Inside IKEA’s Marketing.

If you want to test out that hot new relationship of yours, taking him or her home to meet Mom may not be the answer. Instead, the true test of compatibility is buying something at IKEA, taking it home and (maybe) assembling it. Later, you can see how well you two do at Anger Management classes, the ER or while sharing a handful of Xanax.

This is why IKEA’s Flash masterpiece ‘Come Into The Closet’ makes me so crazy. The 5 minute spot brilliantly lures you into five different closets, from Pax Stordal’s 5th floor cool glass look to an urban party room with shimmering disco ball to a craft room so pretty-in-pink that it made me want to buy a glue gun. Almost immediately you begin to believe that all this detail and design is possible to achieve in your own home. You believe that you can twist and wind and pound those shelves into submission. You believe that because ‘prices are dropping’ you’re saving some money, too.

This then is the marketing genius of IKEA. They make you believe. They tease and tempt and convince you to give it one more try. You forget that the cost of the handyman you call for rescue plus the price of your stitches will pretty much wipe out the savings from IKEA’s sale prices.

But call me old-fashioned. Marketing has always been about dreams, possibility and what could be if only you use my product.

Do You Speak IKEA?

From a great site named Pigtown Design comes this additional peep inside IKEA marketing and naming:

• Sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage and doorknobs are named after places in Sweden (Klippan, Malmö)
• Beds, wardrobes and hall furniture after places in Norway; carpets after places in Denmark and dining tables and chairs after places in Finland.
• Bookcases are mainly occupations (Bonde, peasant farmer; Styrman, helmsman).
• Bathroom stuff is named after lakes and rivers.
• Kitchens are generally grammatical terms
• Kitchen utensils are spices, herbs, fish, fruits, berries, or functional words such as Skarpt (it means sharp, and it’s a knife).
• Chairs and desks are Swedish men’s names (Roger, Joel)
• Materials and curtains are women’s names.
• Children’s items are mammals, birds and adjectives (Ekorre is a set of children’s toy balls; it means squirrel)

Who wants to find out where Fartful and Jerker come from?