 Home furnishings giant IKEA clearly has a grip on its segment of retail. IKEA, originating in Sweden, has grown into an international fixture over the years. However, cultures around the world are very different, and therefore, the marketing and advertising that makes sense to consumers in different countries can vary greatly. Knowing that most Europeans are typically harder to offend than most Americans when it comes to sexuality, would this kind of advertising work in United States? Would this be harmful to the IKEA brand? Electronic Retailer reached out to Dan Akalou, IKEA’s general manager, to get his input on this thought-provoking issue.
“This commercial, which aired in Scandinavia, reflects both the impact of divorce on home life (the tag-line reads ‘A better divorce for everyone’), as well as the versatility of the IKEA range of home furnishings solutions. It’s unlikely that we would run advertising like this in the United States. That said, the sentiment of versatile products that allow adults to have an adult home even when they are parents, is consistent across national borders. IKEA is known for doing edgy commercials in many of its markets. Breakthrough communication creates awareness quicker and at a lower cost than the usual informative approach to advertising.” —Dan Akalou, IKEA general manager.
Do you think this ad would work in the U.S.?
Tags: Advertising, Europe, IKEA, pat cauley
Personally, I love European advertising. They always take a brazen approach to promote a product or company. They are smart doing this because we as human beings only store a small percentage of data in our brains each day. Therefore, if one goes to a humorous extreme with an advertisement, people are more likely to remember that ad, thus knowing that brand.
Anyway to answer your question, no I do not know think this advertising would work in America. Don’t get me wrong, I think a large population would enjoy the commerical. The thing is that if you look at the trend of our country’s advertising, it depicts this perfect life. Advertising continues to emphasize the American Dream. However, we know this is not the case. Things are never how they seem. People are very secretive in America. They can look like the cookie cutter American but underneath there are some vices. With that said, the ikea commercial is realistic, people do have secret sexual lives and in Europe they are bold enough to visualize it but in America we keep our secrets to prevent from being exposed. So our Ads will continue idealize the perfect life. The life that doesn’t exist, because let’s face it, we all have dirty little secrets.
The relationship attempting to be drawn between divorce & differing culteral views of sexuality in your article (& Jordan’s comment) is far reaching - was there need to “spice up” your article for some reason? Perhaps you can explain where you see the connection.
With roughly 50% of Amercian marriages ending in divorce, the growing numbers of those remaining single and what’s already on TV - this commercial & marketing angle would be mellow & tame. Perhaps IKEAA would be better served to first improve the quality of their products and then worry about the various marketing angles. “Adult products in adult homes” should be much sturdier than a couple pieces of overpriced, thin plywood.
Wow did someone get a bitter divorce and then buy all their furniture at Ikea?
That’s great that you know your statistics and all but not once did I mention a relationship between divorce and the differing cultural (you spelled it wrong) views of sexuality. I was mainly touching base on the fact that European advertising is more provocative and appealing then conservative American advertising. I mean come on, look at our commercials. Happiness only exists if you jump on the materialistic train. However, I do think that this commercial would be welcomed by a large audience. It’s a humorous way to look at the realities of divorce. But I still stand my ground and say that our Advertising focuses on creating a materialistic culture rather than using a seductive sexual angle to target an audience.
Nice try Jordan -
Your attempted insult is see through waste. It’s what most ignorant, desperate people do - try to attack the messenger rather than focus on the message. To entertain, your opening remark & preliminary summation: “Wow did someone get a bitter divorce and then buy all their furniture at Ikea?” - is incorrect. Also, rather than point out your various grammatical errors (because this is the internet, not an English class and wee owl maek misstakkes), I’ll try to stick to what’s important - the actual discussion topics.
You say in your most recent post: “not once did I mention a relationship between divorce and the differing cultural (you spelled it wrong) views of sexuality.”
However, from your previous post: “With that said, the ikea commercial is realistic, people do have secret sexual lives and in Europe they are bold enough to visualize it but in America we keep our secrets to prevent from being exposed. So our Ads will continue idealize the perfect life. The life that doesn’t exist, because let’s face it, we all have dirty little secrets.”
Now, you mention the IKEA commercial which, according to Dan Akalou, IKEA’s general manager, “reflects both the impact of divorce on home life (the tag-line reads ‘A better divorce for everyone’)…” & say “the commercial is realistic” & then go into some diatribe about people’s “secret sexual lives”, “dirty little secrets”, etc. It’s disingenuous of you to imply you didn’t attempt to draw lines, intentionally or otherwise, between the topics of sexuality & divorce. If there was no reason - why bring the topic of “sexuality” into it?
I agree with you that Europe has less conservative advertising than the United States; however, would argue that it less to do with your reasoning (viewers suppressed psychology) and more to do with the affairs in control of the EU telecommunication regulators vs. the USA’s FCC.
IthinkyoushouldwriteatermpaperonthisbecauseyouseemtocareandknowalotmorethanIdo.
Don’t forget that they are simply doing what many of us want to do in life…advertise.
How better to do it than to broach the subject of divorce, which I know from experience is painful, and try to make it not so bad. They are trying to “sweeten the blow” as it were.
Advertising, whether it be for a real-world business or online business is vital to the existence and persistence of the business in the public eye.
They tried the above advert. Some will like it. Some won’t. Such is life.
Nice post - thanks!