Comprehensive Marketing Research Report: IKEA Inc. Strategy

This report delves into a comprehensive market research analysis focused on IKEA. It begins by outlining the stages of the purchase decision-making process, exploring various buyer behavior theories and models, and identifying factors influencing buyer behavior. The report defines and evaluates the relationships between brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchasing. It then examines market research techniques, emphasizing the use of secondary data to achieve marketing objectives and assessing the validity and reliability of market research findings. A detailed marketing research plan is proposed for IKEA, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The report further analyzes market size trends within the US furniture market, providing a competitor analysis with a focus on Ashley Furniture and a SWOT analysis of IKEA's products. Finally, the report discusses techniques for assessing customer response, including a customer satisfaction survey and a review of its success, offering valuable insights into IKEA's market position and strategic opportunities.

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Assignment
Student Name
Student Number
Submission Date
Professor’s Name

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Table of Contents
1.1 Stages of purchase decision-making process.............................................................................3
1.2 Buyer behavior theories or model...................................................................................................3
1.3 Factors affecting buyer behavior.....................................................................................................4
1.4 Define brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchasing and evaluate relationship between
them......................................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Market Research Techniques:.........................................................................................................4
2.2 Use of secondary data to achieve marketing research objectives...................................................5
2.3 Assess the validity and reliability of market research findings........................................................6
2.4 Propose a Marketing Research Plan for the IKEA Inc.......................................................................6
3.1 Market size trends within given market...........................................................................................8
3.2 Competitor’s Analysis for IKEA.....................................................................................................9
3.3 SWOT Analysis of IKEA’s products...............................................................................................9
4.1 Techniques of assessing customer response.................................................................................10
4.2 Customer satisfaction survey.........................................................................................................11
4.3 Review the success of completed survey.......................................................................................14
References...........................................................................................................................................15

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1.1 Stages of purchase decision-making process
To understand customers and how they react in the market, there is need to answer some
important questions like where, when, and how they make their purchase as well as their
choice criteria. The purchase decision-making process helps to understand that. First they
become aware that a product exists, then they gain interest to know how the product is, they
then evaluate to know if the product is worth trying or not. They then trial the product and
finally adopt if they feel it is worth. Consumers have to make difficult decision as to what to
buy as many products are available which makes decision process structured. Among the
types of buying decisions is complex buying behavior where customers are undecided which
brand to buy as price is high or it’s a high risk to settle for one product as it may disappoint.
There is also variety seeking buying behavior whereby a consumer buys one brand each time
and switches the next time. There are two dimensions of buyer behavior. Consumer buyers
who are final consumers of product and business buy who buy and use product as raw
material.
1.2 Buyer behavior theories or model
There are many factors that influence business buyer behavior. They include environmental
factors such as technology change, economic development, competition, culture and customs.
Organization factors include objectives, structure, policies, and procedures. Interpersonal
factors include, persuasiveness, empathy, and authority. Individual factors include age, risk
attitude, income and education.When customers are faced with a certain situations such as
promotion, technological change, often calcified as a stimulusthey respond by choosing a
specific product. This is what represent stimulus response model(Jisana, 2014).Model of
purchase behavior include learning model which suggests buyer behavior depends of drive
and stimuli to decide what to purchase. Economic man model also explains purchase
behavior through maximizing utility principle.Diffusion and innovation buyer behavior
processinvolves problem identification, information search, evaluation of alternatives,
purchase decision and post-purchase behavior.The choice criteria is determined by things like

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perceived risk, life-cycle costs, quality, personal favourism, continuity, and even office
politics.
1.3 Factors affecting buyer behavior
There are several factors that affect buyer motives and they include psychological, socio-
psychological, economic, cultural, and personal factors. Psychological are perception,
learning, beliefs, attitudes, and motivation usually covered under the Maslow’shierarchyof
needs. Socio-psychological factors mainly cover social status of buyer which influences their
buying motives. Economic factors include income, savings, consumer credit, business cycle,
and inflation. Cultural factors are the beliefs and attitudes of the buyer towards certain
products and they are mainly influenced by the community they belong to and family
members.Personal factors include lifestyle which is how buyers live and life-cycle which
indicate buyer motives changes as they progress in age (Udell, 2001).
1.4 Define brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchasing and
evaluate relationship between them
Brand loyalty entails buyer buying the same brand of products as opposed to considering
other brand. Corporate image refers to the reputation a company has as most buyers tend to
buy from only those companies which have a good corporate image and change their
preference when the reputation of that company changes from good to bad.Repeat purchase
entails buyers buying a product and liking it thus buying the same product every timethe
previous product is fully consumed. Brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchase are
interrelated since corporate image influences brand loyalty and it causes repeat purchase as
consumers prefer the same goods and services over and over again (Wood & Neal, 2009).
2.1 Market Research Techniques:
Market research is performed by an organization to analyze the position of their product in
the target market and determine the opportunities and threats for their products and services.

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It also helps organization to evaluate the establishment of their competitors, present problems
and align effective strategies according to legislation to maximize profit.
Market research is important for organization because it identify significant information
about market and its potential buyers. Organizations adopt different methods in order to
perform their market research. The organization should select effective and efficient
marketing technique according to which they can form new strategies. IKEA can use
following marketing techniques to perform their market research.
1. Qualitative analysis
These techniques are adopted by organizations to investigate opportunities to explore
their target market. Limited number of potential consumers or small group of
individuals selected to perform this research. The methods used to collect data are
face-to-face or telephonic interviews, surveys (web or mail surveys). This helps
researchers to finds data through feedbacks, reviews, observations, opinions etc.
2. Quantitative Analysis
Large number of population is involved in this type of research. The data is collected
through observational and experimental methods, like finding views of people about
IKEA’s products. Statistical analysis methods are used to evaluate data gathered
through this technique.
2.2 Use of secondary data to achieve marketing research objectives
The marketing research objectives required to investigate the information about target
market, its potential customers, and competitors. It is significant to construct objectives of the
research to decide research flow and data collection. Primary and secondary data collection
methods are equally important but secondary data collection is easier one because no direct
human interaction is needed to collect information (Belz & Schmidt-Riediger, 2010). The
research objectives are:
 To investigate the best location for IKEA to launch its new product in India.
 Investigates potential and demographic information of customers to enter in new
market

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To achieve these objectives one has to gather large information about the target market to
have accurate results. The secondary sources of data can be used by the company which want
to launch product in new market. The data sources may include pupil census, cohort studies
and national and international surveys on that particular location.
To investigate the information about potential customers, demographic information and
opportunities and threats to enter in new market, the secondary sources would be used are
journal articles about the target market, competitors reports, annual reports of companies and
scholar and published web-sources and books written on target market conditions. After
evaluating these sources company will be benefited and can form basic research of market.
2.3 Assess the validity and reliability of market research findings
First important step of market research is gathered data from different sources. Next, significant
procedure is assessing the validity and reliability of data gathered through the searches and market
findings (Chen, Shen & Chiu, 2007). To determine the validity of data gathered through the sources
one should assess the answers to following questions:
 Does data collection methods are appropriate for particular research area?
 Does collected data supporting significant findings of research?
 Is the sample size used enough to represent target population?
 Whether detailed methodology aspects followed to conduct research?
It is important to get answers of these questions to evaluate the validity of market research.
The reliability of research findings can be tested through finding the consistency of collected
data while checked through different sources of same research area. When one research
provides same results through different methods means data is reliable. If two or more than
two sources showing resemblance in their data and method then it can be considered as
reliable one.
2.4 Propose a Marketing Research Plan for the IKEA Inc.
The senior management team at IKEA has decided to conduct the market research analysis
with the help of qualitative and quantitative techniques to evaluate opportunities for company
in Indian market, which is one of the rapidly growing economies.

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It is intended to propose marketing research plan for IKEA which is also known as research
brief (Dencic-Mihajlov, 2013).
Background: To get brief proposal on marketing research this plan is sent towards the
marketing agencies. This plan is based for IKEA which is planning to evaluate opportunities
for company in new target market.
Rationale: The reason behind selecting the target market is the demand of portable and
quality furniture is increasing in Indian market and it is one of highest economy too. Another
rationale behind arranging this research is to expand operations of IKEA into new and
developing market. It is good opportunity for company to find its foot hold in Indian market
because only having bid development is not enough.
Objective: Investigate the appropriate information and determine the factors helping to align
the investment decisions in new target market.
Research Questions:
1. Who are potential customer base and their demographic factors information?
2. Can India become good target market for IKEA’s business?
Methodology:
Secondary data collection method is used gather the data about the target market. The
secondary sources that can be used to align the research are company journals, books,
research material, web sources, and competitors’ analysis report. Primary methods
questionnaire and survey tools also used to find data.
Data analysis: To analyze the data collected from the primary and secondary sources a
statistical market research tools can be used. Likert scale method is used to evaluate the
collected data from the survey
The collected data through survey can be checked on the Likert-scale technique. Number of
customers participated in web survey and their responses are matched on the Likert-scale.
Time frame:
The time frame to conduct the research and propose a proposal can be formed through Gantt
chart. constructed through the Gantt chart.

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Figure 2: Gantt Chart
3.1 Market size trends within given market
Having chosen IKEA as my organisation I would like to choose the US market for IKEA as
the target market. The demand for furniture is expected to increase in the US as the market
recovers, the income increases with more disposable income to spend on furniture (Dibb,
2016). Because of the market recovery the people are also more confident about owning
homes and this has given a significant boost to the furniture industry.
The revenue for the furniture industry in the US is expected to increase significantly over the
next five years however the profits may not be very high as the industry continues to sell
products at cheaper prices to upsales volume (Day, C., Sammons, P., & Gu, 2008)
About 25% of the industry revenue of the furniture business is contributed by 4 players,
IKEA being one of the main contributor. The home furniture market in America is expected
to see a growth rate of about 5.81% by 2020 and stores like Ashley Furniture, IKEA and
Dorel are expected to contribute a huge chunk to this (Jessica, 2016).
Keeping this in mind we can conclude that the revenue and sales for IKEA are expected to
increase in the following years as its one of the big players in the US furniture market
however an increase in the interest rate by the US central bank for home loans can be a
damper.
Also, the trend today in the US is for small and green furniture that is ecofriendly as people
are opting for smaller houses.

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3.2 Competitor’s Analysis for IKEA
IKEA faces tough competition from a lot or retailers like Target, Walmart etc. but for today’s
study I would like to choose Ashley furniture as its competitor.
How is IKEA different from Ashley. IKEA as we all know specializes in easy to assemble
and affordable furniture that is lightweight yet durable. It’s the ideal choice for first time
home owners.
Ashley on the other hand has company owned stores throughout the US and have been in
business in the states since 1945, giving them a home advantage over IKEA. They are the
largest manufacturers of furniture in the world and cater to all things local as far as the US
market is concerned (Kane and Ethan, 2011).
Further to our discussion, Ashley furniture cannot be brought online but only at their retail
stores and the prices may vary across stores as the stores are independently owned whereas
IKEA furniture can be bought online and the prices remain the same. Ashley furniture
however does not only make easy to assemble MDF furniture like IKEA and therefore the
stigma of cheap furniture is not durable that is sometimes associated with IKEA is not
applicable to Ashley.
Ashley furniture like IKEA provides a holistic line of products. The company can maximize
productivity and at the same time minimize waste generation.
Ashley caters to local tastes of the Americans and Canadians and keeping that in mind there
is a product range that suits all tastes and budgets from affordable to premium.
IKEA and Ashley rely on different pricing strategy. Ashley relies on grouping products
together that are similar in appearance and costs and this coupled with an in-house design
team and a good retail distribution network enables Ashley to deliver a good quality product
at a low cost (Kim & Lee, 2000).
Where IKEA is often plagued by delayed shipping post placement of orders, this does not
arise with Ashley due to strategic placement of warehouses.
3.3 SWOT Analysis of IKEA’s products
The key strengths for IKEA are –

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. Quality furniture at affordable prices
. Big bulky products are broken down into smaller pieces that helps save transportation cost
as it can
fit in the boot of a car
. Tweaking their product range to cater to local tastes yet adhering to their core Swedish
value
. Presence of massive stores that enables a good retail experience
Weakness –
. Association of affordability with lower quality products
. Assembling of products together is time consuming
. Product portfolio is limited
Opportunity –
. To enter big untapped markets such as India
. To diversify their product portfolio
. To speeden their delivery process
Threats –
. Competition from companies like Greylock that are into furniture that is easy to assemble
. New entrants with innovative technology like Cimagine that provide virtual reality solutions
. Entrants like Move Loot that are into second hand furniture
. Increased household income enabling purchase of more durable and premium furniture
4.1 Techniques of assessing customer response
Customer response assessment means evaluating the response of the customer in terms of
feedback and implementing that feedback, which is in the best interest of both the customer
and the company.

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IKEA stands at an advantage for measuring the customer’s response since understanding
what the customer wants is its forte and a happy customer translates into a happy business
man.
Since IKEA already does this I would like to start with
Home Visits/Interviews–IKEA started this a few years back. Their employees visited at least
1000 homes to try and interviewed people to try and understand their needs, how they live
and how they store their items. Based on these finding the stores housed products as per their
geographical location. For e.g. – the New York store will house more compact furniture as
the size of houses are small in comparison with New Jersey.
Home Customer Survey – Surveys conducted via email, phone and mail to name a few.
Also, e surveys that are now conducted on the mobile app. These surveys often contain
questions regarding the shopping experience, product quality and after sales service etc.
Customer Service Questionnaire – these are small surveys undertaken by consumers when
they have a problem and need to interact with a customer care executive[CCE]. People taking
calls in the call centers are a part of this. Question can often be based on whether the problem
was solved and how efficient the CCE was.
Customer Suggestions – suggestion forms also provide valuable information as to how the
customer experience can be improved by bringing about change. This information is
generally voluntarilyprovided.
4.2 Customer satisfaction survey
IKEA can visit people’s homes with a survey that asks the following questions; the aim of the
surveybeing to understand “Life at Home” and design furniture to guarantee customer
satisfaction & ease.
Possible questions could be –
1. How do you rate IKEA ergonomically?
o Extremely ergonomical

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o Very ergonomical
o Moderately ergonomical
o Slightly ergonomical
o Not at all ergonomical
2. What age group are you?
o 18-24
o 25 – 35
o 36 – 45
o 46-60
3. Who lives in your house?
o Single working professional
o Working couple
o Family with children
o Retired individuals
4. What type of house do you live in?
o A Bungalow
o Town house
o Duplex/pent house
o Apartment
5. Compared to other furniture makers how does IKEA rate in terms of product quality
o A great deal better
o Quite a bit better
o About the same
o Somewhat worse
o A great deal worse
6. How is IKEA’s pricing in comparison to its competitors

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o A great deal higher
o Somewhat higher
o About the same
o Somewhat lower
o A great deal lower
7. How difficult or easy is it to assemble IKEA products?
o Extremely easy
o Quite easy
o Moderately easy
o Slightly easy
o Not at all easy
8. How is the after sales service at IKEA?
o Extremely prompt
o Moderately prompt
o Slightly prompt
o Prompt
o Not at all prompt
9. How durable is IKEA?
o Very durable
o Little durable
o Durable
o Not Durable at all
10. How easy is it to transport and ship IKEA furniture?
o Very easy
o Easy
o Somewhat easy

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o Not easy
11. Would you recommend IKEA to others?
o Yes, I would
o Not sure
o No, I would not
4.3 Review the success of completed survey
The goal of the survey was to understand what the consumer needs and his perception about
the brand IKEA and whether it was in tandem with its ideology and values, which is “Do it
yourself”.
The survey was conducted on a sample size of about fifty people varying in age groups from
20 to 60, and of varied cultures and income groups and it was found that Ikea is perceived as
a very ergonomical brand as it offered furniture that fit well into the desired space and was
comfortable to use. It rates high in terms of offering customers a value for money. However,
in tandem with its weakness it was found that consumers found it a bit difficult and time
consuming to assemble their products.
It was also found that IKEA was often associated with cheap furniture and often as the first
choice for new home buyers who were younger in age. It, was not looked upon as a brand
that spelt class or durability. Although IKEA classifies itself as a brand that offers quality and
durable furniture at affordable prices.

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