Experience at IKEA

I remember the first time I walked into Ikea. It was the most amazing experience I had ever had. I really hadn’t done any furniture shopping until I needed to move to my apartment in college. As we discussed in class, I was one of the many people who believed furniture shopping would be a big drag and painful excruciating experience. So I wasn’t really looking forward to furnishing my apartment at all.

Big sign is very inviting!

But even before I walked in the store, they had 5 furniture pieces that were extremely good deals for college students – I still remember of them was a table for 7.99. When I saw that I knew I was at the right place to shop for furniture. I remember going to Roomstore when I was little. This was the only other furniture shopping experience I had prior to IKEA. When I saw the prices at Roomstore, I almost fainted. But even before I walked into the store the point of sales display they set up was already giving me a good impression of IKEA. And after that, when I saw the interior designed rooms with IKEA furniture, I was honestly shocked at how amazing such affordable simple furniture can look when they put everything together. This was all in the first few moments of getting out of the car and walking inside and IKEA had already created this impressive image about their brand and store.

Arrows leading the experience through the interior designed rooms

 What I liked a lot was that the store was laid out in a way so that it was an experience for the consumer. So like from the beginning you start at the interior designed rooms and arrows lead you to the chairs, kitchens, beds and so on. Designing and really walking through everything with the people your with is really what made the experience special. I mean no one goes shopping for furniture alone, there are always opinions to be discussed and really it’s an experience to decorate one’s own house. The experience was really fun. I remember they also had like demonstrations where they had a hammer running into a chair continuously and a sign that said they thoroughly tested the quality of their product. I was really impressed at the amount of effort they put to actually demonstrating something like this. Most other furniture stores are just like “yeah it won’t break” but IKEA really actually shows you a hammer running into a chair as proof. I think I felt a whole lot safer buying their products knowing that it was quality after that.  And halfway through this experiential journey, there is a food court! This was what really surprised me when I was there. I mean who expects a food court at a furniture store? I really felt like I was walking a journey going through the store. We had a rest and respite in the middle of the day and ate Swedish meatballs and got to try out exotic dishes from Sweden and Europe. I remember how we talked about how IKEA targets the experience to families because they want to make the furniture adventure fun and wants to make the families come back. I can totally see that now that I look back on my first trip. The interior designed rooms where family members can discuss how furniture could be arranged in accordance with their own house. And the food court in the middle. Not only that, but the end of the journey, where you actually have to pick up the furniture by yourself and you have to work with your family members to arrange it so that it’s not too heavy and all. You work as a team and that team effort builds some kind of connection and experience.

I think what IKEA was trying to do with their strategy in terms of consumer experience was that they were trying to capitalize a place where families can bond and select furniture for their house. Hence the food court in the middle of the stores. They also spent small parts proving to their costumers broad and general brand ideas like they create simple yet durable furniture. Hence the hammer running into the chair. And also the point of sales display they had out before I even walked in meant they were trying to convey that they were selling affordable priced product because no one really wants to go into a store and have them tell you it’s going to cost a fortune to decorate. So all these little tiny details combine and create a great experience for the customers. 

David Persona

David is 20 year old college student attending the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.  

David comes from a middle class family that moved here from Taiwan. As he was growing up, his family influenced him with the Asian traditions and culture. While growing up in America, he also absorbed into the American culture. The result is a unique blend of American-Asian culture. He moved to Austin two years ago to attend college and plans to graduate soon as classes are becoming tiresome. Although some of the classes are extremely knowledgeable and interesting. He is a marketing major in the Business school. He chose marketing as a major because out of all the business majors, he believes that marketing is the most widespread and can be applied anywhere. And he considers it far more interesting than the other majors. He plans to start his own business when he graduates because to him the passion involved in creating something and crafting it into existence is amazing and thrilling. He believes it to be much more rewarding than any other job available. Because when someone considers their job a passion then that is when enjoyment of life can truly be fulfilled.  

David lives in s single bedroom apartment near the business school at the UT. The location is slightly more expensive but he is willing to pay the premium because of the location. The location is surrounded by several restaurants and CVS. This is extremely convenient especially traveling back from class to class. Being a college student, David struggles to find grocery needs and often finds himself asking friends to take him to the grocery store so he doesn’t end up on the verge of starving. He doesn’t like having a car in Austin because the parking is expensive for his apartment and the traffic in downtown area is very hard to navigate because of all the one-ways. He instead uses the Austin bus system, which is extremely effective both on campus and to the other areas of Austin. Another reason to use the bus is because it is extremely hot during the summer months. And walking back and forth from campus and the apartment could tire a person out or give them sunburn. Because of all this walking he purchased performance based sunglasses designed to block out sunlight to prevent eye degradation. He believes sunglasses to be quite a value due to all the walking around campus. He has been considering renting cars from the Car2go company based in Austin. It’s a company that allows for students to rent cars on the go anywhere around Austin. This way it would not cost much to rent a car seeming as he his uses for cars would be very limited.

On his free time, David enjoys reading believes that knowledge is accumulates. And that gaining knowledge of various aspects tremendously helps with experiences, situations, and life. He also devotes much of his time to cooking. Because he does not want to eat unhealthy foods, which is prevalent in college life. And sometimes hosts dinner parties so he can learn various styles of cooking. People always enjoy dinner parties because it’s a time for bonding and there is food. For the meals he doesn’t cook, he usually finds restaurants around his apartment which are convenient.  

David devotes much of his time to keeping his apartment clean and also implementing new ways to decorate his apartment. He searches for various items on Amazon and eBay that fit his style of decoration. He finds it difficult to match and coordinate all the elements of interior design together but believes that he will master it with time. It takes much effort to make sure everything is coordinated and looks cool and has still function. He believes that a good environment produces positive feelings, which in turn promotes productivity and that interior design is important.