Everything is about choice.

Let's get comfortable. We will try to delve deeper into the topic of the IKEA phenomenon. Get the beast out.

There is probably not a single person among us, residents of a large metropolis, who is not familiar with IKEA. Founder of this international company name is Ingvar Kamprad. A simple man who was always full of vital energy - this is how his colleagues characterize him.

Ingvar Kamprad

Born March 30, 1926. He began his life in the small province of Smaland in southern Sweden in the city of Älmhult. According to Kamprad himself, his own grandmother had a very strong influence on him. She taught her grandson to overcome circumstances “through willpower and labor.”

The first sales took place at the age of 5-6 years. Ingvar was selling matches to neighbors. In his first steps, his aunt from Stockholm helped him, who bought several hundred boxes of matches there and sent them to Kamprad.

Kamprad's lack of a university diploma was always replaced by his enthusiasm. He once remarked:

If you do not experience incorrigible enthusiasm while working, consider that at least a third of your life has gone down the drain.
- Ingvar Kamprad

The Birth of IKEA

At the age of 17, while his peers were busy with their daily activities. The young entrepreneur was thinking about how to expand his business. By borrowing money from his father, who thought he was giving money to his son for his studies. In 1943 he opened his own company with the now famous name IKEA.

The name IKEA is no coincidence. The first two letters “IK” are the initials of Kamprad himself. The third letter is the name of Ingvar’s father’s company. The fourth letter comes from the name of the church parish in which the young Swede belonged.

Five years after its founding, the young entrepreneur comes new idea: sale of furniture. The first assortment consisted of only two items - this coffee table and a chair without an armrest.

The chair was called "Ruth". Kamprad himself came up with all the names. The reason for using letters in product names is very simple: Ingvar could not remember numerical articles.

IKEA business model in Russia

The first full-fledged shopping mall IKEA, using the current business model, was opened in 2002 in Moscow. The main principle of the model in Russia is the construction of not only the IKEA complex itself, but also retail space under the Mega brand. This model allowed to increase the traffic of people to the IKEA complex.

An interesting fact is that the Swedes came to Russia at the invitation of Nikolai Ryzhkov. While on an official visit to Sweden in 1990, the chairman of the USSR government expressed the wish that IKEA would purchase products from Russian furniture makers.

However, the construction of the branded hypermarket began only in 1997 on the Leningradskoye Shosse site, and the opening took place only in 2000. The reason for the delay was Kamprad's no-bribes approach and our huge bureaucratic machine.

The territory covered by shopping complexes starts from Rostov to Novosibirsk. The network includes 14 stores of the Mega shopping and entertainment complex. Two more centers are planned to open. The total attendance of the complexes was more than 270 million in 2014. The numbers are impressive; it turns out that almost every resident of the country has visited the complex at least twice.

IKEA - not only successful example a global retailer that grows by an average of 6% annually, but also a strong brand. He takes an honorable 45th place in the Forbes ranking "The most expensive brands in the world".

IKEA philosophy

Change for the better daily life many people.
- IKEA Mission

To offer a wide range of convenient and functional home improvement products at such low prices that as many people as possible have the opportunity to buy them.
- IKEA business idea

Why IKEA

• 1. Excitement. IKEA is a master of spectacular promotions and self-promotion. He does not spare bonuses and imagination, and happy customers become free “heralds” of the brand.
• 2. “Like at home.” IKEA "seduces" the buyer. Trade pavilion must be an oasis of endless pleasure, relaxation and entertainment.

  Free little things like a pencil and tape measure make the shopping experience more enjoyable. IKEA has a special attitude towards store visitors. You will never be annoyed by intrusive sales managers.

  You can walk around the store as much as you like, touch any product, sit on the sofa, lie on the mattress, etc. This creates a unique atmosphere of feeling “at ease.”

• 3. Surprising prices. IKEA states that when designing a new product, the work begins with creating a price tag, and does not start from the costs of the product.

  IKEA has a product matrix, which represents the distribution of all products within different price ranges, as well as the division of products into groups: by type of design, by furniture class, by type of household use.

• 4. Allows you to be involved. The company invites its customers to come to the store and do everything themselves: measure, select and take the goods of interest from the shelves, take them to cash register, load it into your own car, take it home.

  You can also collect the goods yourself. This rule also applies to large-sized furniture in the form of wardrobes and small sofas. By performing the assembly, the client takes part in the creation of furniture and takes on part of the work. This also allows IKEA to keep prices lower than its competitors.

• 5. Integrity. The Swedish company offered the buyer a holistic concept for home improvement (furniture, all kinds of accessories, plus design advice), and this idea turned out to be brilliant.

  Others sold inexpensive furniture, but it was IKEA that offered the entire range of home goods in one huge store (more than 10 thousand products presented in attractive displays). The company focuses on different tastes, “wallets” (three-level price system) and annually updates a third of its products.

• 6. Location. IKEA stores are usually located outside cities and at the intersections of major roads. Customers are expected to drive their own vehicles and pick up most items themselves. A free bus is organized that picks up IKEA visitors from the nearest train or metro station.
• 7. Internal layout. IKEA uses coercion to subtly force customers to spend more time in its stores. Accordingly, the amounts left there grow. This is also facilitated by the planning solution trading floors- it’s easy to enter the complex; it takes a long time to get out.

  IKEA turns ordinary shopping into a pleasant pastime. Children can be left at playground, elegant displays inspire and stimulate the buyer to buy, wide aisles eliminate crowding. You can relax and refresh yourself in cozy cafes offering various bonuses.

  It is also important that sellers do not pounce on buyers like vultures, so they can relax and look around. If necessary, it is not difficult to find a consultant in a bright yellow and blue uniform.

• 8. Time stops. The atmosphere inside the complex is so relaxing that you lose track of time. IKEA doesn't bother you because, like casinos, they don't have clocks inside.

Clear and ruthless principles that cannot be resisted. IKEA will say that this is nothing more than caring about the buyer.

Bottom line

Kamprad created what we today understand as the “Swedish style” - comfortable, rational and inexpensive choice household goods.

Of course, the phenomenal success of IKEA is inextricably linked with the personality of its founder. Some even argue that IKEA rests solely on Kamprad and the loyal “old guard”, bearers of IKEA culture.

Although his adult children are involved in management, without the main "pastor", the company will lose its charm. Kamprad is entering his ninth decade; he has officially retired for a long time, but still takes an active part in the activities of IKEA.

“Papa Ingvar” is present at openings, inspects existing stores, asking about everything from the organization of trade to the cost of lunch for employees.

Bonus:)

Illustrator and cartoonist Ed Harrington, a well-known lover of dark humor, was inspired by stylish instructions for assembling furniture from IKEA. With their help, as you know, you can collect almost everything. Including your favorite pop culture monster. Very relevant on the eve of Halloween:

A Russian peasant comes to a Swede:
- Gustav, give me a ruble until spring. It's very necessary. There's nothing to eat.
- Of course, Ivan. Here's a ruble, you'll give me two in the spring, and you'll leave the ax as collateral. Agree?
- Thank you, you helped me out!
- Tell me, Ivan, will it be hard for you to give me two whole rubles in the spring?
- Yes, it’s hard.
- So, give me the ruble now, and it will be easier to give the second ruble in the spring.
- You're a smart man, Gustav. Then keep your ruble back, I’ll give you another one in the spring.

Ivan walks through the village, scratching his head. No money, no axe, still owed a ruble. And if you figure it out, then everything is correct.

So, returning to the godless IKEA. How did the success story of similar trading manufactories develop?

Once upon a time, in the nineteenth century, people respected things. And when they made, for example, a wardrobe, it was a real wardrobe. Made of oak, with two-inch posts, fluted and carved front, with sturdy shelves and a strong paneled door.

These pre-revolutionary cabinets still stand in old St. Petersburg apartments - and despite their advanced age, they still remain more reliable than their modern counterparts. I'm not talking about beauty: modern furniture Next to them, he looks like a cheap budget teacher from a rural school.

Carving, jointing, milling and other excesses are deleted from technological process. We replace the monumental Christmas tree fastenings of the shelves with small steel figurines, which cost three kopecks per kilogram. We first replace noble oak with simple pine, then onto plywood, then chipboard. Door handles and other accessories we produce in millions of copies from the cheapest material.

Finally, we fire the designer, replace the nails and screws with lousy quality glue and get the typical soviet furniture. Ugly, inconvenient and, as a rule, very fragile. As Adam Smith said, beggars cannot choose.

It would seem that everything is fair. Rich people continue to buy normal furniture from a few artisans working according to the traditions of the nineteenth century. The poor buy glued monsters made from pressed sawdust and are glad that these sawdust do not punch deadly holes in their family budgets.

But then the Swedes enter the scene with their IKEA. And then - watch your hands - the circus begins.

The Swedes say: Ivan, admit it, you’re already tired of all this Soviet furniture crap. Come to us, we will sell you real, beautiful European furniture. Of course, it will cost a little more... but you can afford it, right?

That's it, the circle has closed and the trap has slammed shut!

First, the furniture was replaced with fake chipboards to make it cheap and accessible. And then they started selling these fakes in “designer” versions, under this pretext raising the price for them to the level of normal furniture. As a result, now you and I can take the money for which our great-great-grandfather bought an “eternal” oak cabinet, and use it at IKEA to buy a shiny, tasteless tambourate item that will fall apart at the first opportunity.

Do you know what tamburat is?

This is another step into the swamp of consumer slavery. Modern furniture material, which is a cardboard honeycomb laminated on top with a thin layer of special paper:

Externally, the tamburat looks like an impressive - usually four centimeters thick - “wooden” slab. Inside, it consists of ten percent ordinary cardboard and ninety percent air. Therefore, the strength of tambourate is, to put it mildly, low.

I read on one forum the sad story of a man who climbed onto a table from a vestibule to get something from a high cabinet. The tabletop broke stupidly under his weight, and he fell and broke his ankle. When you live in a painted world, you need to remember which surfaces are real and which are only designated as such.

Can you imagine a situation where a real table breaks under your weight? Personally, I can't. If the table top breaks under the weight ordinary person, this is some kind of extreme melancholy, like non-alcoholic beer or rubber women.

IKEA, with its gallery of expensive fakes, reminds me of the arrogant fellows in jackets who prowled around in such quantities during the shameful nineties. The “business” of these ghouls was disgustingly simple: they bought a Chinese iron that was falling apart in their hands for 100 rubles, and then sold it to random suckers at a “discount” for five times the price.

A few months ago I saw a cute kitchen timer at IKEA: round, red, just what I needed for my tomato experiments. To celebrate, I bought two at once: one for myself, and another for my friend.

So what would you think? The timers were inoperative from the very beginning. They rang for five minutes ahead of schedule, they tinkled during operation, and when I tried to find and fix the defect, they simply fell apart in my hands. I was angry and upset but not surprised.

IKEA’s motto, as they say in Lurochka, is “Greed and Design”:

Do you know how IKEA actually saves money?

1. About as much as possible cheap materials I already wrote. Tamburat is an office or industrial option; it has absolutely nothing to do in a normal human home.

2. Accessories - different handles, rollers and guides - the cheapest ones are also selected, designed for “museum” use, as gentle as possible.

3. The materials themselves are chosen and are of the worst quality. For example, the pine table that I recently bought there for a thousand rubles for one experiment turned out to be... stupidly rotten. Its tabletop dried out and cracked, as if I was not buying a finished piece of furniture, but firewood for lighting a bathhouse.

The wildest problems with quality are observed wherever it is possible to spoil the material: from rugs in boxes that stink of offensive chemicals to pine racks with boards rotten through and through.

4. Most furniture usually has congenital deformities, inherent during its design. This could be, for example, a bed “spar” that breaks when an adult steps on it. These could be the fastenings of desk seats that come off on the second day of use. Or - a classic of the genre - it can be a one-time fastener, unable to hold the fastened parts together even if assembled perfectly.

5. All furniture is subject to severe dimensional castration, which an inexperienced buyer usually notices after the fact.

Here, for example, is a rack. My living room shelving unit is two forty high. Let's say the normal height range of the rack is from 200 centimeters. Everything below is dwarf shelving.

Now we go to the IKEA website and look at the set - a desk plus a shelving unit - for only four thousand rubles:

It would seem that what’s wrong here - if you don’t count tambourate as the main material?

Let's take a look at the dimensions.

The height of the table - 75 centimeters - is small, but this is the standard for a person 170 centimeters tall. There are no complaints about the Swedes here.

The depth of the table is 50 centimeters. This is already bad. The normal depth of a desktop cannot be less than 70 centimeters, otherwise it will only be possible to work on it with a laptop, and even then without much comfort.

The width of the table is 105 centimeters. Extreme poverty. For office plankton, who does not work with any papers, you need no less than 120. In an amicable way - from 150 centimeters and more. 105 is nothing at all.

The height of the rack is 148 centimeters. Redneck in pure form. A normal rack, I repeat, must have a height of two meters or higher. Shelving less than two meters in height is permissible only in various palace interiors, in which space is not fundamentally saved. A rack 148 centimeters tall in a typical Russian apartment - which even in a remote province costs no less than a thousand dollars per square meter- this is redneck bordering on cheating.

The width of the rack is 50 centimeters. Modest, but acceptable.

The depth of the rack is 28 centimeters. Mischief number two. The working rack must have a depth of at least 40 centimeters in order to properly accommodate books in two rows or stacks of A4 papers lengthwise. If the depth is less, it is already a castrated rack.

Further. We see three shelves on the rack. However, the distance between them - forty centimeters - is clearly too large for rational use. In a good way, you need to add two more shelves there, otherwise some of the space will be lost.

Now for some fun arithmetic. The table should be 40 percent deeper and forty percent wider. We multiply and get, its area should be at least twice as large.

The rack should be 35 percent higher and 40 percent deeper. Let's add two shelves, and we get the same thing - the rack is about half as big as it has the right to be.

So, by playing with sizes, the Swedes are selling us a kit for dwarfs, which is two times (!) smaller than what an adult needs.

No, formally everything is in order, sell desks It is not prohibited by law for dwarfs. However, in essence it turns out to be the most natural deception. Small furniture is passed off as inexpensive furniture.

Furniture normal sizes and the Swedes already cost many times more. At the same time, the quality of its execution remains as sad as that of the dwarf assortment.

I think you already understand my point. IKEA sells furniture that is both expensive and disposable. Therefore, for lovers of real things - like me - typical solutions from IKEA are organically disgusting.

Well, you ask me, what am I even doing in this den of simulation? Why do I visit IKEA stores and shop there?

I'll try to explain.

I am far from thinking of branding the Swedes with disgrace. They are no more to blame than a vulture is to blame for pecking out the eyes of a dying camel. They need to eat something, and it’s not their fault that Russian furniture traditions have developed over the years Soviet power thoroughly lost.

Simply put, IKEA has... no clear alternative.

More precisely, people who love to work with their hands can make the same rack or cabinet themselves - either from oak or birch. It will cost about the same price as sawdust from IKEA, but at least it will be real wood.

The rest have little choice. This is either absolutely monstrous “budget” furniture, which is impossible to look at without tears, and which looks killed already at the time of sale in a furniture showroom. Or are they already semi-elite furniture showrooms, in which the simplest wall cabinet for the kitchen will cost about fifty thousand rubles.

There is also an option for elite light salons - semi-basement artisans who can copy some Italian cuisine for you, but not for a million, but for three hundred thousand... however, this is still much more expensive than Swedish products.

IKEA tightly occupies its niche of designer sawdust, and I don’t see any competitors - who would produce normal furniture at IKEA prices.

Therefore, alas, we have to regularly visit the Swedes. At the same time, however, I follow a few simple rules.

To begin with, you need to understand that almost everything from IKEA requires finishing with a file. Unreliable fasteners must be immediately thrown out and replaced with normal ones. Broken and rotten places - strengthen and repair. Upgrade small furniture by adding additional surfaces. Coat untreated surfaces with water-based varnish.

Of course, this will require time and effort from you... but still, let’s not forget that a person is most comfortable surrounded by those things to which he had a hand. If you do nothing in your apartment, it is not much different for you from a hotel room: it does not truly become yours.

Actually, the Swedes actively exploit this property of human character, forcing people to assemble furniture themselves. After all, even half an hour spent rolling a table immediately makes the table a little more yours than the same table assembled by someone else.

Then, we must remember that all accessories purchased from IKEA will most likely be expensive and of poor quality. Wood stains, screwdrivers, cutlery... all this is usually available in other places, and much cheaper, more beautiful and more reliable.

The Swedes are still living somewhere in the past, when Russians were drooling over electronic watch from Singapore and other low-quality consumer goods. Over the course of twenty years, we have already eaten our fill of this rubbish, and we are no longer excited by things that break immediately upon leaving the store. Especially if these items sell for more than in any regular supermarket.

Next, you need to think when buying with your head, not your heart. IKEA has successful and extremely unsuccessful products. Some products are sold at frankly inflated prices, while other products are completely impossible to use for their intended purpose. You need to compare, count on a calculator and roughly imagine what you will get in the end.

Finally, it is advisable to assemble serious things - such as a kitchen - not on your own and not with the help of IKEA eagles, but with the help of a specially hired good furniture craftsman who can devote several days to you and assemble everything perfectly, correcting all bottlenecks and neutralizing manufacturing defects.

If you follow these simple rules and if you treat IKEA as a dump of low-grade, expensive junk, in which you sometimes manage to find something worthwhile, it’s quite possible to deal with the Swedes: especially if your task is to create not a home environment, but an office environment.

In addition, Swedes are indispensable in situations where you are not particularly saving, and you need to buy some kind of “camping”, temporary option right now, which you will throw away in a month or two.

Overall, however, my opinion of IKEA remains the same - extremely low. And if I had the opportunity to choose, I would like nineteenth-century workshops to grow in place of IKEA stores: with “eternal” oak cabinets at prices affordable to the average office plankton.

The IKEA furniture brand is known without exaggeration all over the world, and the products of this company can be seen in many homes. The Dutch-Swedish company is the world's largest furniture retailer, with billions of dollars in annual sales. IKEA employs more than 150,000 employees worldwide. Our review contains little-known facts about this company that are usually not told to customers.

1. IKEA store layouts have a code name.

In fact, almost any store or stand of this company resembles a maze, which is designed so that the buyer sees all possible products along the way. Among the employees this layout is called "Long Natural Path"

2. There are secret passages

For those who want to quickly get to bedding, but don't want to go through the textiles, bath products, etc. departments, you should know that every IKEA store has hidden passages through which you can get to any place as quickly as possible. They are usually open to visitors, but they are not easy to spot.

3. Shortcuts through labyrinthine stores change frequently.

This is done due to the fact that clients eventually find out all the secret passages and everyone starts using them. And the goal of IKEA management is for the buyer to see almost the entire range along the way.

4. Walls can be moved

Almost all partitions inside IKEA showrooms are mounted on wheels and can be moved. Typically the wheels are locked to prevent people from accidentally moving the partitions.

5. People usually buy furniture that is on display

Usually people do not bother themselves with a choice and order what they saw at the demonstration stand.

6. Sections that are designed to "empty wallets"

IKEA stores are literally littered with piles of small and practical things that are very cheap and difficult to refuse. The departments where they are sold are called "wallet emptying" departments.

7. Bulla-Bulla

Another way to get people to buy something they weren't planning on is the "bulla-bulla method," as employees call it. Large containers are filled to overflowing with hundreds of varieties of goods to create the impression of volume and, therefore, cheapness.

8. You can take a nap on any sofa.

All exhibited furniture can be tested. The client has the right to lie down on any sofa or bed and take a nap. The staff will wake him up only after 2-3 hours. This is done to make people feel at home in stores, and also because after such “test drives” customers are more willing to buy furniture.

9. People who are aware of the nuances prefer not to sleep on furniture in a store.

Pillows on show beds are changed only once a month, and pillowcases are changed only when they look dirty. The same goes for blankets and duvet covers.

10. Opening packages

Customers at IKEA can touch any product and willingly take advantage of this opportunity. They touch the products, try them by touch, try how they can sit or lie on them. But often customers open the packaging of goods, after which stores simply cannot sell these goods and are forced to send them for cleaning and repackaging or write them off.

11. Store employees are prohibited from offering help or intruding themselves.

Passive-aggressive shoppers are likely to be disappointed at IKEA. Employees are given instructions: “If a client needs help, he should contact the sales assistant himself. It is necessary to explain something to clients only if they themselves ask for it.”

12. Books in the exhibition hall are often brought by employees from home libraries

IKEA stores sell, among other products, bookshelves, but empty shelves aren't particularly attractive. Therefore, employees are asked to bring books from their own collections to fill the empty space. As a rule, management asks you to bring books that match a certain color scheme.

13. Most popular products

Wardrobe BILLY and table LACK.

14. By serial numbers you can find out almost everything about a product

The eight-digit code assigned to each IKEA product hides many useful information. For example, if the code ends with 40, it means blue goods. The penultimate digit 4 indicates the range blue flowers, and if there is a 1 at the end, then it is light blue, and 2 is dark blue.

15. Quarrels in the store

Couples who really want to test their relationship should go to IKEA and pick something up. Quarrels between lovers happen in stores so often that some psychologists advise their patients to go to the store if they doubt their feelings.

16. Personnel communicate in coded phrases in case of incidents

In the event of any incident in the store, coded messages are transmitted through the intercom. For example, “Code 22” indicates a payment-related incident near the cash register, and “Code 99” indicates that a child is lost in the store.

17. A few hours before opening

At the end of the night everyone moves internal partitions(which, as mentioned above, are on wheels). This is done in such a way as to create a large empty space in the center of the store. Pallets with new goods are delivered there, which are packaged until the store opens.

18. Christmas gifts

IKEA is quite well known for providing good year-end benefits to its employees. Gifts are often given out - from electronics to air tickets to anywhere in the world.

19. IKEA sales are growing thanks to Pinterest

Employees of the network claim that if a product begins to sell very quickly, it means that its photo and description were posted by one of the buyers on the Pinterest service.

Especially for those who decided to save money on buying new furniture. Anyone can do this.

In this article the story will not be about the history of the world famous Swedish retail and various interesting facts related to the history of this company. Available materials there is more than enough on this topic, and they clearly highlight the personal characteristics of Ingvar Kamprad, his asceticism and desire to save on everything possible. All this is not hidden and, one way or another, helps improve the brand’s reputation. Other facts that are not advertised are of interest. It is in them that one should probably look for the secret of the prosperity of stores selling useful and necessary items at affordable prices. Although it is also useful to know generally known facts, the truth should usually be sought not where it is shown, but where something is hidden.

What everyone knows

IKEA's marketing is officially based on several basic proclaimed principles, including:

• Priority of the price factor. When developing a new product, the selling price is first set, and only then color, design and everything else are discussed.
• Swedish patriotism. It is felt in the design of trading floors, the names of product items and even the menu of client “food points”. The company can no longer be considered 100% Swedish, but more on that later. This approach gives the entire IKEA retail system a unique Scandinavian flavor.
• Simplicity in everything.
• Attention to mothers who come shopping. The most comfortable conditions are created for them.
• Quality. No comments.
• Fixed price for the product.

Thanks to these principles, IKEA has gained a strong position in the global market. But there are other basics of work trading network, less known.

Why so far?

It is believed that the suburban location of IKEA stores is dictated by the extremely low cost of rent, but there are often cases when premises for approximately the same money can be found closer to the city or in it itself. In fact, the reason for the remoteness of retail space is not only traditional Swedish economy. Each potential client, having traveled many kilometers and sometimes stood in traffic jams, is unlikely to leave the store without rewarding himself with at least some purchase - this is the consumer philosophy. You can cover this couple of blocks on foot and leave empty-handed if you didn’t like anything.

Labyrinth

This principle is, of course, applied not only at IKEA; every supermarket visitor is familiar with it. However, in this trading network, the intricate labyrinth is given the greatest naturalness, which indicates deep thoughtfulness and the ability to deviate from some standard schemes. The buyer almost never has the feeling that he is being “led”; on the contrary, he believes that he is choosing his own route. IKEA workers call this trajectory the “long natural path.” In fact, there is always a shorter way, but the passages are artfully blocked with goods or partitions on wheels that the visitor is (psychologically) embarrassed to move.

Multiple product placement

The same position can be presented at the beginning of the “long natural path”, and in its middle, and already near the exit. The buyer has no chance of not noticing the product whose sale is most desirable. The other question is that, of course, he may not take it anyway. No one is going to force anyone, but you can pay attention.

What is "bulla-bulla"?

This internal term of the IKEA company, which, however, has already become quite widespread, has nothing to do with the medieval papal seal bulla. The refrain is a trading technique where many small goods are dumped into one container in order to create the illusion of a sale. In fact, most often there are no discounts, but the buyer thinks that he came to the store at a very good moment and needs to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase something at a bargain price.

Freedom

A visitor to IKEA feels like he is in control. He can sit wherever he wants, and even lie down on a suitable piece of furniture. His children are allowed to play in a specially designated room. Sellers do not force you to buy, and even a hint of some methods of stimulating consumer activity cannot be noticed, although they exist and it is as if they are not there. In general, in IKEA stores almost everything is allowed to the visitor.

Sales consultants show up on time

It is common practice in many sales organizations to approach a customer and ask him if he would like help. Perhaps this is what should be done, even if not immediately, but by letting the person look around. However, in some cases, the excessive zeal of the staff looks like interest, expressed in other circumstances by the phrase “what are you up to?” At IKEA, consultants only answer questions asked of them and come when called. However, there is no doubt that they will provide the buyer with any assistance necessary.

Internal jargon

Employees do not communicate with each other in a language they understand, including through loudspeaker broadcasting. The main hypothetical situations are coded with numbers that change periodically to avoid decoding. If one of the visitors makes a scandal or, for example, a child cannot be found, then security will be called by uttering a conditional phrase. This shows concern for the peace of mind of other clients.

Funny names

Some product items, usually small ones, are designated by words that mean nothing and are created special program, generating random combinations of sounds and letters. On the one hand, this can be very funny, on the other hand, it removes some of the official responsibilities from marketers, who do not need to rack their brains over trifles. Sometimes these funny names encourage visitors to buy.

The mystery of IKEA kitchen furniture

In specialized departments selling furniture and equipment for home kitchens, there is always a slight aroma of something vaguely edible in the air. The smell is created by forcing air through special fans, and its nature has nothing to do with the synthetic aerosols used in some grocery stores and coffee shops. It's natural and comes from real food being cooked (more on that later). The essence of the marketing technique is to create an associative series and subconsciously instill the idea that all you have to do is buy something for your kitchen, and it will also smell so delicious. Although, of course, at home it won’t be about the furniture...

Where do the scents come from?

A person who comes from afar (this has already been said) to an IKEA store can count on the fact that he will not remain hungry. In this state, people become irritable, and this is contrary to the interests of business. The signature dish for which the retail chain is famous is Scandinavian meatballs. They even have their own fans, just like the IKEA retail chain as a whole.

Free access to the warehouse

This room, dominated by a strict storekeeper who carefully checks invoices, is closed to visitors at almost any retail outlet. At IKEA, as is already known, you can do everything, including not only entering the warehouse, but also taking whatever you like there. And then to the checkout, please.

Involvement in the creation of the product

The assembly of IKEA brand furniture is simplified as much as possible, but in any case, each buyer, following the instructions, feels like a co-author and, to some extent, the creator of these household items. After such work, each thing is treated with a special attitude.

Largest consumer of wood

IKEA doesn’t like to say that one hundredth of all the wood produced on the planet is consumed by this company. The attitude towards this fact is twofold: on the one hand, such an impressive scale of activity speaks in favor of the company, on the other hand, the material is natural, which is also good. But how can the buyer imagine how many trees are being cut down...

In fact, IKEA is practically a Dutch company

Yes, the company only partially retained its Swedish affiliation - exactly to the extent represented by the share of shares owned by Ingvar Kamprad. Everything else, along with the brand, was bought by the Stichting INGKA Foundation at the beginning of 2012. However, Kamprad’s stake, although not a controlling one, is clearly significant, otherwise he would not have occupied one of the honorable places on the Forbes list.

Most read brand

Few literary work boasts a circulation of 180 million copies. This is how many IKEA catalogs are printed annually.