What is IKEA’S positioning in terms of their 4p’s of marketing mix within the uk?
... developed (Borden1964) there has been an advance to the 4p’s and now more recent work believe that the 4p’s are not sufficient enough and an extra 3p’s has been added to the original marketing mix. These consist of (starting with the original 4, then with the added 3)- 1.2.1 Product Ikeas product range (see appendix 3) mainly consists of a wide range of home furnishing items ranging from sofa’s, tables, cabinets etc. They also specialise in less mark up value items such as ornaments e.g. picture frames, table cloths etc. Ikeas products are exclusive to Ikea and cannot be bought in any other retail outlet. Ikea produces some home branded products and the rest are outsourced to manufacturers that develop products that are specifically designed by Ikea to meet their target markets. Ikea’s philosophy is based entirely on offering quality products at a low price and they do this by designing products that can be produced at low costs but yet can be seen as good quality stylish functional products. A key area were Ikea cut costs is by the process of mass production of certain products, which in turn leads to Ikea dropping prices on specific products that other company’s may not be able to compete with, so gives Ikea an advantage. 1.2.2 Place What differs and gives Ikea the advantage compared to most other furnishing retailer’s is that Ikea view positioning as key to their business strategy and as a result has had huge success. Ikea stores like to be situated in areas of great space such as big industrial parks close to motorways were there is easy access and space for the shops to expand (see appendix 1). “Ikea are a series of out of town superstores, usually based in industrial estates” source: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Ikea_Shop__Review_5340147 All Ikea stores are more or less the same all across the world and are similar in design layout and geographic area (e.g. more rural areas). Ikea have distribution centres closely situated to retail outlets and have a strong relationship with their supply chain- “IKEA has 43 trading service offices in 33 countries. Co-workers in each office monitor production. This enables them to test new ideas, negotiate prices and check quality while keeping an eye on social and working conditions among suppliers. Being close to our suppliers – around 1,500 in 55 countries – is the key to rational, long-term cooperation”. www.Ikea.com The reason for the close relations between suppliers and Ikea is so that the suppliers can tailor their needs more accurately. Distribution costs are also minimised by locating distribution centres close to Ikea retail outlets. Although Ikea like to open in more rural areas (such as near motorways) the down side to this can mean that they are loosing out on clients that may not want to travel a great distance to get to the stores location and may prefer shopping at the more convenient locations e.g. inner city shopping centres, local industrial estates etc. 1.2.3 Price Ikea are a bottom end furnishing company that do not deal with high prices but are more closely linked to low prices and have high sales revenue in order to make up for the low mark up value (which is unusual in the furnishings market). “For the most part Ikea's pric...