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July 05, 2004
Ikea - another Best of Both Play
A while ago, I wrote about Target as a guilty pleasure, and a terrific Best of Both Play.
Well, here's another store/brand that fits both categories - IKEA. They re-positioned the home furnishings category the same way Volkswagen did German cars - young, hip, functional and affordable.
What's the story? How do/did they do it? Even this brand is not without controversy. For other Ikea lovers like myself, here are a number of interesting and amusing posts:
Brand Mantra has two entries examining the passion of Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, its powerful influence on the Ikea corporate culture and it's potential downsides. He wrote "The Testament of a Furniture Dealer", setting out Ikea's "sacred concept" and expounding that "Those who cannot or will not join us are to be pitied ... What we want to do, we can do and will do, together. A glorious future!" Wow. Heavy-duty.
Oliver Thylmann and others poke fun at the in store experience with a funny Ikea walkthrough guide.
Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine waxes nostalgic for his Ikea youth.
ZDNet has quite a funny spoof on what Ikea would be like if Microsoft ran it - you guessed it - security problems, not enough competition, and no to very little model choices.
Jen at VeryBigBlog is so in love with Ikea, she has a whole category devoted to it (one recent post Project Big Blue has some very, very funny banner designs for an upcoming store in Ohio). Go Jen!
Finally, Margaret Marks (eine Deutsche die Englisch auch spricht) has a great guide to how Ikea goes about coming up with all its funky product names. This is interesting and the comments are hilarious too.
Whatever you think of Ikea. It sure has been successful at establishing a global brand! And heck, the kids love the ballroom and the meatballs with lingonberry soda. What could be better?
Posted by johnza at July 5, 2004 08:30 AM
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Comments
Thanks for the link - I must admit I'm a Brit who speaks German, though!
Posted by: MM at July 12, 2004 12:58 PM
Actually, I have a made blog for ikea since there is surely to be MUCH mroe to write abotu for ohio soon!
Posted by: jen segrest at July 5, 2004 09:18 AM
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