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IKEA: Target Market and Positioning Strategy When analyzing an organization’s target market, the first step is to understand the business and what they hope to achieve through their marketing strategies. Targeting and positioning strategies consist of analyzing and identifying segments within a given product-market, choosing which segment or segments to target, and developing and implementing a positioning strategy for each targeted segment (Cravens & Piercy, 2009). The company’s target market determines what customer group or groups the company wants to serve (Cravens & Piercy, 2009). Analyzing IKEA’s target market allows the company to determine if their marketing strategies have successfully targeted their intended customer group or groups. Discussing the company’s positioning strategy helps determine if the strategy is effective or if the company must make improvements strengthen their positioning strategy. The company must determine if their targeting and positioning strategies may be lacking. If the company’s targeting and positioning strategies are lacking, the company must determine what they must do to strengthen their targeting and positioning strategies. IKEA IKEA is more than a furniture store they are a company driven by values (IKEA, 2014). The company seeks to make their consumers lives easier by providing them with modern, innovative, inexpensive products which they use to tackle daily home activities. IKEA Group has 298 stores in 26 different countries (IKEA, 2014). The company’s vision is “to create a better everyday life for the many people” (IKEA, 2014, para 1). Using innovative techniques for creating, producing, and marketing their products IKEA can provide consumers with durable products for reason... ... middle of paper ... ...nsumers recognize and share with their friends thus providing IKEA with free word of mouth advertisement. If IKEA implements the suggested recommendations the company could improve their positioning strategy thus securing their leader position in the furniture market. Works Cited Cravens, D. W., & Piercy, N. F. (2009). Strategic marketing (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. IKEA. (2014). About the IKEA Group: Welcome inside our company. Retrieved from http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/this-is-ikea/company-information/index.html IKEA. (2014). Marketing and communications: Getting our messages to the many people. Retrieved from http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/the_ikea_story/working_at_ikea/work_areas_marketing_communications.html Rosenbaum, E. (2013, August 8). A new species? The elusive nature of the global middle class. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/100949800
Kerin, Roger A., and Robert A. Peterson. Strategic marketing problems: cases and comments. 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
Hooley, G., Piercy, N. F., & Nicoulau, B. (2008). Marketing strategy and competitive positioning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Armstrong, Gary, and Philip Kotler. Marketing: an introduction. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2013. Print.
Once the target market has been identified it is important to develop a marketing strategy. In today's fast paced, information overloaded society; conveying a message about a product seems to be more difficult than ever. The consumer is bombarded with advertising everywhere they look. Today advertising not only exists on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, it can be found on billboards, park benches, in our mailboxes, on buses, taxis, at sporting events, and on clothing.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning are the fundament of modern marketing (Proctor, 2002, p. 188, as cited in Harris and Schaefer, 2015).
Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., McDaniel, C. D., & Wardlow, D. L. (2009). Essentials of marketing (6th ed.). Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Pub..
and will work their best to achieve them. With this management style, IKEA can use various methods of communications (see E5). However this type of management style could make decision-making slow and is not appropriate to some businesses such as, manufacturing industries. The organisational structure, culture and the management style of IKEA have to perform successfully so that, together they can achieve the company’s objectives. For example, to increase profitability: the communication within the organisation have to be clear so that, staff can understand what jobs have to be carried out; staff have to be motivated to perform the job; the relationship between managers and staff have to be strong and committing; the organisation have to encourage staff to create new ideas and share them amongst others; democratic managers have to listen and act on the opinions of workforce, democratic managers have to make sure that the workforce is well aware of the objectives of IKEA, etc.
Bowell states that IKEA is establishing themselves “...as a leader in creating and running innovative sustainable places.” This means that IKEA is taking their job seriously. They want to be the ones to help and inspire their customers into following the methods of sustainability. The “People & Planet Positive Strategy” allows the customers individuals to learn about how they can make a change in their own lives by the implementation of products from the company. IKEA is in the process of adapting to the lifestyle of being environmentally friendly. It is necessary for them to become net-positive. Most appliance retailers do not maintain this type of
Etzel, Michael J., Stanton, Bruce J., Stanton, William J. (2004). Marketing. (13th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Another example of IKEA’s international strategy in building good relationships with suppliers is in Asia, especially in Vietnam, where IKEA expanded its own supply base. Vietnam manufacturers offers low cost labor force and not expensive raw materials, while IKEA provides the view of creating a long-term, high-volume business relationship, and advice on finding the best according to the price raw materials, setting up and bulding factories, choosing what machines, equipments
Moreover, Ikea presents itself such a leader in terms of corporate sustainability, thinking at the same time that suistainability is a main source of innovation and competitive advantage.
E-commerce is available on Ikea’s website to selected countries, and they provide an e-mail address to customers who have queries about their business.
Armstrong G. & Kotler P. (2007) Marketing: An Introduction 8E Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson Prentice Hall Publishers
The selected organization for the marketing Audit is IKEA Group. As part Phoenix University marketing course, the author of this document (hereafter referred as “author”) will review the marketing process of IKEA and will provide an audit report at the end of the course.
Kotler, J., & Keller, K. (2012). A framework for marketing management. Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.