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Tag: IKEA

  • Ikea’s latest campaign unlocks home spaces with smart solutions

    Ikea’s latest campaign unlocks home spaces with smart solutions

    Mumbai: Swedish home furnishing brand Ikea has launched a new integrated campaign in India, the third in the series of the creative platform – ‘Home Is Where It All Begins,’ across television, OOH and digital channels. Its latest commercial and four mini-ad series give a glimpse of how to make the most of our homes by unlocking spaces with smart solutions.

    The campaign will run on TV in both Telangana and Mumbai markets on regional channels. It is a 360-degree campaign that will be live on TV, OOH and on YouTube, FB, Instagram digital channels, said the brand.

    “We all have a lot of emotions linked to our homes, we would also like our homes to be functional to support us with the big and small changes in our life. Our needs from our home are growing and changing every day,” said Ikea India country commercial manager Kavitha Rao. “Often, we need to be able to do all the things we want to do, within the limited space. When we live with people with different needs, tastes and expectations, it’s no wonder we find ourselves looking for new solutions.”

    Commenting on the new campaign, Rao stated, “The third campaign in the series ‘Home Is Where It All Begins,’ talks about the most important changes in the living situation of a family by making space for growing needs of a teenager or addition of a furry friend, thereby making space for the family as a whole. The four mini ad series talk about a slice of life storytelling- positive take on work/study from home, a staycation in the current reality of life, progressive values showcased with a young boy evolving into a teenager, and emotional storytelling with a child displaying care and affection. At Ikea, through our wide range of functional and affordable home furnishing solutions, we want to help you unlock space so that when your life at home evolves, your home can evolve with you.”

    The first television commercial focuses on the changing needs of home as a child grows and becomes a teenager. With him, the needs of the other members of the family change too. The TVC focuses on bedroom storage solutions that help make space while telling a beautiful sibling’s story.

    The second television commercial focuses on the changing needs from home when a new furry friend gets added to the family. The family and the home also need to evolve to meet the requirements of this new member. The film depicts how Ikea’s living room storage solutions help the family make space at home, in the process unlocking space for them in their home, as well as their hearts and completing the family picture.

    The brand’s second campaign under ‘Home Is Where It All Begins’ was released early this year. It highlighted being a family is not just about having a meal together or other fun times, it’s also about partnering with each other to navigate through the changes and the milestones that happen in a family’s life.

  • IKEA enters Bengaluru with eCommerce & mobile shopping app

    Mumbai: Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA on Thursday announced the launch of its eCommerce services and mobile shopping app in Bengaluru. The people of Bengaluru will now be able to choose from over 8,000+ functional and sustainable home furnishing products and solutions from the furnishing giant’s website.

    This announcement comes soon after the brand opened its second IKEA India store in Navi Mumbai in December 2020, and the recent online entry into Gujarat. IKEA’s much awaited Bengaluru market entry, led by eCommerce and mobile shopping app is the first step in entering the market and marks a significant milestone in the Swedish retailer’s new retail direction which aims to bring it closer to where people are, focusing on both digital and physical formats with an omnichannel approach.

    IKEA already has an online presence today in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vadodara.  

    The IKEA online store will provide solutions, inspiration and ideas which reflect the home furnishing needs of the many people in Bengaluru. The newly launched IKEA mobile shopping app features product recommendations, ratings, and reviews, along with easier searching and browsing experience. The app also allows customers to add the products to their shopping list even while physically browsing through the products in the store. Customers can also find a built-in barcode scanner which will help them learn more details about the products, including materials and dimensions.

    IKEA India CEO & chief sustainability officer Peter Betzel said, “Karnataka is a very important market for IKEA and Bengaluru is one of the largest home furnishing markets in India. We will bring a complete omnichannel offer to the market and are excited to take the first step now with the launch of our eCommerce channel and meeting the many people in Bengaluru with their aspirations and dreams for a better life at home. IKEA will also open a big IKEA store, close to 400,000 sq. ft. in Nagasandra within a year. The store will be connected to the Nagasandra metro station, supporting faster and greener commute for the many people to the IKEA store. Over time, we will also open a city centre store within Bengaluru to be even more accessible and connect with many more people.”

    Over the next five years, across different IKEA businesses in Bengaluru, the company plans to engage around 2500 workers directly with 50 per cent diversity across all levels and will generate close to 1200 indirect jobs linked with its business operations. IKEA works with nine Home Furnishing suppliers in Karnataka including a social entrepreneur engaging 1200 local artisans, thereby increasing its local sourcing footprint in the state. 

  • Ikea launches new mobile shopping app to boost online presence

    Ikea launches new mobile shopping app to boost online presence

    Mumbai: Ikea, the Swedish-founded, Dutch multinational conglomerate Thursday launched its mobile shopping app in India to boost its customer base. The company made the decision to launch the shopping app in India owing to the rise in popularity of online shopping in the nation. 

    Ikea believes that the new mobile app will provide the much-needed online presence for the company. With this new app, people can order Ikea products online from several Indian cities. 

    Initially, delivery services will be available in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, and Surat. Ikea revealed that the delivery services will be later expanded to cities like New Delhi and Bengaluru. 

    The new Ikea app will be available on both Android and iOS platforms. Ikea’s online inventory is currently offering more than 7,000 products at a very competitive price range. 

    Ikea India commercial manager Kavitha Rao said that Indian customers are app-oriented, and the launch of the new shopping platform could lead to a sharp rise in demand for Ikea products. 

    Ikea is now planning to reach 100 million customers in both online and offline channels over the next few years. Apart from catalyzing its online presence, Ikea also plans to open the first shopping centre in Noida. 

  • IKEA sparks conversation about gender roles at home with new online game

    IKEA sparks conversation about gender roles at home with new online game

    MUMBAI: This women’s Day, Ikea wants to help make our homes more gender-equal. To this end the Swedish furniture giant has launched a fun game designed for couples to assess how well tasks are shared between them in a household. Recent research on the side-effects of Covid19 indicates that the load of additional household work during the pandemic is unevenly carried by women.

    As a home furnishing brand, Ikea has always focused on creating a better everyday life at home through good quality, affordable furniture. However, the company believes that a better every day is also an equal every day, and that gender equality at home is a crucial part in creating gender equality in society. But the pandemic induced lockdown this past year has brought to light the increasingly unequal division of household work. And this is where Ingka Group would like to help.

    With women still taking on the biggest load of work – doing up to three times more unpaid care and domestic work than men globally according to OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment Gender Policy Paper)- Ingka Group has come up with an online game to help couples open an honest and fun conversation about how to better balance responsibilities on the domestic front.

    Ikea India country people & culture manager Parineeta Cecil Lakra elaborates, “Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of what we do. Our goal is to create an inclusive workplace where everyone is valued for their unique contribution. Over the past years, addressing gender equality has been a priority – not only at the workplace but also at home. During the past year due to the Covid19 pandemic, most of us have started working from home and continue to do so. It has now become even more important than ever before that there be equality at the home front. Lack of equality at home has direct implications for women’s economic position and undermines their potential. The impact of the pandemic has amplified existing gender inequalities, and empowering women in their homes has never been more important. Through FiftyFifty, we are reaching one step closer to encourage open and honest conversations at home. We believe greater equality at home means greater equality in the larger society.”

    Developed in collaboration with relationship expert Jennie Miller, FiftyFifty is available for free via Ikea Instagram Stories across 31 countries. Over the course of a handful of questions, the game takes couples on a journey to unpack the roles and dynamics in their homes in a positive way. The intention is that both players become winners, as couples are inspired to think of solutions that suit their individual circumstances.

  • The big marketing challenge for Ikea in India

    The big marketing challenge for Ikea in India

    NEW DELHI: Lagom. A single word that succinctly sums up the Swedish ethos of moderation in everything. But when it comes to home furnishings retailer Ikea’s India operations, they have been anything but lagom.

    Ikea recently inaugurated its second store in India in Navi Mumbai on 18 December with an aim to create a better everyday life for those with big dreams and slim wallets. Unlike the mega launch marked by much fanfare in Hyderabad in 2018, where people flocked to the store in huge numbers, Ikea had to maintain an in-store limit this time in keeping with Covid2019 protocols. Despite restrictions, the opening of 5.3 lakh+ sq ft store was still a huge hit, as the in-store visit slots were pre-booked heavily. Even though it was challenging, the brand managed all the preparations for the store at the height of the pandemic.

    “One of the biggest challenges was how do we create the buzz and excitement of a new store and manage to control the crowds and ensure they enjoy a safe shopping experience. We are really happy to say that we managed to achieve this well and our store is off to a good start,” said Ikea India marketing head Amitabh Pande.

    Despite being a global brand, India has not been an easy ride for Ikea. It reported net loss of Rs 720 crore in the financial year ended March 2020. On the positive side, its net sales grew 64.68 per cent to Rs 566 crore in FY 2019-20, up from Rs 343.7 crore in the previous fiscal. The furniture retailer needs to create trust, and accessibility for the brand in the Indian market. Unless people are convinced that they are buying a superior product at Ikea at an affordable price in comparison to the traditional store from where they used to purchase furnishing products, they will never adopt the brand. One of the major tasks for the brand is to get consumers to sample its store and catalogues. So, the big marketing challenge in India is ‘How do you build an iconic brand in a new market?’

    Pande said, “Ikea is an extremely well known and iconic brand in the rest of the world, whereas in India it started from the ground up. India is a new market, where we get to explore understanding people’s life at home and then based on that connecting deeply and meaningfully with our customers.”

    Call it Swedish stoicism, but Ikea’s plans for the Indian market remain undeterred even in the wake of the pandemic. The management continues to believe in the long term vision it has. “We continue to believe in building the brand in India and spending in marketing is a big part of that. We have no plans in altering the existing marketing budget for 2021,” affirmed Pande.

    The brand has a long term vision for the Indian market. It has already invested Rs 7,000 crore in India, across its two stores and several fulfilment centres. It is now working towards opening outlets in cities like Bengaluru and New Delhi along with smaller stores in other cities. Ikea continues to focus on opportunities to grow the business in existing channels and through opening new channels and units.

    The brand has also ramped up its marketing activities in the last two years, releasing several campaigns across multiple mediums to focus on what role Ikea plays in a consumer’s home. These creatives mostly talk about how consumers can purchase multiple products from Ikea at an extremely nominal price.

    Pande shared that the core focus on Ikea’s marketing strategy has always been to create a better everyday life for ‘the many’ and not just the few. The products signal that there is something for everyone, no matter their age, lifestyle or size of wallet.  “In India we have translated the global Ikea vision into a local positioning that we refer to as ‘make every day brighter’. At the heart of it, it is about delivering well designed, functional and affordable products that speaks to the existing and changing needs from the life at home of the many people in India. It involves delivering a satisfying customer experience at our store and online. It involves our ‘people and planet positive’ sustainability agenda and what we do for our communities.”

    Ikea is constantly optimising its media mix based on the needs of the campaign and is closely working with its partners to get the best ROI for each media.

    “Our ATL strategies are driven by two main aspects. The first is based on building the long-term positioning of our brand as a unique, trusted and meaningful brand. Secondly, it is about activating our existing customers with new reasons to come to our meeting points repeatedly through the year- both online and offline. We have an annual calendar that we follow based on the overall marketing plan for the year,” explained Pande.

    Social media is a big part of the brand’s overall communication and media strategy. It is present across all platforms – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn and is also working with social influencers.

    “Our approach is that of sharing unique Ikea communication and content, specially curated and created for social media, with a high frequency engagement with our customers. Our content is driving inspiration around life at home ideas and solutions to make a better everyday life. As well as showing our entire range of affordable home furnishing solutions for people to choose from for their needs at home,” he added.

    Ikea will continue to evaluate each media and medium before betting big on it. The brand claims to have built a strong, loyal base in a very short time that comes back to it repeatedly through the year, in stores as well as on its e-commerce website ikea.in. The company has also commenced e-commerce operations in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.

    Pande concluded by sharing his learnings from 2020 and pointed that humans are finally realising that they cannot get away with everything. “We are being forced to re-evaluate our ways of living on this planet, expanding our presence at the cost of nature, consuming the limited resources, creating a society that is unequal and even irresponsible. I would like to believe that we have been set on a more humble, reflective and conscientious path, in terms of how we live.

    One of the learnings that industries have had is about moving from ‘consumption-led growth’ to ‘purpose-led growth’. What this means is being clear on the purpose of our brands, he added.

    “As I see it, consumption has been the fundamental building block for all modern economies. To the extent that so many of us believe that consumption = happiness. Brands and businesses are built on growing consumption year after year. But once we start questioning this fundamental growth driver, then how do we move forward. This is a key question we all need to answer,” Pande signed off.

  • ShareChat gets Wavemaker’s Ajit Varghese as chief commercial officer

    ShareChat gets Wavemaker’s Ajit Varghese as chief commercial officer

    NEW DELHI: ShareChat has appointed Ajit Varghese as its chief commercial officer. Varghese brings in a track record of 25+ years of leading large-scale business transformations and building diverse and successful businesses around media, creative, digital, data, content, sports, and performance.  

    Prior to joining ShareChat, Varghese was the global president at WPP group’s Wavemaker, known among the world’s top five media networks with clients ranging from industry giants like Vodafone, L’Oreal, Huawei, IKEA, Paramount Pictures, Chanel, Xerox, Netflix, Chevron, Beiersdorf, and Tiffany.  

    In his new role at ShareChat, he will be pivotal in expanding and strengthening the platform’s revenue efforts and building a robust monetisation approach with the strategic content partnership. He will also spearhead its marketing functions, to be inclined towards brand elevation, aligned with business centricity. He will be reporting into ShareChat COO & co-founder Farid Ahsan. 

    This key appointment announcement comes amidst Sharechat witnessing exponential growth in the past few months. The upward curve not only mirrors the new user growth and higher user engagement on the platform but also reflects an increased interest among B2C brands, for leveraging Bharat internet audiences. 

    Farid Ahsan said, “Brand marketing and monetisation is going to be the core focus of ShareChat and we will direct our efforts towards elevating the brand positioning through strategic communications approach. Ajit, with his leadership capabilities and expert knowledge of the media, marketing and advertising domain, will play a critical role in further building brand awareness, deepening relationships with our business stakeholders and driving ShareChat toward the next phase of growth.”  

    Ajit Varghese said, “Having previously worked and transformed several global organisations, it has always been a hidden desire to contribute towards transforming an Indian organisation to global repute. I believe ShareChat in the next few years will evolve as the default partner to every brand, homegrown and global, who intends to engage with the internet-first population. As the digital advertising landscape awaits the inclusion of over 400 million new internet users, mostly inclined towards native languages, ShareChat will stay at the forefront of unveiling a new digital era. This will be an exciting journey for me as I look forward towards contributing to ShareChat’s growth and building a win-win relationship with our community of users, partners and business stakeholders.” 

    An alumnus of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhuvaneshwar, and a graduate in agriculture engineering from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Varghese has worked across India, Singapore and London. With years of leadership positions across globally-reputed media organisations like Wavemaker (WPP), Maxus (WPP), Madison World, he has been recognised as a Global Media Leader with a track record of turning around organisations, leading rapid growth, and gaining market dominance. 

    Over the past few months, ShareChat has been strategizing to become a future-ready organisation by delivering an immersive social experience to its users and building a global product. The platform has collaborated with leading music labels in India and across the globe, set up ‘ShareChat Labs’ in Silicon Valley, and driven content partnerships with various news and entertainment organisations. Over 150 B2C brands have partnered with ShareChat to explore its strength in engaging with Bharat (language-first) internet audience on the platform. 

  • Hej Mumbai! The Countdown begins…

    Hej Mumbai! The Countdown begins…

    IKEA (part of the Ingka Group), the world’s leading Swedish home furnishings retailer has installed the iconic IKEA Navigation Tower and the Wordmark at the IKEA store site in Navi Mumbai, Turbhe, Maharashtra.

    The 5 lakh+ sq ft IKEA store will inspire people with more than 7000 beautiful, affordable, good quality, sustainable and well-designed home furnishing products along with ideas and inspirations for the home. The store is located on the Thane-Belapur Road, approximately 600 mts from the Turbhe Station.

    The free-standing Navigation Tower and IKEA’s distinctive blue and yellow Wordmark are a part of the store site making it a highly visible, visual expression of the IKEA concept. It serves to help customers find the store from a distance. Opening of the Navi Mumbai large format store is a big step. This will further complement existing online services – ecommerce, click & collect and remote planning and is a big step to establishing a total omnichannel presence in Mumbai. IKEA has been present online in Mumbai since 2019.

    Peter Betzel, CEO & Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA India said, “Mumbai is one of our most important markets In India. With the opening of our IKEA store, we will be able to meet many more people in Mumbai and be a part of creating a better everyday life at home. We want to inspire our customers to live sustainably with affordable products and solutions. The IKEA store will provide ideas and inspirations along with good quality, affordable, well-designed and sustainable home furnishing products.” 

    Per Hornell, Market and Expansion Manager, IKEA India added, “We at IKEA are very excited as we come closer to the opening of our Navi Mumbai store. Currently the whole team is working towards creating an excellent customer experience with all the safe shopping measures in place when we open. Safety and security will remain our highest priority during these unusual times. We are looking forward to extending the ways of meeting the many people of Mumbai, from only online to going multichannel.”

    IKEA will announce the opening date in the coming weeks. Customers will be able to shop in IKEA and experience  its range with the large store in Navi Mumbai, ecommerce and 2 smaller stores coming up during 2021. IKEA is present online in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune with over 35 million+ customers visiting. This is in line with IKEA’s ambition to reach 100 million customers by 2022 in India.

    While customers eagerly wait for the store to open, Mumbaikars can continue to shop for their favorite IKEA products online at www.ikea.in

  • When Ikea got creative about sleep

    When Ikea got creative about sleep

    Ikea, a global furniture and home furnishing brand, is promoting its sleep range products with clever print and outdoor campaign and positions itself as sleep expert.

    Designed and conceptualised by Mother London, the ads focuses on the central theme of sleep and turn an energy drink, anti-ageing cream and vitamin pills into cool ads for the IKEA sleep range.

    First ad showcases a bedsheet flowing out from an open energy drink can. The messed up sheet signifies liquid drink in the can which carries the message that ‘Sleep boosts our energy’. Second ad showcases, an eye cream jar with a quilt folded into it. The jar carries the message that ‘sleep is the most natural anti-ageing remedy.’ And the third ad showcases a medicine bottle from which pillows are flowing out and it carries the message that ‘Sleep naturally supplements focus and energy.’

    These ads are part of a larger campaign ‘Tomorrow Starts Tonight’ that challenges sleep neglect by celebrating the truth that the more you sleep, the more you get out of life.

    Read more news on Ikea

    The new print campaign includes a trio of ads and was shot by photographer Amy Currell using large-scale models designed by Andy Knight.

    A few weeks ago Ikea also launched a campaign where it reshared the tale of a tortoise and hare to talk about what we can achieve if we get a good night sleep.

    Ikea is an iconic brand that is known for its products and its advertisng worldwide.

  • Dentsu Impact bags digital mandate for Tea Brands of Tata Global Beverages India

    Dentsu Impact bags digital mandate for Tea Brands of Tata Global Beverages India

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Impact’s Bangalore branch has bagged the digital mandate for Tata Global Beverages from its tea portfolio including Tata Tea Premium, Tetley, Kanan Devan, Chakra Gold to name a few. After one year of its successful operations out of Bangalore, this is another key business to be handled by the agency’s Bangalore branch.

    Tata Global Beverages India  Vice President – Marketing Puneet Das said, “At Tata Global Beverages, it is our endeavour to remain at the cutting edge of digital marketing through innovative use of the medium.  We are successfully driving the digital agenda on our brands, which is, to continuously engage with today’s audience 24×7, in the environment which is most convenient to them. As we continue forward on our digital journey, we are happy to sign up with Dentsu Impact as our digital creative partner. We believe that their strategic and creative capabilities are a good complement to our digital agenda and we look forward to creating exciting work that will resonate strongly with today’s digital consumer.”

    Speaking on the win, Dentsu Impact  President Amit Wadhwa said, “With the consumer and the media landscape changing rapidly, brands are evolving too. With this evolution, it is extremely important for agencies to re-invent through expertise and ideas and, when you win businesses through this fresh thinking, you know you are on the right path. This new partnership is a big step for Dentsu Impact, especially the Bangalore branch, in truly being the new age agency. We are extremely excited and look forward to partner TGBL in creating some interesting work together.”

    Looking forward to the association, Dentsu Impact  Chief Creative Officer Soumitra Karnik said, “‘Winning a Tata business and that too in a highly competitive region like Bangalore is not everyone’s cup of tea’ – we were told this when we were working on the pitch. We pride ourselves in being strategically and creatively very strong, especially when it comes to integrated ideas. This is what makes Dentsu Impact so successful in most of our pitches. With mega brands such as IKEA and Tata Tea, our Bangalore office has managed to acquire an enviable position in such a short span. We look forward to a great partnership with Tata Global Beverages. Watch out for what brews next.”

  • IKEA gives ‘voice’ to products in latest campaign

    IKEA gives ‘voice’ to products in latest campaign

    MUMBAI: The IKEA store launch in Hitec City, Hyderabad, has been one of the most talked about launches in recent times. A much-anticipated event, the store launch was preceded by the brand’s first ever communication for the Indian market, created by Dentsu Impact – the creative agency from the Dentsu Aegis Network. The launch also saw some interesting on-ground activations that got people talking.

    One may think that such a high impact launch would be followed by a period of quiet from the brand. But not so in the case of IKEA. The brand has now released a series of new films on TV and digital to bring to life some hero products from the brand. Quite literally! Every film has one main hero – an IKEA product itself, and well it is this hero that does all the talking. The treatment is a completely fresh one and the films are nothing like a typical product centric ad you may imagine. The films are all a part of a series and the team promises we will see something fresh in every film, with a different product playing a different character.

    IKEA India country marketing manager Ulf Smedberg says, “We at IKEA saw the need early on to find an emotional connection with consumers and their future relationship with our range. In order to de-dramatise and make parts of our range more attractive, inspiring yet even human, we created our new communication campaign which we internally call “Talking products”. In this series of short films, we let some iconic products speak and express their personality, in a fun and engaging way. The reaction so far been very positive, with people finding them to be surprising yet distinctively IKEA.”

    Dentsu Impact senior vice president Megha Jain Sadhwani adds, “The reason why IKEA is the world’s most loved Swedish home furnishing brand is its products, they are the heroes that make this brand what it is. The intent behind this series of films is to introduce these heroes to the Indian audience in a typical IKEA style – simple and playful, and what better way to do this than to let the products do the talking themselves, literally!”

    Dentsu Impact Bangalore creative head Amish Sabharwal spoke about the creative concept behind these films and said, “IKEA is known for great creative formats across the globe. This is our India attempt to add to that stellar reservoir. The products of IKEA are so intuitive, practical and magical that they deserve to be stars of every commercial, who needs celebrities?! That’s what we did. Each object has their own character, their own quirk, their own voice and they are unlike any other object you get in the market. The idea is to get audience to enjoy the storytelling and the magic of each product.”

    The films have been released on TV in Hyderabad and are available on the IKEA Facebook page and Youtube.