IKEA, most commonly known as the furniture brand, became known for its ready to assemble feature. It has a modern look to its furniture designs and gives its target audience the challenge of assembling the furniture themselves. People obviously loved it; in fact, they still do.
Putting a stop!
Based in Sweden, the Budget furniture giant would also produce an annual catalog. Its audience used to look forward to it. After seven decades, seventy years, and seventy publications, the brand has announced that they are shutting the catalog. The idea is that there is no point in publishing hard copies of the catalog when the buyers are moving online.
However, it needs to be noted that the catalog of IKEA was not just a major IKEA publication. In fact, it was among the world’s most prominent publications. In 2016, almost 200 million copies were distributed to IKEA stores and households in over 50 markets. And it has not been a small publication ever anyway. The very first installment in 1951 too had 285,000 prints and featured an MK wing chair on the cover. While the one in 2020 had 40 million copies.
Nostalgia
Considering it’s a 70-year-old tradition, the decision must have been emotional for them, but given the practicality of the situation and the business scenario, it needed to happen. And obviously, when it’s a significant decision, it’s not taken haphazardly. People observe. And as part of those observations, it came to notice that the target consumers seek inspiration online and also buy from the web instead of looking at the catalog, then visiting the outlet. The figure to facilitate this observation was the increase in online sales by 45% in a 12-month period that ended in August.
Brands Position
Konrad Gruss, Managing Director at franchisor Inter IKEA Systems – a division of brand owner Inter IKEA Group, said:
“The number of copies has gone down, but we have also seen that people have much more used our website, apps, and social media. The catalog became less and less important.”
“The interest in the catalog has come down,” he added. Gruss further emphasized how important the catalog was for the employees at IKEA, especially those who grew up with it. Considering he too was an IKEA veteran, for him, the catalog was nostalgic and even more emotional was the decision of discontinuing it.
“This (the catalog) has been such an important thing for us,” he said.
The money that the brand will now be saving, by not printing millions of copies, they will be spending on online marketing and other platforms. Moreover, the brand will still be publishing a smaller print publication. This publication will only be available in IKEA stores from 2021.
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