IKEA's Growth, Challenges, and Strategic Recommendations
This paper examines the origins, success factors, and limitations of IKEA as a global furniture retailer. It traces IKEA's growth from a small household goods seller to a worldwide brand built on democratic design, economies of scale, and low-cost flat-pack furniture. The paper identifies key competitive advantages, including supplier relationships, distinctive store layouts, and a clearly defined target market. It also outlines the downsides of the IKEA shopping experience, such as lack of product uniqueness, difficult navigation, and furniture durability concerns. The paper concludes with actionable recommendations for further growth, including store layout redesign, a home furnishing service, and branded television programming.
- IKEA's Origins and Overview: Founding history and early growth of IKEA
- Factors That Account for IKEA's Success: Six key drivers behind IKEA's competitive advantage
- The Downsides to Shopping at IKEA: Consumer limitations including uniqueness and durability
- Recommendations for IKEA's Further Growth: Five strategic proposals to extend IKEA's market reach
- Conclusion: Summary of IKEA's strategic outlook
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper moves logically from historical context to competitive analysis to problem identification to actionable recommendations, giving the argument a clear and coherent arc.
- It balances praise and criticism of IKEA honestly, acknowledging the brand's real weaknesses — such as poor durability and confusing store layouts — rather than presenting a one-sided marketing analysis.
- Recommendations are grounded in the limitations identified earlier in the paper, making them feel like direct solutions rather than unrelated suggestions.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a strengths-and-weaknesses framework to structure its business analysis — a widely used approach in management and marketing courses. By systematically evaluating what IKEA does well before diagnosing its shortcomings, the author establishes credibility before proposing reforms. This technique ensures that recommendations are evidence-based and logically connected to observed business realities.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief company history, then devotes its largest section to explaining IKEA's competitive advantages across six distinct factors. A shorter section identifies five key consumer downsides. The final section proposes five strategic recommendations — customer awareness campaigns, store layout changes, price homogenization, a furnishing service, and a television program — each linked to a previously identified weakness or opportunity.
IKEA's Origins and Overview
IKEA was founded just before the end of the Second World War by Ingvar Kamprad, who was in his late teens at the time. He named the company after himself, his family farm Elmtaryd, and the village where he was raised, Agunnaryd. Since its inception — when it sold basic household goods — the store has experienced rapid growth, expanding from carrying furnishings to designing furniture, and eventually becoming a large-scale global furniture retailer. Today, IKEA is one of the most recognized brands among value-oriented consumers worldwide.
References
Moon, Youngme. "IKEA Invades America." Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA. (2004): 504–904. Print.
Samantha. "Is the Appeal of IKEA Furniture on Its Last Legs?" Insego. (2015). Web.
Tozer, James. "Why Shoppers Find It So Hard to Escape from IKEA: Flatpack Furniture Stores Are 'Designed Just Like a Maze.'" Daily Mail. (2015). Web.
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