Viability Report: IKEA Sponsorship for Women's Basketball League

This report examines the potential for IKEA to become a naming rights sponsor for the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). The analysis begins with an overview of IKEA as a global furniture retailer and the WNBL as a professional women's basketball league in Australia. The report then delves into a comparative analysis of the two entities, focusing on their brand images, target audiences, and market positions. It highlights the distinct differences between IKEA, known for its affordable home furnishings, and the WNBL, which promotes women's empowerment through sports. The report concludes that IKEA is not a suitable option for the WNBL as a naming rights sponsor because their brand attributes and target audiences are significantly different, making a sponsorship deal unlikely to be mutually beneficial. The report references several sources to support its findings and provides a comprehensive evaluation of the potential partnership.

Running head: IKEA
IKEA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1IKEA
IKEA is an international Swedish- based organization that mainly “designs and sells
ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home products, among other useful
goods and occasionally home services”. Since the year 2008, IKEA has been one of the
biggest international furniture retailers around the world. With headquarters at Delft,
Netherlands, IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad, a 17-year-old carpenter “who was listed
by Forbes in 2015 as one of the ten richest people in the world, worth more than $40 billion”.
IKEA company is well known for its “modernist designs for various types of appliances and
furniture, and its interior design work is often associated with an eco-friendly simplicity”.
IKEA has opened around 432 stores in around 52 countries around the whole world in the
month of June in the year 2019. Consumers can also purchase IKEA products from the
official website also which “contains about 12,000 products and is the closest representation
of the entire IKEA product range”(ikea, 2019).
Now talking about IKEA being signed as the naming rights sponsorship for the
Women National Basketball League(WNBL) would not be viable option. The “Women's
National Basketball League (WNBL) which was founded in the year 1981 is the pre-eminent
professional women's basketball league” which present in Australia. At present it is made up
of eight teams. Over the past few years, the league continued to grow expand and gain
popularity. In the year 1989, the “Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) gained
its first sponsor in the form of pony which was Australia leading sporting apparel company.
Both IKEA and “Women's National Basketball League” (WNBL) have total different
brand entity altogether. They do not share any common brand attribute. Both IKEA and
“Women's National Basketball League” (WNBL) has an entirely different Target
Audience.“Women's National Basketball League” (WNBL) has a massive target audience
who are a sports enthusiast, who love watching Basketball leagues mainly the teenager,
youngster and young adults. The Target audience for IKEA mainly includes people from all

2IKEA
age groups but mainly the adults, can be both male and female living in any part of the
world ,but having one thing in common , getting good quality products at a reasonable price.
Now there may be some people who may love IKEA`s furniture and other products and are
also a big women basketball fan. However, this is very rare. Both IKEA and the “Women’s
National Basketball League” (WNBL) has a very distinct Brand image and target audience.
While talking about the Brand Image and Brand attributes, both IKEA and “Women’s
National Basketball League” (WNBL) are very different from one another. “Women’s
National Basketball League” (WNBL) promotes women empowerment and upliftment of
women’s health especially through sports. They believe in overall development of women
community through sports and physical activities. The Brand image for IKEA is that “you
can find anything for a comfy home from IKEA with a decent price and quality”. They
believe in delivering good decent furniture products at a reasonable price to every household.
They aim for “sustainability, form, function, and quality within the low price”(Helmefalk,
2016).
Considering the market position of the IKEA, it has positioned itself as a leading
international retail brand, which specializes at providing economic, well-designed, stylish
home furnishings at every household. While “Women’s National Basketball League”
(WNBL) is altogether has a different market position. It promotes Women Empowerment and
overall upliftment and development of women’s community through sports.”
Thus it can be seen that both IKEA and “Women’s National Basketball League”
(WNBL) shares a different brand image and characteristics in the market and so IKEA is not
a suitable option for Women National Basketball League(WNBL) as the naming rights
sponsor.

3IKEA
REFERENCES
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Helmefalk, M. (2016). Congruency as a mediator in an IKEA retail setting: products,
services and store image in relation to sensory cues. International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management, 44(9), 956-972.
ikea, i. (2019). IKEA.com - International homepage. Retrieved 25 July 2019, from
https://www.ikea.com/
Severi, E., & Ling, K. C. (2013). The mediating effects of brand association, brand loyalty,
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