Great book with quotes for everyone!!

Lewis, E.2005. Great Ikea! A brand for all the people. London: Cyan Communications Ltd

Georgina - IKEA case study

Catherine - Taste, matchy consumer

Beth - Era's (scanned pages coming soon!)

Ikea has democratised the whole business of home making, making furniture and household goods affordable to all. P.6

On the other hand, Ikea has made furniture a disposable fashion item, a symbol of the way modern consumer society has corrupted our sense of value – no one buys an item of Ikea furniture to hand down to future generations. P.6

It is rare for a brand to have such an impact on society. Ikea persuade us that fashion is no longer what you wear, but how your home is decorated. It had played a crucial role in driving the rise and rise of fashion in the home. P.14

There’s a “Topshop” fashion mentality, furniture has become disposable and transient. Ikea is a brand that gives you an opportunity for self-expression. P.14

We use our homes to project our personal identity. You can’t control the outside world, but can control inside your home and make it look nice. P.14

Ikea has made designers of us all. Buying some accessories and feeling like you’ve made a whole difference p.15

The quality will be different, but the homes will look similar. P.20

Dr Viviano Narotsky, senior researcher fellow in the history of design at RCA. She believes that: “The differences in taste and furnishing between income groups used to be more defined – they liked different things. Now they like the same style. It’s a measure of popularisation of taste.” P.20

Dr Narotsky believes that Ikea reflects post-modernism. The domestic space has become a closed expression of individual identity and is ever-changing. P.21

There’s a supermarket mentality about furniture nowadays – it’s disposable. The home fits into the shopping cycle like food and fashion. P.21

Ikea believes that is has impacted social change. Employees are quite clear that they have educated the masses about how to furnish their homes. We’ve taught people about symmetry, getting the dimensions tight and about lighting and knowing where to place objects p.21

The Ikea generation. We buy sofas and tables for a quick fashion fix. Each home, each room set reflects a certain moment in time – there’s the student pad, the bachelor pad. p.22

Our parents have a very different relationship with furniture. The things I inherit from my parents I’ll pass on. But it won’t be Ikea because their furniture doesn’t pass the test of time. P.22

Ikea is an anti-marketing brand. On paper it doesn’t work. It never asks its customers what they want, but tells them instead. P.23

Whether you love or hate the Swedish ministry of furniture, be sure about one thing – Ikea loves you. That is, as long as you’re prepared to work for its affection – by assembling your own furniture, fetching your stuff from the warehouse. P.23

Ikea gives you a feeling of being useful and practical – you’re doing something tangible for your home. P.24

Ikea’s way of shopping, of putting your stuff together and taking it home – this is an innovation Ikea owns. This is why it’s so cheap and this is what differentiates it from the competition. P.24

The Swedish delicacies in the restaurant and in the food shop at the end of the store are all part of the Ikea experience. P.69

Sweden’s neutrality means that it is well liked abroad and its “Swedishness” has been a help rather than a hindrance during Ikea’s international expansion. P.74

Designing products that could be flat packed and assembled by customers enabled Ikea to cut costs significantly. They no longer wasted money transporting empty space with its products, and lowered both its storage and transport costs. P.82

Ikea’s innovation lies not only in designing for the mass market, but also in its production. Ikea’s mission “to improve the everyday life of the many people” drives everything it does and leads to astonishing feats of low cost, good design. P.84

One of Ikea’s entrenched competitive advantages, difficult to replicate, is quite simply that the product itself looks more expensive than it is. P.93

Sourcing cheap materials is essential for Ikea’s low prices. P.93

Ikea is like a museum of the modern world. Herd-like instincts are encouraged. P.100

Most major corporations don’t provide on-site childcare, yet Ikea does – for free. P.103

It’s also replaced the family day trip. Going to Ikea at the weekend is the new family outing. P.104

Each room set has been carefully crafted by an Ikea designer to appeal to a certain type of person. There is a Scandinavian style, a country style (which works well in England), a modern style, and a “young Swede” style. P.104

When the Ikea designers prepare a room set they have got a detailed picture of customers in their head: what kind of clothes they wear, what kind of car they drive, what kind of taste they have – every detail. P.104

The Ikea pathway makes it almost impossible to stick to a list. Even the most disciplined shoppers will find it hard not to be tempted into buying something they didn’t even know they wanted until they saw it in an Ikea display. It’s a clever selling device, and manipulates people into buying things they hadn’t previously considered. P.104

Ikea people always say that their range is their identity. It’s a mountain of choice rather than a carefully edited selection. Rather than get people through the store quickly and conveniently, they march them past every single item. P.105

There’s more to self-assembly furniture than another Ikea cost-cutting measure. It becomes a tool of evangelism, another moral crusade that teaches you the value of good, honest, Swedish hard work. And that’s why we feel attached to our Ikea furniture – the ritual ties us closer to our purchases. P.114

Advertising needs to cajole consumers to accept the possibility of disposable, fashionable furniture. This is furniture that you change and swap when you get bored; you don’t buy a sofa for life any more. P.118

Ikea’s philosophy was that if you can’t change the product you’ve got to change people à change people’s taste p.123

New advertising brief was to persuade people that modern was good for them and change their taste. P.124

Ikea’s advertising always works best when it has an enemy. In 1996 in Britain, it was chintz. P.124

The most potent symbol of British taste in the home was chintz – a floral, country-house style fabric that dresses English sofas, cushions, beds, and windows. “Chuck out your chintz”, an ad that urged women to spring clean their homes to make room for some Scandinavian style, was launched in Autumn 1996. P.124

It’s easy to forget that Ikea’s most powerful weapon is its catalogue. It’s read more widely than the Bible. It’s the crown jewels of Ikea’s communications. In 2004, 145 million copies of the catalogue were printed in 48 editions and 25 languages. P.133

The catalogue persuades us that Ikea can tidy and transform our chaotic, hectic lifestyles. P.133

Ikea’s expansion model is simple and unsophisticated. You only need one set of instructions to assemble an Ikea store where you are in the world. P.157

What other brands can learn from Ikea: p.187

1.       Ikea has a meaningful purpose. It understands that the way to make money is to be dedicated to a vision.

2.       Ikea is driven by long-term thinking rather than short-term sales pressure.

3.       Ikea understands the importance of being honest and transparent

4.       Ikea rarely asks its customers what they want, but uses good design, low prices, and challenging advertising to persuade them

5.       Ikea turns problems and difficulties into opportunities.

How taste has changed in UK (click to zoom in) BETH USEFUL FOR YOU?