Hej!

I am Shermaine Loo from G1 and I’ll be sharing with you guys on my project on IKEA (Type 1), which I am sure many of you already know who they are so I won’t bore you with those details.

Diving straight into my project, I am sure you guys still remember prof showing us the IKEA Home Tour Makeover series video campaign

Or perhaps even seen some of these famous campaigns done by them such as

the public display of IKEA storage units at a Shang Hai metro station

Or the famous IKEA bookbook (parody of Apple’s iPhone) advertisement? (p.s this was done by BBH APAC #sgpride)

Research Question

But, with all these amazing campaigns going around, there was still a nagging thought in my head – what about their engagement with their consumers? You see, many of their advertisements stem from creating buzz around their products or create a persona for the brand and they are promotional in nature. However, the follow-up of customer engagement is actually crucial to having a strong brand presence on social media.

 So this leads to the following research questions that I will be addressing:

1. How effective has IKEA US’s social media engagement been on their various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter?
2. As IKEA SG only has a Facebook presence, how can it learn from the success or failures of IKEA US various social media platforms?
3. Should IKEA SG expand into more social media platforms? If so, which and how should they do it?

 Data Collection

I will compare IKEA US and IKEA SG social media presence and engagement for my data collection. This is because IKEA US actually have a strong following on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (there are more platforms but my focus is on these 3) while SG only has a Facebook account, so I believe that some useful insights can be drawn. The tracking period lasted from 22^nd Feb to 6^th March and all 4 platforms were tracked.

 Key Insights

Some key insights drawn from the tracking include

1. Success of ‘How-to’ content posts and Videos
2. Variation of content popularity on different platforms
3. Additional weaknesses of IKEA SG Facebook Page e.g. customer response time (took too long)

Social Media Strategies

With those insights drawn from social media tracking, I decided to tailor my content strategies towards a specific target audience of individuals aged 25-35 (Gen Y) and also interviewed a few of them to find out their overall impression of IKEA and its products. And here’s what I have to offer:

1. DIY #myIKEAsg UGC on Instagram

This strategy is inspired by the Hometour Makeover series and is done by encouraging users to revamp their own personal spaces (could be a room or a cabinet) with IKEA products and upload the before/after to Instagram with the hashtag #myIKEAsg.

And winners will get a chance to customize a showroom display in IKEA and it will be there for a month! 🙂 Oh and of course, they will win some IKEA vouchers too, probably worth $888 because we believe 8 to be a lucky number

2. 360° Videos of IKEA Showroom on Facebook

The next strategy will involve filming an immersive showroom experience with a 360° video. The video will follow the journey of Bryan (typical male Singaporean) shopping experience at IKEA and along the way, funny and quirky things will happen to him.

The rationale for this video is to bring the unique selling point of IKEA into consumers’ mobile phones and establish a rapport with them. After all, there aren’t many places where you can dump your stuff (and kids) and have an enjoyable shopping experience and meal after! 🙂

In Conclusion

The strategies seek to provide a personal touch for IKEA and encourage interaction with their consumers. This will also be a launching pad for the improve in customer service that IKEA SG should be working towards.

Okay, so now that this is done, I am going to head down to IKEA to grab a plate of yummy meatballs and get lost in their maze-like showroom (yes they do it on purpose).

Well, and I hope that you guys will also continue to shop at IKEA and enjoy the IKEA experience! 🙂