How does TV advertising campaign initiated by IKEA overcome the entry barrier of high advertising expenditures? When IKEA first entered into North America, its moose symbol was welcomed by Canadians, but it was still too provincial and foreign to Americans. Also, IKEA was disadvantaged by store locations that are relatively far from city centers, thus limiting brand awareness for potential customers. To adjust and make IKEA be more visible, IKEA decided to collaborate with Deutsch Inc., who launched a clean symbol with the traditional Sweden flag color yellow and blue and a strong slogan: “It’s a big country.
Someone’s got to furnish it” which tracks with IKEA’s playfulness. Later on, a series of eight TV advertisements were developed by Deutsch and IKEA. These advertisements highlighted the different categories of customers who were mostly likely to shop at IKEA. They were keen to capture the transitional stages in people’s lives, and they even appealed to gay couples’ life style.
This was back in 1994, when TV advertisements normally would avoid discussion of homosexual topics. This adventurous step was considered as a breakthrough by some gay leaders and also made IKEA distinct from competitors. These eight TV advertisements successfully found new ways to communicate with audiences and affected their perceptions that IKEA cares about the different ages, genders and areas of customers’ needs, desires, satisfactions and preferences.
This encouraged connection between IKEA and customers and also helped IKEA deliver the notion that customer should be more engaged in the process of decorating his/her living space to make it more comfortable and personal. In a word, IKEA TV advertising successfully targeted the right customer and made positive interaction with customers. These advertisements allowed IKEA to pass hurdles, bridge market gaps, and unseal the gate to its market share in the United States.
