IKEA - the brand that's in the box

When you hear “furniture in a box” who do you immediately think of? IKEA has perfected the flat-pack furniture where customers hull their boxes home then spend countless hours assembling the furniture from a universal pictogram. So do they always add additional screws and bolts or did I miss something? Since cost is the driving force behind the fashionable Swedish furniture maker I don’t think they give anything away. Today they have over 278 stores in 36 countries and still promote their brand on their Swedishness including severing Swedish meatballs in their cafeteria. This brand is simple and clean on the palette. It is also a participator brand, meaning you can’t be passive. This strengthens the connection of inexpensive. The unique flavor of this brand is its Swedishness, a modern European flare but not pretentious or threatening. More like a new neighbor who is still out of sorts from their original home. The outstanding question is “Are they connecting to the young people today?" I know where my first new furniture came from but most of the young people are still living at the parents home!

Score - 93