Week 9 Assignment 3 Bus 508.docx - Week 9 Assignment Three:...

Week 9 Assignment Three: Promotional and Advertising Strategies
By: Earl Kenneth Remo Jr.
Dr. Mary-Jane Granoff
Business 508: Contemporary Management
Friday, June 4, 2015

The two promotional strategies that will be compared are from IKEA and Pottery Barn.
IKEA is a Swedish company that sells a wide range of ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances,
and home accessories. IKEA’s home furnishings are of good design and functionality offered at a
price low enough to be affordable to most people (IKEA, 2014). Pottery Barn is a specialty
upscale American-based home furnishing store that was acquired by Williams-Sonoma in 1986.
Pottery Barn was built on the idea that home design should be exceptional in comfort, quality,
style, and value (Pottery Barn, 2014).
IKEA’s promotional strategy includes a mix of television advertising, sponsorship,
newspaper and magazine advertising. The concept of “democratic design” is portrayed in all of
these methods, especially in the iconic IKEA catalog. This design features three elements: form,
functionality, and low price (IKEA, 2014). With respect to low price, IKEA customers play an
important role by driving to the store, selecting the flat-packed product from warehouse,
transporting the product home, and finishing by assembling the product themselves. Having the
customer complete the entire labor is all what helps contribute to the low pricing commitment.
IKEA has targeted young married couples and first time home owners by marketing a
contemporary lifestyle of enthusiasm (Douglas & Craig, 2011). The branding image has become
a household signal of arrival, that the new owners have good taste and recognize value (Capell,
Sains, Lindblad, Palmer, Bush, Roberts, & Hall, 2005).
In addition to marketing an affordable contemporary design, IKEA creates an experience
for the customer when they enter a store. All of the stores are large with a maze-like tour of the
all the visual merchandising to help inspire the customer with creative home decor ideas. All of
the stores encourages a family atmosphere by including child daycare for parents while they
shop. When the customer gets hungry there is a cafe to fuel the body to encourage a longer

shopping day. All of these offerings encourage customers to want to spend their day in the stores,
like an amusement park.