IKEA case study

IKEA has recently launched a new branding campaign and has jumped on the bandwagon of using social media. The company is now actively engaging in conversational marketing by sponsoring the new websites myamericaathome.com in the U.S. and notgoinganywhere.co.uk in the U.K. These websites are engaging people to speak up about their homes.

The goal of myamericaathome.com is "to capture the extraordinary diversity that makes up American family life, representing a broad range of economic, geographic, racial, political, and socially diverse lifestyles." Americans are supposed to submit photos of their home life that will be displayed in different segments such as "morning rush," "what's for dinner," and "evening family rituals." The purpose is not to look at how many IKEA products are found in the background of the pictures submitted but instead is to look at how people live their lives from day to day. The notgoinganywhere.co.uk website was created for people to celebrate their homes. "This site is for everyone who loves their home as much as we love ours, and wants to celebrate it for its happy memories, warm cozy rooms, and individual personalities…"

IKEA sponsoring the websites goes hand in hand with their new branding campaign "Home is the most important place in the world." IKEA is, what Brian Solis describes on his PR 2.0 blog as, "experimenting with new forms of media, not to gain fame or fortune, but to change marketing from a business of bullying, bullshit, and deception, to a genuine form of respectable and valued sense of service and personalization."

IKEA is attempting to break down barriers to begin to engage in conversations with their customers. People that will actively participate in these websites will bring to the table different experiences, culture, and preferences. By exposing their way of life IKEA is able to gain a different perspective of their target.

"Home is the most important place in the world" has a more emotional appeal to it than there past campaigns. The commercials seen on TV and on their website creates a sense of aw in a viewer. People feel good when they are at home and ultimately IKEA wants to be a part of that.