regularly to shop online with extra benefits such as discount and also redesign the main website to be more attractive.

ST strategy: Maxi - Mini

WT strategy: Mini - Mini

Let customer be able to style and customise their selected products by themselves during ordering process.

IKEA can build and develop its own raw material production areas instead of buying from and depending too much on external suppliers.

WO strategy: Mini – Maxi

Focus more on price comparison in advertising.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team IKEA’s goal is continuing to compete effectively as they have been doing and extending their influences as well as their brand image among competitive industry like furniture.

Sales objectives: 

Reach the higher position in the market with 6% of share of all spending on furniture.



Increase sales revenue by 30% after 5 years

Communication objectives: 

Enhance its brand position and image by 50%



Reduce brand confusion to less than 5%



80% of the target customers can associate IKEA with its new concept and marketing plan.

In fact, low pricing strategy which IKEA is chasing may be copied by competitors and new entrants also. Therefore, they need to think about some things new or capture the trend of the market before other competitors. After considering carefully about IKEA’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats in the next five year to IKEA, there are some options should be the direction for this company to follow.

As can be seen from SWOT matrix, there are two main tendencies in the future may become the opportunities to IKEA including the development of internet’s impact and customers’ awareness about environment. 

In term of growth on demand for greener products of customers, IKEA can utilise and base on the production strategy that it is applying – reducing the unnecessary materials in products and increasing the use of waste or recycled materials toestablish a new ecofriendly product line. This option can help IKEA demonstrate its environmental responsibility, differentiate itself from other competitors as well as receive the support from customers. It can also be able to enhance IKEA’s image with customers. Another option may be chosen in this case is applying recycle station model which allows customers to exchange their old product to the new one with 20% discount. However, Page | 20

IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team this option only contribute to solve the environment responsibility of IKEA, it doesn’t meet the demand of green product of customers as well as help the company increase its sales. 

With the development and influence of internet on decision making and customers’ preference on searching information, IKEA may consider improving its official website and make purchasing online be simpler and easier to attract customers more. In addition, Because of the disadvantage of store location which is far away from the city centre and may be not convenient for some of customers, it can give some incentive to encourage customers to shop online as an alternative method such as special offers or discount. It can not only help IKEA’s products more accessible to customers, but also promote its image so quickly and efficient. However, this option does not support to much for IKEA to differentiate its image beyond other competitors.

Beside opportunities in the future, IKEA also has to face the common future threats of the whole market. 

Customers are always looking for something unique and different instead of the same style. IKEA are already unique compared to other competitors when it allows customers to be a part of the value chain by playing a direct role in the selection, assembly and transportation of their furniture. However, in order to satisfy customers more, IKEA may let customers be able to style and customise their selected products by themselves during ordering process. Customers might be more attracted by IKEA’s products and lead to higher sales revenue. However, in terms of communication, it seems to be less effective than establishing a new product line in differentiates its brand image from competitors.



Price always is one of the most considerable factors when making purchasing decision and people are increasing concern about price rather than in the past. Therefore, IKEA should keep its pricing strategy to meet customers’ demand. However, in order to keep the low price of products, this company needs low cost products. Facing this problem, IKEA may consider building and developing its own raw material production areas instead of depending too much on external suppliers. This option may be good for Page | 21

IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team increasing sales revenue by cutting down cost and increasing sale, but it does not have a large impact on its brand image.

To sum up, the first option which is investing and establishing a new eco-friendly product line concept may become the priority for IKEA to make a development plan for the next five years to obtain all its goals.

8. Conclusion and recommendation As one of biggest UK furnishing retailer and No.26 of Best Global Brands in 2013 (Interbrand, 2013), IKEA undoubtedly has quit good performance during these years and beats other competitors badly. Therefore, the main issue for IKEA would not be the competition; instead, IKEA should be more aware of the future trend. Based on the SWOT analysis, the best brand strategy for IKEA in next five years is to extend the green products and to communicate the green idea with consumers.

The most important notion is the ‘GREEN IKEA’. We suggest IKEA to develop a new series of products which is more environmentally-friendly. In addition to classic IKEA products, we gain more focus on the new green products. The new products keep IKEA’s modern style and the quality would be better; however, the price would be a little bit higher. The new brand strategy would extend broader target consumers who have awareness of eco-friendly issues and are willing to pay more for the products that match their philosophy.

Besides the green products selling in the stores, the brand communication is also a vital element to build ‘GREEN IKEA’. On the basis of the IMC strategy, we deliver the green idea through various channels. Furthermore, combined with the AIDAS model, the consumer decision-making model, the media play different roles in each process. In the end, the IMC would not only persuade consumers to purchase the products, but also deliver IKEA’s core thinking of ‘GREEN IKEA’.

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team IMC Planning:

PR Stores

Print ad

Catalogue

Website

GREEN IKEA

Social Media

APP

Outdoor

TV ad

AIDAS Model:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

Share

• Print ad • TV ad • PR • Outdoor

• Website • Social Media • APP

• Catalogue • Website

• Stores • Website

• Social Media

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

9. Reference 1.

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‘IKEA’, 2013, ITC Deganutti, viewed 28th November 2013, http://www.itcdeganutti.org/attivita/lingue/2012-13/IKEA.pdf Argos, 2013, Homepage, Argos, UK BBC News, 2013, ‘Furniture stores used fake prices, says OFT’, BBC News, viewed 4th December 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23797882 Castella, T., 2012, ‘IKEA at 25: How has flatpack giant changed the UK?’, BBC News Magazine, viewed 25th November 2013, DFS, 2013, Homepage, DFS, UK EXPRESS, 2013, ‘Housing stimulus details developed’, Express, viewed 4th December 2013, http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/416839/Housing-stimulus-detailsdeveloped http://academic.mintel.com/display/674736/?highlight=true#hit1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20123362 http://www.dfs.co.uk/ http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/pdf/reports-downloads/peopleandplanetpositive.pdf http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2013/IKEA http://www.nobia.com/ http://www.verdictretail.com/verdict-consumer-satisfaction-index-2012/ IKEA, 2012, ‘People & Planet Positive: IKEA Group Sustainability Strategy for 2020’, IKEA, viewed 28th November 2013, Interbrand, 2013, ‘IKEA’, Interbrand, viewed 29th November 2013, Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G., 2013, Principle of Marketing, 15 Edn., Pear Education Limited Mason, N., 2013, ‘Buying for the Home Online - UK - February 2013’, Mintel, viewed 4th December 2013, http://academic.mintel.com/display/637949/?highlight=true Mintel, 2013, ‘Furniture Retailing – UK –August 2013: Brand Communication and Promotion’, Mintel, viewed 17th November 2013, http://academic.mintel.com/display/674737/?highlight=true#hit1 Mintel, 2013, ‘Furniture Retailing – UK –August 2013: Market share’, Mintel, viewed 17th November 2013, Nobia, 2013, Homepage, Nobia AB, Stockholm, Switzerland Perks, R., 2013, ‘Furniture Retailing - UK - August 2013’, Mintel, viewed 4th December 2013, http://academic.mintel.com/display/638239/?highlight=true Stocker, K., 2012, ‘IKEA tops Verdict Consumer Satisfaction Index 2012: IKEA is UK’s favourite retailer’, Verdict Retail, 17th April, viewed 30th November 2013, www.argos.co.uk/

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

10.Appendix Appendix A – Attitudes towards shopping for the home

(Source: Mason, 2013)

Appendix B – Consumers use stores and online interchangeably

(Source: Mason, 2013)

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

Appendix C – Housing market is recovering.

(Source: Perks, 2013)

Appendix D –Consumer Confidence is getting better.

(Source: Perks, 2013)

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IKEA Brand Strategy Analysis Project _ Ocean Team

Appendix E – People spend more money on saving and entertainment than furniture/ home improvement.

(Source: Perks, 2013)

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