IKEA is one of the world’s major home products retailer. 70% of their annual marketing budget is the production and distribution of their yearly catalogue, showing their products at their best. IKEA pride themselves for publishing the catalogue in 55 editions in 36 countries, which is quite impressive, recently passing the Bible as the most published work in the world.

But when you receive the catalogue and the front page shows a teenager’s room with the latest style of furniture, how intrigued do you get if you are a 60 year old man cashing good from the last years’ real estate boom, with more money than you have time to spend, looking for a new couch?

There are of course other values IKEA is trying to sell with the catalogue, luring people to their warehouses, showing that you can find anything at IKEA, general branding etc. But what if you received a catalogue that was designed only for you, showing furniture that is your style or the style you are heading for, with suggestion of colors to match your existing walls? That would most likely make you more interested in running to IKEA to spend some of your serious cash.

Even though extreme, this example shows the importance of individual marketing. It is not so easy accomplished with a catalogue published in 27 languages, but on your website you can with small efforts increase the result significantly.

So, is your site a beautiful expensive IKEA catalogue or is it using the full potential of online marketing, meeting your potential customers each individually for greater sales? In Part 2 we will get into how you can get started…

Tags: ikea, online marketing, branding, individual marketing