The IKEA Edge: Building Global Growth and Social Good at the World's Most Iconic Home Store

CHAPTER 9Effective Communication

Communication or marketing has always been one of the most frustrating disciplines for me. When listening to endless complicated presentations on market segmentation, brand advertising, and “customer insights,” I feel tempted to go back and apply the Dilbert principle of marketing: “All you need to know is that if you lower the price, you can sell more units.” And very often it is as simple as that.

The Media Mix

In order of importance, the Ikea media mix consists of:

• Stores

• The Web

• The Catalog

• The Ikea Family club

• Brochures

• Television and print advertising

Annually, there are more than 600 million visitors to the stores and 500 million visits to the website. Of course, this is where most of the marketing ...