IKEA Furniture Retailer to the World Coursework - 1

IKEA Furniture Retailer to the World - Coursework Example The famous four-legged dining tables, whose legs were easily detachable from the bottom, could be painlessly dismantled by the users. This also reduced the transportation and warehousing costs for IKEA (IKEA, 2012). IKEA gained popularity in its home country as well as in rest of Europe. The furniture designs reflect the Swedish art. IKEA’s stores were painted blue and yellow which reflects the Swedish flag. Though Scandinavian and European cultures are not synonymous, they have some common shades. IKEA was well aware of the fine taste of the Europeans, who laid special emphasis on elegant and classic designs. IKEA came up with a unique plan of offering Europeans with exquisite and classy designs, yet with a minimalistic price tag and this marketing strategy worked. In Philadelphia, IKEA opened its first store in 1985. The American market seemed to be a very good prospect, but the cold behavior of the Americans took IKEA by surprise. Some of its competitors like Walmart, Costco and Office Depot were offering low priced furniture range but it lacked proper design and good quality.Compared to IKEA, the furniture companies which were offering good design and quality products had a very high price tag attached to them. As per the customer analysis, IKEA furniture range did not attract the Americans. IKEA decided to re-emphasize on the furniture design because the American lifestyle and culture are very different from the European countries. IKEA renovated certain furniture range for the American markets and focused on the advertisement strategy which could lure the Americans. The tactics worked excellently and sales skyrocketed immediately after the marketing strategy was revamped. By 2008, the United States was IKEA’s second-largest market a fter Germany, with 35 stores accounting for 10 percent of total revenues (Hollensen & Banerjee, 2010, p.401).