All Hail IKEA

IKEA has a solid history of excellent communication. The Swedish powerhouse is just too good at creating campaigns and communicating to their target market effectively through all kinds of marketing techniques.

The latest IKEA campaign comes as no surprise with the launch of their long-awaited catalogue, where they ‘activated’ bus stop spaces with couches, floor rugs and colourful visuals.

One of the more memorable campaigns was a press campaign for Valentines Day, where a coupon for a cot was provided for “babies born 9 months from today”. Entertaining and genius.

You see, IKEA has identified their consumer so well, they know exactly how to create humour, emotion and appeal to the everyday person, without assuming they need to be shouted at or ‘sold’ to. Your marketing strategy should form a mix of selling and brand awareness, as they have two different jobs to do.

What really is the likelihood someone is going to bring a cot coupon in exactly 9 months down the track? Not likely at all. But how many people would have gained brand awareness from the clever pun? Many. I certainly haven’t forgotten it!

And while you might like to argue they are a large corporation with money to burn, they had to start somewhere. By remaining true to their brand and message, they haven’t done too badly at all.