5 Lessons You Can Learn From Ikea’s Marketing Campaign Strategy
Swedish furniture giant, Ikea, was founded in 1953. Since then, it’s become known for a few things: easy to assemble furniture, delicious meatballs, and successful marketing campaigns that really make an impact on their customers.
Once businesses understand what makes these campaigns so successful, they’ll be able to take this information & adapt it to their own marketing campaign strategies. With this in mind, this blog will explore 5 lessons that businesses can learn from Ikea about creating a successful marketing campaign strategy.
- Humour: This is probably the single most consistent theme in Ikea’s marketing campaigns. From poking fun at the technological time in which we live, to making commentary on our society’s relationship with social media, humour is often used as a means of engaging potential customers and holding their attention for the duration of the marketing message. With the amount of advertising material constantly fighting for consumer attention, humour is a great way to stand out and cut through the noise, just ask Ikea!
- Emotion: Establishing an emotional connection with your potential customers is also another great way to grab their attention. By focusing on generally relatable human experiences such as the passage of time or the importance of face-to-face connection and socialisation with friends and/or family. Ads like these, that focus on emotions and relatable human experiences can be extremely effective. Consumers may not perceive them as a typical advertising message , but something deeper that applies to their lives as a whole. After establishing such a connection with their potential customers, Ikea will more than likely be the first brand customers think of when they need furniture.
- Events: Do you remember the freshers fair at university? Walking around, looking at vibrantly decorated stalls, signing up to societies you had no intention of attending and most importantly, collecting every free item you could find? Now take that experience and put it online. Not the same, is it? That’s because some things are significantly more impactful when you get to experience them in person and this is something that Ikea recognises. From hosting an actual wedding, to hosting a hotpot dinner in Taiwan, where the hotpot would only work if attendants placed their phones on the plate under it. This really creates a unique experience wherein attendees were forced to leave their phone alone and meaningfully engage with the people around them. That’s an experience that none of the guests are likely to forget, and this experience will probably positively influence their buying decisions as Ikea is a brand they already know & have had good experiences with.
- Innovation: In a world where technology is becoming more widely accessible by the day, it’s important to stay at the forefront of technological developments & integrate them into your campaign strategy where applicable. A fantastic example of this is Ikea’s Augmented Reality app, which allows customers to see what different pieces of furniture would look like in their room. This helped prevent users from purchasing the wrong size furniture, in a creative, innovative & technologically advanced way, leading to the app being widely accepted by consumers.
- Guerilla Marketing: For those who don’t know, guerilla marketing typically involves surprising customers using unconventional methods, to promote a product or service. Ikea accomplished this with their Moving Day campaign in Quebec, where they displayed free boxes outside to be picked up and used by those who were moving. Not only that, but the boxes had tips & checklists for moving, and offers on furniture & food from Ikea. By providing value to their potential customers (in the form of cardboard boxes & product discounts), Ikea has successfully made an impression on the people who interacted with their campaign. As such, all the customers who interacted with that campaign will be more than likely to think of Ikea the next time they need furniture.
By incorporating some or all of these 5 elements into your marketing campaign strategy, you can give your business a better chance at standing out and gaining the kind of quality consumer attention that puts you at the front of their mind when they’re shopping for a product/service that your business offers.If you’ve found this blog useful but aren’t sure how to go about integrating these themes into your marketing campaign strategy, get in touch! All you need to do is leave us your email address here and we’ll get in touch to schedule a short, non-committal conversation where we’ll discuss your needs & how Ford Creative can help you meet them.
By Ore Ige
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