Moving out is a pretty exciting experience, but obviously at times it can be difficult. For instance, two nineteen year old girls who have had everything done for them and given to them their whole lives, trying to put together a kitchen table and a desk from Ikea. This is a very good example of how a company’s marketing skills are a huge success. Ikea commercials emphasize how their products (such as desks, tables, closet organizers, bedroom accessories, etc) make a decorating process very simple, efficient and rewarding.
The company has made very good decisions regarding the marketing mix…
Product: Ikea has absolutely everything which creates value because it satisfies the customers needs
Price: Ikea has very reasonable prices that are normally much cheaper than its competition which captures value
Place: Ikea makes it possible to receive almost all of the customers’ purchases instantly by packing everything in boxes that will fit nicely in a customer’s vehicle, but is not mandatory to pick up immediately if the customer wishes not to
Promotion: Ikea has a variety of advertising methods such as radio commercials, television commercials, newspaper flyers, etc. that are very convincing when it comes to simplicity and efficiency
What Ikea marketers failed to mention is that these results of simple and efficient decorating come after 4 hours of labour, 3 left over screws, and much frustration due to instructions that lack clear explanations.
This is a commercial that makes Ikea seem like a very appealing choice for furnishing and decorating a home.
I absolutely love shopping at Ikea and I am a loyal customer because I always go back to Ikea instead of other furniture shops, eventhough I know that it is really hard to assemble their products. I think that this demonstrates the power that marketing has when people make decisions about where to shop. Ikea’s effort in marketing the 4 Ps is so successfull that so many people choose Ikea over other companies even when they know the work that is coming.