Target Segments of IKEA’s Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital media has become one of the most powerful platforms to perform different types of operations and so is the case with marketing. Retail companies like Ikea has to give their full efforts towards developing their marketing campaign in such a manner that digital marketing tools and techniques remains at the centre of the plan. Digital technologies also help the firm in building marketing strategies that is extremely powerful and is able to attract large numbers of customers towards their business (Charlesworth, 2014). Selection of tools must be done with at most importance so as to ensure that their brand visibility is at the top. This report shows the target segments that IKEA has made for itself in order to improve their performance. Along with this it also illustrates about the positioning statement that company has prepared for itself so as to attract these target segments. At last it illustrates about the strengths and weaknesses of their digital marketing strategy.

IKEA have used different variables in the marketing so as to target different people from the different sections of the society and so as to ensure that largest possible numbers of people can be targeted with that variable (Chaffey & Smith, 2013). Among different market segments made by IKEA, the two major market segments are on the basis of variable named social class and benefit sought.

In terms of social class, they have targeted people from the low and middle class. In that too they have concentrated on working class people. The have made their products according to these people whose purchasing power is on the lower side. Apart from this, another major target market of IKEA is the people that seek cost effectiveness. Their products are of high quality and they are offering it at lower cost (Acar & Puntoni, 2016). This is done so as to target people in both rural and urban areas. Apart from this they have also taken care of the fact that most of the furniture companies have targeted people from the upper class. They portray it as a luxury product.

In order to attract both these major target markets, they have positioned themselves as a company that is offering furniture at lower prices while giving same amount of values that other companies provide at higher prices (Lee & Carter, 2011). They have positioned themselves one of those firms that provide high quality products at reasonable prices hence they are able to attract both their major target markets i.e. people that sought cost effectiveness or the people that from lower or middle class.

Positioning Statement: How IKEA Attracts Cost-Conscious Consumers

IKEA being a bigger brand name has to take care of their marketing campaign. They select their digital marketing tools seeking the fact that which tools or techniques would help them in reaching to largest possible customers (Perrey & Spillecke, 2011). This is also based on the idea that their segmented market uses which marketing tool as their priority. Three tools and techniques that are primarily used by IKEA are:

• Content marketing: This is one of the best marketing tools that can be used by any furniture company. Content based marketing helps the company to reach to its customers with the best of qualities they have. Contents include images, scripts, videos and other type media. Content marketing is done by the firm so as to influence the purchasing behaviour of the people. This is having the strongest effect on the purchasing intention of the potential customers as it highlights the good points of the company and also shows the way in which product is going to solve the problems of the people (McNamara & Descubes, 2016). IKEA has hired a group of digital marketing personnel that makes excellent and attractive contents. IKEA illustrates about the quality of the products that is delivered by the firm especially the way in which it resolves the problems faced by the firm. These contents are floated on different platforms so as to ensure that maximum possible numbers of customers could see it.
• Social media marketing: Numbers of customers that are attached with the social media is very large and hence companies can easily find their target market at this platform. This company uses the social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram so as to increase their visibility. Apart from this company handles their social media campaign with the help of dedicated employees. This tool is also used for collecting data in the form of likes and comments. The data collected from this source is analysed with the help of the social media analytics (Trendafilov, 2018). These data are helpful in suggesting about the excitement of the people about any specific products. The biggest benefit of using social media for digital marketing is that it offers flexibility as any type of media can be uploaded on this platform. This is very much crucial for bringing innovation in the marketing campaign which is essential for attracting more numbers of people towards their business. Offers can be easily communicated as well as it also helps in doing personalised marketing.
• Search Engine Optimisation: IKEA also takes use of the digital marketing tools such as SEO so as to improve their visibility. Almost of their potential customers and the targeted customers do take use of the search engines. In the age of digital business this trend has increased to significant level. Company has hired Search Engine Optimisers so that whenever the product is searched by the users on the search engines, their name emerges on first (Teixeira, et al. 2018). This helps the company in increasing the purchase chances as customers usually prefers to see the websites or pages that appears on the top. This is beneficial in the case of all the type of retailers. It is proving to be one of the best mediums on which marketing directly leads to increase in the sale. 

Digital marketing strategies that are used by the IKEA have certain kind of strengths and weaknesses. These strategies are made citing the benefits they provide to their consumers. Some of the strengths are as follows:

• Their content marketing is very much powerful and shows all the attributes that are positive in their products. It highlights the problems that are resolved by their products (Sweeney, 2018).
• Their search engine optimisation techniques are effective especially when compared with their competitors. This helps them in giving competitive advantage over the others (Tarnovskaya & de Chernatony, 2011).
• They have a team of digital marketing personnel who are highly skilled and are efficient in managing the changing business environment. It is seen that people that are from the local cultural backgrounds are often hired in then team so as to make the strategies more helpful.
• They are known for their innovative style of marketing on different digital platforms.

Weaknesses of the strategies are as follows:

• Their marketing is limited for certain areas in the world which reduces their power to expand in the international market especially the markets that are not very much developed.
• Their digital marketing strategies are not very much aggressive when compared with other big furniture manufacturers (Dessy, 2017).
• IKEA’s digital marketing strategies lack bigger fan pages or follower when compared with other competitors.

Analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the company, it can be recommended that the company should focus more on using artificial intelligence in their digital marketing strategies. This is essential for improving the quality of the marketing campaign. More data based marketing can be done with the help of AI. Company should also consider the tools such as YouTube for improving the marketing campaign. It can upload the experience of their customers so as to increase the trust in their potential consumers. YouTube advertisements along with personalised marketing can be beneficial for increasing the interest of the people in their products (Oleoshop, 2018). It is also recommended that data must be protected during digital marketing strategies as competitors might attack on this data and steal the crucial information. Company could also enhance their visibility at other e-commerce sites so as to increase the chances of sale. It will also help the client to find the link to the site from where they could make the purchase.

Conclusion

From the above based report, it can be said that IKEA is one of the biggest furniture retailers in the world. IKEA has targeted people who have affinity for cost effective products and the people that are from the lower and middle income class. In order to target these people company has positioned itself as a firm that offers quality products at reasonable prices. They use social media, search engine optimisation and content marketing as their primary tools and techniques for digital marketing. Their strategies are more focused towards using content and social media for increasing the sale. Their online marketing strategy is empowered by strong search engine optimisation. On the other hand it has weaknesses that their digital marketing campaign has not reached to other parts of the world. 

References

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McNamara, T., & Descubes, I. (2016). Can IKEA adapt its service experience to India?. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 6(1), 1-14.

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Perrey, J., & Spillecke, D. (2011). Retail marketing and branding: A definitive guide to maximizing ROI. John Wiley & Sons.

Sweeney, E. 2018. Ikea refreshes marketing with experiential, digital push and fewer print catalogs. Retrieved from: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/ikea-refreshes-marketing-with-experiential-digital-push-and-fewer-print-ca/529279/

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