What does Ikea do to conquer the world?

Ikea, the world's largest furniture and household goods retailer, has seized emerging markets like China and India, targeting its target customers as a growing middle class, with sales of 28.7 billion euros in fiscal 2014, which is almost twice times the 2005 sales, and is expected by 2020 Ikea's sales are up to € 50 billion. 2014 net profit of 3.3 billion euros, rose 31% in the past five years.

At present, IKEA Group has 318 stores, which do not include more than 40 brand franchise stores, Ikea's goal is to increase the number of stores in 2020 to about 500.

Ikea is the king of the world's mistakes, but is adept at correcting them, says Marcus Engman, a design manager for the Swedish studio. In the continuous improvement, IKEA has done a good job in Wal-Mart, Target and other famous retailers have not been able to do: in a completely different market, language, cultural conditions, to maintain low prices to sell a large number of products.

"How Ikea took over the world", a recent report by Beth Kowitt, a Fortune of the United States, is a very nuanced analysis of Ikea's operating insider. The following are the best tips for Ikea's five key successes:

One of the tips for doing business: local research

1985, Ikea entered the U.S. market, the bed and cabinets are still used in metric centimeter units. But interestingly, the vase sold well, originally, the Americans bought a lot of Ikea vase when the water Cup to make. European size cups are hard to satisfy the American habit of drinking water and ice. Since then, Ikea has learned to market research.

In order to make their home products applicable to different cultures around the world, Ikea struggled, the first big weapon is: Fine local survey, focus on the intersection of different cultures.

Case A: The mirror with hanger, price 49.95 euros

Ikea investigated the morning routine of 8,292 people in eight cities around the world. The findings show that:

The quickest to go out is the Shanghai people (56 minutes); Mumbai (2 hours and 24 minutes) is the slowest, Mumbai is the city with the most naps (58% of people nap), and New Yorkers and Stockholm people are most likely to work in bathrooms (16%), and no matter which city women spend more time than men on clothing.

Therefore, IKEA launched the Independent pier, mirror with hangers can hang clothes and jewelry, help consumers in the evening will be a good combination of clothing, reduce the morning to pick the clothes of panic and pressure.

Case two: The bedside table and the desk lamp of the built-in wireless charging equipment

Most people in the world live in the city, the space is relatively small, IKEA launched a multi-functional product, will resemble strips such not good-looking equipment hidden in good-looking home products.

Of course, the survey does not always get the right answer, people will always intentionally or unintentionally describe themselves as a hope to become. To deal with this, IKEA has also conducted a reality show survey, allowing anthropologists to live in volunteer homes to get first-hand spending habits. Ikea has put cameras in people's homes in Stockholm, Milan, New York and Shenzhen to find out how people use sofas. It turns out that people use sofas to sit on all sorts of things except sitting and watching TV. In Shenzhen, most people sit on the floor and use sofas as their backs. However, Ikea also said that there is really no according to this demand to design sofa products.

Operation Know-How of the second: the same products, different arrangements, to adapt to a variety of cultures

Now, with the results of the investigation, we will begin to design the product. Ikea, which needs to use economies of scale to reduce costs, naturally does not change products in order to adapt to different markets, and must introduce generic products to achieve mass production. As a result, IKEA will look at its own model and product catalog, through the same product different layout to let consumers know how to use Ikea in life.

Each year, IKEA prints 217 million catalogues, which the company says is the largest number of publications in the world. All catalogues are produced in Älmhult, Sweden, but different country versions will specifically remove some unsuitable elements, such as: Persian carpets will not appear in the Israeli catalogue.

Case THREE:

The same bed and cupboard in the IKEA model room will incorporate tatami mats in Japan, and will use a sloping roof in the Netherlands that fits the local architectural style, and will throw pillows on the bed in the United States.

The product catalog has the same purpose as the sample. IKEA Products Catalog has 32 languages, 67 versions, corresponding to different regions of consumers different habits. For example, Belgium has a product catalogue in both French and Flemish languages.

However, such meticulous work has always been a mistake. Ikea has been severely criticized for having removed women from the catalogue of Chahate Arabs and removing a lesbian partner from the Russian product catalogue.

Operation know-how of the third: the introduction of very low prices Btis products

At Ikea, there's always a product that lures consumers with a very low price, an amazing product called Btis (breath-taking items) that is part of Ikea's business model. In different markets, such btis products will be different, and in less developed areas of the market, the selection of Btis products will take a longer time.

Case FOUR:

The Chinese market btis product is 1 Yuan ice cream (Ikea by putting 80% of the product production in China, cut off freight costs, reduce product prices);

Knopparp sofa in Sweden, the price of älmhult for 69 euros, for Sweden this is very tempting prices, but for many other markets in the world, the price is still not low;

For the Indian market, the low price of products, in the U.S. market, the price is lower.

Operation Know-How of the four: Province Province! Minimizing costs

Ikea is obsessed with reducing its costs, whether it's manufacturing, labor, inventory, packaging, material or space.

Specific measures are:

Cut off unnecessary product decoration and production process;

The product assembly work to the consumer to do their own, as far as possible to reduce the system of labor;

By reducing inventory and shipping costs in a flat-panel fashion, consumers can take home furniture more easily (Ikea's flat-panel packaging was invented in 1956, and a designer pulled the legs off the Lövet table for the carriage. ）；

Design L-shaped box, the product in the form of a puzzle to save more space, the use of the least materials, in the most convenient way to assemble the design and production of products (assembly accessories accounted for 1/3 of the cost of the product);

Change product material according to material price ...

Case FIVE:

For a place like this, where people can't see or use it, Ikea skips the second coat of paint.

The middle of the design is hollow, then use mortise and tenon combination, no screw assembly table (see below);

Suppliers are not limited to furniture factories, such as: let the shopping cart manufacturer produce the new table, the bucket maker makes the chair.

In order to save space more effectively, IKEA even launched a space saving contest in early 2000. The winner was a Dutchman who received a 2-week Thai Travel award. The winning solution is to put the round tea wax in a vacuum package, and the metal cups of the candles are stacked in one folded form.

Products, Ikea 2/3 of the products in Europe, Ikea owned plant accounted for 12% of the total production, the remaining by the company 1,002 suppliers for production. (Unlike Wal-Mart and Target, in addition to some of the food, IKEA only sell their own brand products) Ikea has about 9,500 products, but consider the different product elements (such as: different countries with different plugs), product types can reach more than 50,000 kinds. In order to package these products, Ikea consumes about 800 million square meters of cardboard every year. However, Ikea is trying to reduce the number.

In addition, IKEA for the flat packaging of the dedication of consumers also brought a certain burden of assembly. To ensure that consumers can assemble small, inexpensive items within 3 hours, the IKEA brochure team uses cartoon images to paint 1,400 assembly notes each year.

Operation Know-How of the five: avoid weaknesses, product redesign, and constantly try new technology

Ikea introduces 2,000 new products each year, including redesign of existing product. Now, some IKEA designers have begun to design 2019-year products, which are being developed quickly in model factories, experiencing physical effects (at least plastic models). For the future, Ikea says it's still a good area to do well, such as electronic technology, which is something that companies are not good at and won't touch in the future. Ikea has tried a TV project long ago, and it turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes in the company's history.

The new projects being tested are:

Making a toilet brush with a 3D printer (being tested)

Make a lamp with a cardboard box of eggs

Design Electric Bicycles for 2019

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