THE BIRTH OF A BRAND
410 million customers. 104,000 co-workers. 229 stores in 24 countries. In addition, 30 franchises in 15 countries.

From its birth in the woods of Småland in southern Sweden to its presence in millions of homes around the globe, Swedish home furnishings manufacturer and retailer IKEA has come a long way since its inception more than 60 years ago.

The success story of one of Swedish best-known exports begins in 1943. Recognized worldwide for its blue and yellow square buildings, the colors are representative of the Swedish flag. IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder’s name Ingvar Kamprad, and the first letters of the names of the property (Elmtaryd) and the small farming village (Agunnaryd) where he grew up. Kamprad, with a nose for business already at 17, began IKEA with the gift he received for his success in his studies. He sold pens, wallets, picture frames, watches, jewelry and even nylon stockings — whatever he felt he could fill a need at a low price. Subsequently, Kamprad’s early start in entrepreneurship laid the foundation for the IKEA business idea: To offer a wide range of home furnishings with savvy design and practical function at low prices so that as many people as possible could afford them — and still have money left!

This concept, like its founder Ingvar Kamprad, was born in Småland, a part of Sweden where traditionally, people worked hard to live on small means. The need to make the best possible use of limited resources gave rise to the IKEA focus on keeping prices down.

Furniture was only introduced in IKEA product lines in 1947. 6 years later chronicled a milestone when it opened its first furniture showroom in Älmhult. For the first time, customers could see and touch the furnishings before making their orders. The company‘s competitive edge is no longer dependent on low prices; the addition of quality and function made IKEA a formidable force to be reckoned with.


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But pressure from their rivals led to a boycott by the suppliers, driving IKEA to design its own furniture in 1955. This in turn became the foundation for future growth when innovative design and greater function allowed much lower prices.

One day, an IKEA employee removed the legs of a table for it to fit it into a car and avoid transportation damage. This move inspired the company to design for flat packaging, resulting in greater savings for their customers.

It grew evident by then the modus operandi of IKEA is to turn problems into opportunities.

In 1965, another important concept known as “self-service” was born with the opening of the 45, 800 sq m flagship store in Stockholm, its architecture inspired by the Guggenheim Museum in New York. It saw more than a warm reception — thousands stood in line and IKEA faced problems in serving the huge capacity. To manage the problem, the warehouse is opened to the people to let them serve themselves. Just as much of furniture is assembled by the consumer. Consequentially, these ideas afforded every wallet to take home a piece of IKEA.

Before IKEA opened its first American store in 1985, its first step out of Scandinavia was marked in Zurich in 1973. The success of the store paved the way for conquering the German market. Just one year later, Germany’s first IKEA opened in Munich. Today, Germany is the largest market for IKEA.


THE SPREAD OF THE WORD
In 1951, the first of what was to become the most highly anticipated publication in the world was published.

The IKEA furniture catalogue, said to surpass the Bible’s circulation numbers with its annual print run of 191 million copies in 27 languages and distribution in 55 editions, is a vital marketing channel for IKEA and a household necessity for homeowners looking for ingenious ideas and smart solutions in utilitarian yet affordable Swedish designs.

The Internet is an up-and-coming medium for marketing and sharing inspirational hints and tips. The IKEA website registered 125 million visits worldwide.

In IKEA stores, different furniture ranges are displayed in real-life room settings that spark cool interior design ideas.


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British design magazine Icon named IKEA “the most influential force in contemporary design”. Yet, editor Marcus Fairs conceded that IKEA “is a phenomenon that is regarded with a lot of snobbery in the design world, but has made a massive and valid contribution to the public uptake of contemporary-styled furnishings and furniture.”


THE ILLUMINATION OF INSIGHTS
IKEA has been working with award-winning Swedish advertising agency Forsman & Bodenfors since 1996 — from long-term brand development to ongoing tactical advertising campaigns, such as the online interactive site for IKEA closets called “Come Into The Closet”, television advertisements for IKEA storage solutions in “Nice & Tidy” and ongoing print advertising in magazines and newspapers — and recently, the agency began to embark on more international projects with IKEA.

At the beginning of the partnership, Forsman & Bodenfors conducted researched which revealed that while IKEA is recognized for functional values such as good quality at low prices, the brand fell short of emotional values. This built an invisible wall in Swedish homes: The IKEA customer could imagine purchasing functional home decoration products such as furniture for the kids’ room, the garage, the hallway and the study, but was apprehensive towards furniture for the living room, the bedroom and kitchen, since such capital investment items are indicators of personal style and taste.

The IKEA customer also believed that the only time something new happened at IKEA was when the company released a new catalogue.

With these insights in mind, Forsman & Bodenfors conceptualized a long-term, far-reaching strategy to reposition the IKEA brand with the focus locked on an emotional brand connection (“Always new exciting products that allow you to express your creativity in your home”), rather than a rational business focus (“Explain how it is possible to sell high quality at low prices”).

Since then, IKEA communications have been refined based on this strategic platform. In the process, the importance of working with product and price, traditional ingredients in sale-tactical warfare and even brand-building efforts, gained more weight.

IKEA core values have always been straightforward and open — it’s vision lies in improving life at home — but the combination of product and price turned out to be the brand’s core identifier, blurring the lines between sale tactics and brand-building.


THE EXECUTION OF “DREAM KITCHENS”
One of Forsman & Bodenfors’ most successful campaigns for IKEA centers on executing the brand strategy online. As IKEA owns a dominant position in Sweden’s kitchen marketplace, the goal was to increase the total market rather than compete for existing market share. At the same time, IKEA wanted to show customers the possibility of building their personal kitchens with the broad range of IKEA kitchens.

To arouse desire in people who were not planning on acquiring a new kitchen to start dreaming about it, and at the same time, provide assistance in the complex and intimidating buying and installation process, the agency came up with the "Dream Kitchens For Everyone" campaign site.

Philip Mascher, IKEA account director at Forsman & Bodenfors, explained: “We wanted to present IKEA kitchen designs in an irresistibly inspiring way, while educating consumers that they are of great quality, highly functional and available at incredibly low prices. In addition, we needed to demonstrate that IKEA offers services to make the complex purchasing and installation process smooth and convenient.”

Forsman & Bodenfors — ranked the world’s 3rd best agency in the Shots Grand Prix ranking and named one of the three agencies of the year in this year’s Cannes Lions — concluded that only the web has the tools to fulfill this complex communication need. It became the first campaign for IKEA to integrate a full Internet commercial in conjunction with e-blasts and online banners, supported by traditional media such as television commercials and print advertisements in magazines designed to drive traffic to the campaign site.


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The captivating design of the main visual captures six distinct dream kitchens with real-life scenes in a time-freeze format where the site visitor can move around on a 3D track. Forsman & Bodenfors engaged prominent photographer and director Fredrik Kallinggård, who used a Milo motion control rig to film the commercial.

However, the big camera made it difficult to build six different kitchen sets in the studio. Kallinggård sought the expertise of Stockholm’s leading effects house sto.pp for 3D modeling and post-production.


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sto.pp first tracked the camera’s motion to model set extensions, since pieces of walls and floors that were taken out of the set for the Milo motion rig to fit in had to be replaced. The sto.pp 3D team rebuilt the ceiling in almost all the scenes because setlights had to be mounted from above. Photos taken on the set captured colors and textures that were used to produce 3D elements. After which, some of the interiors in certain shots had to be rebuilt and cupboards windows had to be recreated due to the visibility of the Milo rig’s reflection.


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Flying or moving objects like toast, eggs, wine bottle, lamps, confetti, champagne, foam and food, were then added into the air to enhance the realism of the time freeze effect. The film was shot in several passes with the Milo rig. Since it was a motion control rig, the camera was able to shoot the exact same sequence repeatedly so that clean back plates could be used to paint out actors, wires and all the lines that helped the actors stay in place. The actors and objects were returned on top of the 3D elements that were then merged together and graded to match the tone and color of the footage by sto.pp’s senior inferno artist Peter Marin. The 3D departments also duplicated some of the composites to create reflections in the windows.

Spellbound consumers were inspired with the overall effect a beautiful kitchen with a great design has on the home. The high entertainment value of the mesmerizing visual treatment retained visitors onsite for an average of 4 minutes!

Through sub-sections and links, keen consumers can find out more details on achieving their dream kitchens, such as prices, a closer look at the different kinds of storage, kitchen organization advice, a tool that assists planning the development of the project, the package of services under Kitchen Aid, an overview of IKEA quality testing and links to IKEA online purchasing process.


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THE SUCCESS OF THE CAMPAIGN
Soon after the launch in October 2005, IKEA Sweden’s new kitchen website reached a massive 1,100,000 visitors (in a country of about 10 million people). IKEA scored a coup and Forsman & Bodenfors added another feather to their cap.

Exceptional statistics proudly revealed that the site was a well-crafted stimulus that evoked a strong interest in kitchen products. Visitors found the site highly inspirational. And IKEA successfully built a positive impression as everyone’s dream kitchen manufacturer.

The “Dream Kitchens For Everyone” site magnified the market for home kitchens and further strengthened IKEA’s already well-established position. It was also named the 2006 most awarded website in the world by Creativity Magazine.




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