Think inside the IKEA Box.
Before we all went to Ikea for the umpteenth time, before the meatballs and cinnamon rolls, before all the countless hours of assembling furniture together joyfully (and nervously!), before the massive Swedish invasion of our homes across the world, before all of that was the conception of a unique intuitive business model and the equally masterful communications strategy that conveyed what Ikea is all about. Using the art of surprise, inclusivity and provocation mixed with a deep understanding of not only who’d be interested in Ikea Products, but most importantly who would need them.
Ingvar Kamprad the visionary founder behind the iconic Swedish brand understood that all, and at the company’s early stages when it was still a mail order company in Agunnaryd -a small locality south east of Gothenburg-, the communication was clear cut, but still had personality and talked about how hard it was to make ends meet and removing the middlemen in order to offer quality at a lower price point.
Ikea is also considered to be one of the pioneers of purpose driven advertising. Beyond simply stating that Ikea was ‘cheap’, Kamprad took the time to look beyond the price point targeted messaging and explain his business model in communications, and using slogans such as “Low prices with meaning”.
Until the end of the 1950’s most of Ikea’s communication was supervised by Kamprad himself, and as it started to make waves, and throughout the 60's and 70's creatives around Sweden started to get in touch wanting to be part of this unconventional company. Humour, emotion, philosophical musings all were added to the mix and as the decades went on, Ikea evolved from being a pure furniture store to a provider of complete Home furnishing solutions.
In the 1980’s Swedish ad agency Brindfors created thematic full pages ads with a vast spectrum of products that visually delighted and enticed. A style that became synonymous with Ikea advertising and that is still used till this day.
And one of the key decisions that ensured global success, was to embrace custom crafted creative localized messages as opposed to a standardized global campaign. Ikea worked with local creatives across the global to create unique campaigns all based on honesty, simplicity, positivity and tongue & cheek humour all while keeping an ear close to the ground to seize an opportunity to reflect current events or topics.
79 years onwards and ikea with their global creative partners are still innovating and pushing creative boundaries, setting the bar even higher each year. Now, excuse me while I go help myself to some more meatballs.
