I admit it. Before today I never had the experience that nearly 771 million human beings have had interacting with a successful retailer. It was one of those things that I would hear people talk about at a party or networking event. I’d hear folks rave about this place, but frankly, I had no interest, until today.
I initially checked them out online, saw their product offering, and poked around their website, impressed by their affordability. My big question was…is it quality or crap? Everyone I knew said it was quality, but I am a skeptic.
The closest IKEA to my home is a 45-minute drive to Paramus, New Jersey. This is a commitment, and if you know me, you know I rarely travel for something I can order online. I don’t get thrilled at the “experience” of this kind of thing. But, in this case, I really did want to see the quality of IKEA’s products before I made my purchase.
In a word, I was blown away. As I walked through room after room of tastefully design spaces, the colors, the textures, the drawer pulls were so perfectly gorgeous. The seduction was unreal. Thoughts like “Maybe I could quietly redesign my entire home this afternoon, heck, you only live once!”
As a successful retailer, IKEA, whose mission is “to create a better everyday life for many people,” implements the best practices to induce customer’s purchasing decision and, as a result, has become one of the most loved companies worldwide.
How do they do it? One of the key competitive advantages IKEA has is its extensive knowledge about the customers. See? It always comes back to that “target audience.” Somehow they figured out how to get a skeptic like me, with a heavy marketing background to push a very heavy cart laden with three desks and two new chairs to furnish my new office space.
As a brand, IKEA obviously listens to their consumer, delivers, and makes it incredibly easy along the way, as stated in this recent Forbes article by Denise Lee Yohn.
Confession. I am planning my second trip within the month as I could only squeeze so much into my minivan.
Let me hear your thoughts on this retail powerhouse in the comments below.