EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

IKEA is a home improvement store that takes pride in providing

their customers with low priced furniture. Since the nearly 70
years since IKEA’s beginnings, they have grown into a $30
billion dollar company that strives to ‘create a better everyday
life for the many’ in all of their business efforts.
IKEA has a strong brand personality in addition to a solid
business foundation. These concepts provide a foundation for a
successful integrated marketing communications campaign. This
campaign will build off of IKEA’s strong foundation and
promote IKEA’s sustainability efforts, future customization
options and new marketing tools that will make the shopping
more convenient for its customers.
The campaign will communicate to customers about shopping at
the IKEA and its positive effects on the external environment.

IKEA BACKGROUND INFORMATION

HISTORY:
IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad and is currently
under the parent company INGKA. Ingvar Kamprad got his
modest start selling pens, Christmas cards and seeds in southern
Sweden. From there, Kamprad began advertising and demands
grew too high for him to handle individual sale calls. In 1948,
the first piece of furniture was introduced into his product range.
True to today’s IKEA philosophy, the furniture was made from
local manufacturers and resources were from the forests close to
his home.
Kamprad’s first catalog was published in 1951,and since then
IKEA had distributed 208 million copies in 30 different
languages. After the success of IKEA catalog, he first opened the
IKEA’s showroom in Sweden. Since then, IKEA has been
expanding all over the world.
IKEA’s current operations include:
 26 distribution center
 11 customer distribution center
 287 stores in 28 countries
 Operations in 47 countries.
MISSION STATEMENT:
IKEA was built on the foundation of ‘creating better life for the
many people’. Their business principle is simple, “offer a wide
range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at
prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to
afford them”
PRODUCT MIX:
Currently, IKEA offers approximately 12,000 products including
furniture for the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room and
patio. All products are designed with cost effective packing,
shipping and distribution in mind. IKEA focus their marketing
communication strategies on the customization and diversity of
these products, and most importantly, their price point.
IKEA design products based on:
 Determining the price tag first
 Seeing things differently: reusing products and
experimenting with re-purposing materials.
 Responsibility for the people and the environment: IKEA
strives to reduce their contribution to climate change.
 Good design and function.
 Products and materials: IKEA strives to reduce the
negative impact of their materials on the environment.
COMPETITORS:
IKEA faces competition from many low prices furniture cutlets
in the United States and overseas. Some of these competitors
are:
 TARGET
 WALMART
 POTTERY BARN
 ASHLEY FURNITURE AND BEDDING
TARGET MARKET:
IKEA’s target market is men and women living in the Singapore
between the ages of 22-31, landing them in the millennial
generation. They are the target of many advertising campaigns
and are one of the most difficult audiences to effectively reach.
These individuals have bachelor’s degree and are in pursuit of,
or recently placed in their first professional employment
opportunities, or on the verge of marriage, or are recently
married and are budget conscious, value a low price on quality
products, enjoy customization and are open-minded.

SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS:
 Strong brand identity/personality
 Product customization, diversity and integration between
product lines
 Cost effective products made from recycled and
environmentally friendly materials
 Strong company values.
WEAKNESSES:
 Being a global brand makes maintaining standards difficult
 Poor delivery service and expensive shipping
 No option for purchasing assembled furniture
OPPORTUNITIES:
 Increased interest in sustainable efforts
 Increased demand for affordable furniture
  Increased demand for online marketing
 Lower carbon footprint.
THREATS:
 Additional stores selling low priced furniture with more
brick and mortar locations
 Rising gas prices makes traveling great distance to IKEA
stores difficult.
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
PLAN
OVERVIEW:
The following campaign is designed to promote IKEA’s
sustainability efforts and increase product awareness and sales in
the target market. The campaign will convince customers for
shopping at IKEA and utilizing their new online and digital tools
that will make their life easier and better.
OBJECTIVES:
 Increase website traffic by 10 percent in 12 months.
 Increase foot traffic in store by 5 percent in 12 months.
 Increase awareness of sustainability efforts in the target
market by one million people in 12 months.
 Increase the percentage of customers in the target
demographic market.
STRATEGIES:
 Promote sustainability efforts across all paid media.
 Utilize consumer information to encourage return visits
from customers.
 Develop consistent and integrated creative concepts for
paid media, social media, sales promotion and direct
marketing tactics.
 Promote furniture and non-furniture items to customers
through direct marketing efforts.
 Participate in community events to generate earned media
coverage.
PAID MEDIA
OVERVIEW:
Paid media is essential to promote sustainable efforts and
product knowledge to IKEA’s target market. Television, radio,
social/digital media, and outdoor advertising will be utilized to
meet the campaign objectives.
MEDIA OBJECTIVES:
 Use broadcast media to reach 60 percent of the target
market a minimum of 10 times over a 12th period.
 Target 60 percent of media at current customers and 40
percent towards potential customers.
  Use social/digital media to maintain a consistent weekly
reach of 250000 members of the target audience at a
minimum of 4 times per week over 12 months
 Utilize outdoor advertising to target potential customers
living between one and three hours away from an IKEA
store at a frequency of 3 times per week.
MEDIA STRATEGIES:
 Create ads to run on cable television.
 Create ads for use in print magazines.
 Develop outdoor ads for use on satellite radio.
 Generate social media ads to drive traffic to the IKEA web
site and stores.
MEDIA TACTICS:
 Cable television
 Print
 Social media- Facebook, YouTube
 Outdoor- Billboards, car wraps on hybrid cars, collages
 Radio
BUDGET ALLOCATION
The following represents a breakdown of the $20 million
advertising budget designed for this year with $3 million built in
for the contingency plan.
Television: $7 Million
Print: $4 Million
Digital: $3 Million
Outdoor: $2 Million
Radio: $1 Million
Contingency: $3 Million

PUBLIC RELATIONS
OVERVIEW:
IKEA’s public relations efforts will focus on earning positive
media for IKEA’s sustainability efforts and IKEA’s contribution
to local communities. Efforts will also be made to monitor
customer satisfaction among returning customers.
OBJECTIVES:
 Generate a minimum of 50 positive media reports about
IKEA’s sustainability efforts over the next 12 months.
 Co-sponsor 30 service projects.
 Increase awareness of IKEA sustainability efforts in the
target market by 25 percent.
 Achieve 75 percent customer satisfaction among returning
customers.
 Sponsor 3 in-store events in the next 12 months attended by
300 members of the target audience at each event.
TACTICS:
OUT OF STORE:
 Co-sponsor 30 habitat for humanity houses in 30 different
IKEA stores.
 Contact housing blogs, community blogs, and community
social networking sites at all housing locations to building
pre-event excitement.
 Invite members of the press to an “open house event” when
the Habitat for humanity house in fully decorated.
 Create Facebook events for each building site and invite
local community members to the open house.
IN-STORE:
 Create foursquare check-ins in department around IKEA
store. When customers check-in they will receive tips and
products of interest in each department.
 Create three sustainability conferences where customers
can come to an IKEA store and hear updates on IKEA’s
sustainability efforts and meet IKEA executives.
 These “conferences” will provide attendees with the
opportunity to learn not only about IKEA’s efforts.
 DIRECT MARKETING
OVERVIEW:
The direct marketing portion of the integrated marketing
communication campaign for IKEA will utilize direct mailings
and catalogs to achieve the desired objectives. The target market
for IKEA’s direct marketing efforts will be individuals in the
target demographic market.
OBJECTIVES:
 Utilize direct mail to generate 1000 new leads in the target
market.
 Utilize catalogs to increase direct order internet sales by 2
percent over 12 months.
TACTICS:
 Utilize direct mail to generate leads and create new
customers.
 IKEA will create miniature magnetic IKEA products and
mail them to customers in the target market.
 Individuals in the target market who have recently
moved/had their mail forwarded.
 Individuals in the target market who recently purchased
their first homes.
 Individuals in the target demographic recently accepted
into a higher education program.
Direct mail will generate interest in IKEA products and assist in
the formation of brand relationships. In addition, miniatures can
also be used as magnets and remind customers of the products
IKEA offer.
 Redesign IKEA catalog to better align with sustainability
efforts and condense information for better utilization by
target demographic.
SALES PROMOTION
OVERVIEW:
The sales promotion medium will utilize a loyalty program in
addition to a promotion targeted to individuals living more than
45 miles from an IKEA store. The target demographic for
IKEA’s sales promotion efforts will be returning customers and
potential customers living greater than 45 miles from an IKEA
stores.
OBJECTIVES:
 Acquire 50,000 new members in the IKEA loyalty program
 By targeting customers living more than 45 miles from
store, create a sales promotion that is redeemed by 25
percent.
TACTICS:
 Implement an IKEA customer loyalty program
  IKEA will implement a loyalty program where customers
are rewarded for purchasing items. The program will be
based on dollar amounts, not the quantity purchased.
 The customer and sale information will be kept in a digital
format and viewable by customers online.
 Implement a sales promotion that rewards customers who
are not located near an IKEA store for shopping In-store.
 Customers will drive to the store with the proof of address.
This promotion will encourage customers who do not live near
by the store to make a ‘day-trip’ to IKEA and purchase larger
items for their homes. Customers that need to travel a substantial
distance to IKEA stores are more inclined to make additional
purchases because they can’t “swing by later and pick it up”.
 IKEA will host Build It To Win It events where couples
have the opportunity to compete to win products. There
will be different ‘heats’ and advancement opportunities
throughout the day and the products will become more
challenging as the day progresses. This will be great event
for returning customers and they will encourage their
family members to watch them compete and IKEA will
gain more in-store traffic.

ADDITIONAL SOCIAL/DIGITAL MEDIA

RECOMMENDATIONS
 In order to improve relationships with target market via
social networking, IKEA needs to close monitor their social
networking sites such as their Facebook site.
 Create splash page to ensure customers ‘like’ page prior to
viewing content.
 Respond to comments, questions and feedback within one
hour of user submitting content.
 A new page will be developed on IKEA site that allows
users to input their room dimensions and available
furnishing options that will appear on the right side of the
screen. The user then will be able to drag and drop furniture
into their room to finalize designs.
PRODUCT PACKAGING
 QR codes on all products lead to an interactive list for use
by store shoppers.
 This will allow the target audience to easily keep track of
purchases and location in product pick up area. QR codes
will improve customer satisfaction and help customers in
keeping track of their purchases.

CONCLUSION
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the key to
successful building and maintaining customer relationships.
IMC ensures the message from the company is reliable and thus
binds relationships with clients. Due to the vast marketing
opportunities available today, IMC is a necessity for IKEA’s
future campaigns. A solid identity can be effectively
communicated through IMC and adds reliability to the company
voice.
This campaign was designed to build customer relationships and
showcase IKEA’s sustainability efforts. The combination of
creative strategy, paid media, public relations, direct marketing
and sales promotion will assist IKEA in increasing sales,
increasing sustainability efforts and improving relationships
with customers.
One of the most pressing areas for IKEA to further develop is
digital communication and social networking. IKEA has taken
great steps by segmenting their social networking. By creating
the splash page and additional content outlined in the
social/digital media section, IKEA will be able to increase
customer interaction with the page and more effectively
communicate IKEA’s mission and vision with the target
audience.
In addition, IKEA needs to focus on paid advertising tactics to
increase the reach to individuals in the target market that do not
live near the IKEA stores. This is the critical market that is being
overlooked by IKEA’s current paid advertising efforts. Many
individuals in this market consider a visit to IKEA an all day
‘adventure’ and IKEA would benefit financially from
capitalizing on this.
In recent years, IKEA has focused primarily on print advertising
and relied very heavily on their catalog efforts. With IKEA’s
increased investment in sustainability, and the shifts in
marketing to social/digital media, IKEA needs to realign their
marketing efforts in order to better communicate with the target
market. Communication with the target market through the
strategic integrated marketing communication plan will assist
IKEA in their mission to create a better everyday life for the
many.