Standardized marketing strategies in retailing? IKEA’s marketing strategies in Sweden, the UK and China

Steve Burt, Ulf Johansson and Thelander, Ã…sa

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2011, vol. 18, issue 3, 183-193

Abstract: IKEA is often cited as an example of a ‘global’ retailer which pursues a similar ‘standardized’ approach in every market. This paper systematically assesses the degree of standardisation (and adaptation) of four commonly identified retail marketing mix activities – merchandise, location and store format, the selling and service environment, and market communication – within three countries. These countries – Sweden, the UK and China – represent different cultural settings and are markets in which IKEA has been operating for different lengths of time. The data upon which the comparison is based was generated from personal interviews, in-country consumer research, company documentation and third party commentaries. The conclusions drawn suggest that whilst IKEA operates a standardized concept, degrees of adaptation can be observed in customer facing elements, and in the supporting ‘back office’ processes which support these elements. These adaptations arise from differences in consumer cultures and the length of time, and subsequent exposure to and experience of, the market. This suggests that standardisation in international retailing should be considered from the perspective of replicating the concept, rather than replicating the activities.

Keywords: IKEA; Retail internationalisation; Retail marketing mix; Standardisation; Sweden; the UK; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698910000998
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:18:y:2011:i:3:p:183-193

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.09.007

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services is currently edited by Harry Timmermans

More articles in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().