Ikea Invades America Essay Example for Free

Ikea Invades America Essay Founded in 1943 by a poor Swedish farmer named Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA is now one of the largest furniture retailers in the world. From its inception, Kamprad wanted to create cheap, quality furniture that everyone could afford. That formula led to IKEA’s early success in Sweden and has carried over until today. To its customers, IKEA is not just a store but a way of life, which may be evident through the cult-like following the company has achieved. When talking about the four P’s of marketing (product, price, place, promotion), there are few companies in the world that have mastered this concept better than IKEA. IKEA has been able to recognize the demands of its shoppers and create compelling products that meet those demands at a reasonable price. Its products are sold at unique stores that serve strategically important, geographic markets. This paper examines the factors that have made IKEA such a big success and offers some recommendations for future growth in the United States. Today, IKEA has over 240 stores in 35 countries and has revenues of over $26 billion. Its revenues double every 5-6 years and the company is now expanding to growing markets like China, Japan, and Brazil. The future of IKEA looks brighter than ever. For a brief snapshot of IKEA’s current sales around the world see Appendix 1. In 1985, IKEA decided to invade America. Faced with this early failure, IKEA retooled its furniture to fit American tastes. IKEA soon became the fastest growing furniture retailer and the 14th largest furniture retailer overall in the United States. IKEA executives needed to find a balance of how to create new furniture offerings without losing its unique design and corporate soul. By examining IKEA’s marketing strategy and answering a series of four questions, we have developed recommendations (see Appendix 2) that we think will lead to IKEA’s continued growth and success. 1) What are some of the ways that furniture retailers have sought to overcome these purchase obstacles? : a) identifying a product that consumers like, b) visualizing the product in the consumer’s home, and c) getting the product in the consumer’s home? In furniture sales, there are two general strategies: the low-end and the high-end. The low-end offers cheap, utilitarian furniture that is dreary looking. Cheap furniture is marketed to people such as college students who have a small budget. The cheap furniture is also displayed in poorly lit showrooms that offer little to no customer service. High-end furniture stores compete on quality and service. The high-end offers a large selection in each style and sub-style of furniture, which results in the showroom having a large inventory. The broad, variety strategy virtually guarantees that a customer’s preferred style will be available. The high-end stores also have high touch sales associates to help customers with product selection and furniture measurement. Sales associates are trained to educate their customers; such as explaining the life spans of different materials. They also reassure customers that their furniture will last a life time. Visualizing a piece of furniture in a person’s home can be very difficult. The high-end furniture stores have beautiful showrooms that are elaborately decorated to help the customer visualize where they can place new furniture or how they can redecorate their home. High-end stores also offer interior design services. Most retailers offer credit to make high-end furniture more affordable. All retailers offer home delivery, sometimes free, to make the transition as painless as possible for the customer. As an added bonus, retailers offer to assemble the furniture in the customer’s home. Sometimes, delivering the furniture also involves rearranging furniture, as well as removing and discarding old furniture. Providing these services makes the purchase of new furniture an easy and worry-free process. 2) Explain IKEA’s reverse positioning strategy. IKEA created a matrix used to prioritize product lineup and price. (See Appendix 3) Primarily the matrix is used to set a target retail price and select a product style. With the matrix system, IKEA is able to identify product line opportunities and gaps; creating a well rounded store. IKEA has avoided the image of the low end furniture store by displaying furniture in brightly lit showrooms. These showrooms help customers envision how the furniture interacts with the allotted space. Plus color coordinated cards provide design tips and information kiosks are on hand to help customers. All of these features reinforce IKEA’s self service ethos without making the customer feel abandoned. In IKEA’s case, the firm rejected the standard business models for both high-end and low-end furniture stores. IKEA’s furniture is composed of cheaper parts that are not visible and are not under high stress through use and a higher quality material is used for the visible parts or parts under high stress. This gives IKEA’s furniture a higher end look while keeping their costs low. IKEA’s reverse positioning kept prices low, while eliminating many services thought essential to a higher-end store. The company replaced them with unique services for its category: a bright, inviting showroom, furniture that was attractively designed, a child care center, a restaurant serving Swedish meatballs, and brightly colored house wares and clever toys. As a result, IKEA successfully avoided the feel of the low-end retailers, and customers â€Å"find the IKEA shopping experience to be immensely appealing (Moon, â€Å"IKEA Invades America,† 5). 3) What are some of the various product/service attributes that IKEA has chosen to withhold from its customers? IKEA seems to incorporate a hybrid strategy focusing on both cost and differentiation. IKEA attempts to price in the low to midrange category. IKEA does not build its furniture to last a lifetime, which in-fact flows well with its ad campaigns focused on letting go of the semimetal value Americans often place on furniture. IKEA products are known for falling apart after a few years; however, its customers are typically satisfied with the look, functionality, and affordability of IKEA products (Moon, 2004, p. 5). Its focus is on cost-efficiency, so the company uses higher-quality materials on visible surfaces and lower-quality materials elsewhere. High-end stores compete on quality and â€Å"high touch† experience and selection. Nearly all types of furniture stores offer delivery services. However, IKEA successfully eliminated many of these attributes. IKEA products are designed to be transported unassembled in flat boxes, which keeps shipping costs low and prevents IKEA from having to deliver/assemble furniture for customers (Moon, 2004, p. ). Customers are responsible for transportation of their furniture and assembly of their furniture. Although this step may seem like its decreasing the consumer experience/perceived product value; it’s actually keeping the customer involvement level high. Moreover, the competitive pricing offered at IKEA is attributed to letting customer build their own furniture, which keeps costs to a minimum. Formerly, IKEA only produced a few different designs; however, this has changed in recent years. In order to be consistent with IKEA’s self-service ethos and to keep costs low, the ratio of sales assistants to customers is kept low. The low number of sales associates can have a negative effect on the consumer experience. To handle furniture questions, customers are provided with product descriptions and measuring tape so they can make their own measurements. 4) What are some of the areas that IKEA has managed to achieve cost efficiency by implementing a number of firm-specific operation processes? A number of cost effective operating processes have been implemented by IKEA. In furniture design, IKEA engineers often select cheaper/low quality materials for less visible areas that experience minimal stress and expensive materials for visible areas that undergo stress. This aids IKEA in producing durable, good-quality products at low costs. IKEA has worked with over 1,800 suppliers in over 50 countries and often uses suppliers from developing countries. To keep costs down, IKEA usually purchases in bulk and often orders various components of a given product from different suppliers. IKEA is strict with employees about waste; it enforces minimal travel budgets and requires them to save electricity. IKEA keeps a small staff in stores and provides self-serve trolleys to aid consumers in loading their vehicles. Typical furniture retailers require a larger staff and/or incur shipping costs for delivery of their bulky, already assembled products. Flat packaging allows IKEA customers to transport their purchases home and eliminates the expense of home delivery. IKEA’s flat packaging strategy is another firm specific operating process. The strategy was inspired by an employee who, in 1955, removed the legs off a table to fit it into a customer’s car. This strategy requires designers to keep in mind the amount of space their products take up in their unassembled form. Flat packaging also helps prevent damage to the products during the shipping process. IKEA will often redesign their products multiple times to achieve space optimization and reduce shipping costs. Space optimization typically lowers prices for consumers; however, it may lengthen the assembly process. IKEA should continue to incorporate cost cutting activities across the board so long as the consumer experience remains positive.

The Ultimate Fulfillment in Mans Fate by Andre Malraux Essay -- Mans

The Ultimate Fulfillment in Man's Fate  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Man's Fate, Andre Malraux examines the compelling forces that lead individuals to join a greater cause. Forced into a life of contempt, Ch'en portrays the man of action in the early phases of the Chinese Revolution.   He dedicates himself to the communist cause.   It is something greater than himself, a phenomenal concept that he has fused into.   It is something for which he will give his life.   How did this devotion come about?   A combination of his personality, his interior life, as well as society's influence, molded him into a terrorist. Ch'en is self-destructive; he is controlled by his religion of terrorism and his fascination with death.   He is representative of the dedicated soldier who begins as a "sacrificial priest" (4) and ends as a martyr.   After all, the ideologies of communism and terrorism were practically a religion to those involved in the revolution.    An examination of Ch'en's past gives us an idea of how he formed his beliefs, and fell into a state of isolation.   At an early age, his parents were murdered in the pillage of Kalagan.   In addition, at age twenty-four, his uncle was taken hostage and killed because he couldn't afford the ransom, and with no wife or children he was severed from any attachment to a family. He was practically brought up by pastor Smithson, representative of the thousands of Christians that were present in Shanghai, who gave him his Christian education.   However, "[a]s he was devoid of charity, a religious calling could lead him only to contemplation or the inner life; but he hated contemplation and would only have dreamt of an apostleship, for which precisely his absence of charity disqualified him" (64).  Ã‚   Thus, he was u... ...reams which take possession of us because we give them force, but which we can just as easily deny" (180).   This is further reinforced by Ch'en's idea that   "In the last hour I have felt nothing of what used to weigh on me" (192).   Ch'en is the terrorist for the insurrection. His faith had isolated himself from the world instead of submitting to it.   We have a personal need for connection, Ch'en is isolated until the end, when all differences are subsumed. Communism gives a sense of escaping isolation.   For under this ideology there is a personal connection and a feeling of equality.   It is the ultimate fulfillment to live his idea, and more importantly to die for his cause - a cause that is much greater than the individual.   In the end Ch'en becomes the bomb. Bibliography   Malraux, Andre.   Man's Fate:   La Condition Humaine. New York: Vintage Books.   1990

Escaping the void

Two months before I boarded the ship, I was sitting, trying to relax, on the veranda of a hotel, in Cairo accompanied by my friend William Sloper. A rather odd looking little man approached me; and with meaningful words he cautioned my subsequent journey's traveled by boat as he explained that in a dream he had seen me afloat on an open boat. He tried to assure me that I was to lose everything except my life. I was bemused and seemed to doubt the little mans words, I handed him a small amount of coins then sat, gazing at him as he proceeded and disappeared into the teeming crowd. Until the 10th April I thought nothing more of the peculiar man until I realized that today I was embarking on a journey across the water to New York, 4 days before the ship began its' decent to the depths below, we were all so unaware. Looking at the sheer beauty of the vast body we were boarding, the man's words passed through my head, I only thought to myself, † Don't be stupid, the Titanic is made so it is unsinkable† and ensue to join my parents on the ship. I had been given just one cabins, C – 23 which was occupied by myself, and my father. He had helped design the ship. When the Titanic struck the iceberg, he held himself responsible. Many beautiful decorations covered the room giving it it's glory; so perfect and precise with great space and luxury. As the ship set sail on her maiden voyage, at noon to New York, you could hear the cheers from the crowd below. We stood waving, leaning over the banisters lining the ship, calling to anyone we saw. Smiles lined our faces and our eyes gleamed, we were all ecstatic, pleased that we had our place on the pride of the ocean. Impressive gold banisters lined the marble stairs leading into the enormous ballroom; chandeliers hung covering the ceiling with their light and sparkle. We were jolly and pleased to be where we were. We loved the relaxation everyday and the fun we had all night, even on that terrible night, we were spinning around the dance floor until the ship suddenly shuddered greatly and slowed to a stop. Nobody was worried, the ship could not sink, but the aged mans' words continued to flow through my head, worried thoughts began in my mind and showed on my face, † I will lose everything but my life†. I stood still thinking just before my brother grabbed me and spun me round the dance floor, a fake smile showed on my face but it was only to please. My father had left to ask what had happened and overheard Captain Smith ordering the watertight doors to be shut to â€Å"prevent any more damage and determine the destruction already through†. Mr. Andrews had left with fear on his face as soon as it had happened and turned up by my fathers' side with what looked like plans to my father. They proceeded to disappear into a small room accompanied by the Captain. My father returned to reveal all, he told us to gather ourselves together. He was not a stern man by nature; but he was now. He was also a very sensible man. We were to stay where we were as he needed us to be ready quickly. I hurried below deck to retrieve his and my own warm coat. I was now becoming petrified, the others on board were still calm, and everyone else on the ship was continuing as if nothing had happened. Though of course, they weren't privileged with the knowledge that I had. My father returned again his face was rather pale, following him were many of the ships crewmembers who proceeded to hand out life jackets and tell everyone to put them on and also warm clothes, I took mine and correctly placed it over her head and tied the long straps around my waist. One of the crew spoke, â€Å"there is nothing to worry about just Captains precautions†. A massive bang went off, which I later found out was a distress signal he continued, â€Å"Make sure warm clothing is worn and that people begin to make their way outside†. Others made many complaints around me but we did as we were told, no arguments or conversation. It was cold outside, and ice was scattered over the deck. I rubbed my hands together, my father grabbed them and rubbed them for warmth, â€Å"stay calm, everything will be fine†, I smiled shyly as a tear left my eye, was this what the man meant, I was going to lose my family. I was now very scared for all the bellow and holler of voices, the bang of the distress signals, and the screeching of boats as they were prepared for lowering. The crew thought that this was pointless, they shared the feeling of false security that nothing was going to happen. However, soon children and female members of the passengers aboard were being asked to climb into the boats and were lowered out to sea. Crying began as families were split up, I held onto my father knowing that this would happen to us, my fathers would be made to stay. Though deep down, I knew that he intended to go down with the ship. We snuggled together for warmth as the noise continued around us, hardly uttering words to one another, just trying to keep warm. Time had past, I am not sure how long. Many lifeboats had now been lowered and were moving away from the ship, and now we were being ushered onto one, lifeboat 10. My father hugged me, and we whispered our goodbyes; he assured me that he would be there to see me when we found our way across the sea. I knew this was not to be true. My eyes were stinging trying to hold back the forceful tears; I could not stop thinking of the brave men and boys who were to be left behind. As the boat was lowered I called, â€Å"I love you† him as he disappeared from view, my last memory was of him shaking hands with Mr. Andrews, both standing in their white life jackets. My head was aching, the false smile flew from my face. Around me, families were huddled together, trying to keep warm. There were emotional mothers, wailing for their husbands and sons. The boat was rowed away from the ship, I gasped at the sight, the ship was already tilting. Many windows were disappearing from view. I thought for the first time of the other passengers. Hundreds of people lined the decks. The last lifeboat had left. As I glanced around, searching for the other boats, disgust filled my thoughts. Rich, prominent women were in lifeboats, which were purposely half-filled. As they had material wealth, they needn't care about the sacrifice of others. I felt compelled to stand up and say something, though the cowardice within me kept me silent. I turned away staring into the dark sky lit by many tiny white stars. More hours passed, I wouldn't turn around; more boats were surrounding us as we moved further away, my eyes were red and sore yet the tears still flowed, yet I was no-longer sad but now angry. Why should I live and everyone else die? I longed to be by my father's side, but I knew that he was gone. The sound grew, crashes and explosions. The cries grew louder but I never turned, I would not see it go down. I was too scared, too pathetic. I forced my self to turn just as the boat crashed down to the depths below. There were bodies everywhere, strewn around the wake of the ship. We never returned, another ship, the Carpathia arrived at the scene taking the surviving people on board. I remember little, around me, mothers franticly calling for their families, their children weeping heavily. They knew they were lost. I did not cry anymore. I shivered not only from the cold, but of the fright. That man new this was to happen. How? I was too tired to sleep, too confused to think. As we arrived finally in New York I realised that I was to meet my fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½, the crowd all wept. Many were greeting relatives, asking helplessly if we had seen their loved ones. Keith stood in the crowd. I saw him, my face lit instantly but only for a second. I ran towards him and just let him hold me for a while; he knew not to speak yet. I never forget the event, I think about what I should have done, I should have made them go for survivors or stayed with my father. I regret many things but my family was always there to bring me hope through the hard times.

Frankenstein Themes, Symbols, and Literary Devices

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is a 19th-century epistolary novel associated with both the Romantic and the Gothic genres. The novel, which follows a scientist named Frankenstein and the horrifying creature he creates, explores the pursuit of knowledge and its consequences, as well as the human desire for connection and community. Shelley depicts these themes against the backdrop of a sublime natural world and reinforces them using symbolism. Pursuit of Knowledge Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, when major breakthroughs in technology were transforming society. One of the central themes in the novel—man’s pursuit of knowledge and scientific discovery—explores the subsequent anxieties of this period. Frankenstein is obsessed with uncovering the secrets of life and death with ruthless ambition; he disregards his family and ignores all affection as he pursues his studies. His academic trajectory in the novel seems to mirror mankind’s scientific history, as Frankenstein begins with the medieval philosophies of alchemy, then moves on to the modern practices of chemistry and mathematics at university. Frankensteins efforts lead him to discover of the cause of life, but the fruit of his pursuit is not positive. Rather, his creation only brings sadness, misfortune, and death. The creature Frankenstein produces is an embodiment of man’s scientific enlightenment: not beautiful, as Frankenstein thought he would be, but vulgar and horrifying. Frankenstein is filled with disgust at his creation and falls sick for months as a result. Catastrophe surrounds the creature, who directly kills Frankenstein’s brother William, his wife Elizabeth, and his friend Clerval, and indirectly ends the life of Justine. In his search for the root of human life, Frankenstein created a deformed simulacrum of man, privy to all the usual human degradations. With the disastrous consequences of Frankenstein’s achievement, Shelley seems to raise the question: does merciless pursuit of knowledge ultimately cause more harm than good to humankind? Frankenstein presents his story to Captain Walton as a warning for others who wish, like he did, to be greater than nature intended. His story illustrates the downfall caused by human hubris. At the end of the novel, Captain Walton appears to heed to the lesson in Frankenstein’s story, as he calls off his dangerous exploration to the North Pole. He turns away from the possible glory of scientific discovery in order to save his own life, as well as the lives of his crewmen. Importance of Family In opposition to the pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of love, community, and family. This theme is most clearly expressed through the creature, whose singular motivation is to seek human compassion and companionship. Frankenstein isolates himself, puts aside his family, and ultimately loses those dearest to him, all for his scientific ambition. The creature, on the other hand, wants precisely what Frankenstein has turned away. He especially wishes to be embraced by the De Lacey family, but his monstrous physique bars him from acceptance. He confronts Frankenstein to ask for a female companion, but is betrayed and cast away. It is this isolation that drives the creature to seek revenge and kill. Without Frankenstein, his proxy for a â€Å"father,† the creature is essentially alone in the world, an experience that ultimately turns him into the monster he appears to be. A scene from the 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein.. Archive Photos / Getty Images There are multiple orphans in the novel. Both the Frankenstein family and the De Lacey family take in outsiders (Elizabeth and Safie respectively) to love as their own. But these characters are markedly dissimilar to the creature, as they are both nurturing, matriarchal figures to fill in for the absence of mothers. Family may be the primary source for love, and a powerful source for purpose in life at odds with the ambition for scientific knowledge, but it is nevertheless presented as a dynamic in conflict. Throughout the novel, family is an entity fraught with the potential for loss, suffering, and hostility. The Frankenstein family is torn apart by revenge and ambition, and even the idyllic De Lacey family is marked by poverty, the absence of a mother, and a lack of compassion as they turn the creature away. Shelley presents family as an important means for love and purpose, but she also depicts the familial bond as complicated and perhaps impossible to achieve. Nature and the Sublime The tension between the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of belonging play out against the background of sublime nature. The sublime is an aesthetic, literary and philosophical concept of the Romantic period that encapsulates the experience of awe in the face of the natural world’s extreme beauty and greatness. The novel opens with Walton’s expedition to the North Pole, then moves through the mountains of Europe with the narratives of Frankenstein and the creature. These desolate landscapes mirror the problems of human life. Frankenstein climbs Montanvert as a way to clear his mind and minimize his human sorrows. The monster runs to the mountains and glaciers as refuge from civilization and all its human fallibilities, which cannot accept him for his faà §ade. Nature is also presented as the ultimate wielder of life and death, greater even than Frankenstein and his discoveries. Nature is what ultimately kills both Frankenstein and his creature as they chase after one another further into the icy wilderness. The sublime uninhabited terrains, of equal beauty and terror, frame the novel’s confrontations with humanity so that they underline the vastness of the human soul. Symbolism of Light One of the most important symbols in the novel is light. Light is tied to the theme of knowledge as enlightenment, as both Captain Walton and Frankenstein search for illumination in their scientific pursuits. The creature, by contrast, is doomed to spend much of his life in darkness, able to walk around only at night so that he may hide from humans. The idea of light as a symbol for knowledge also refers back to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, in which darkness symbolizes ignorance and the sun symbolizes truth. The symbolism of light arises when the creature burns himself in the embers of an abandoned campfire. In this instance, fire is both a source of comfort and danger, and it brings the creature closer to the contradictions of civilization. This use of fire links the novel with the myth of Prometheus: Prometheus stole fire from the gods to aid in humankind’s advancement, but was eternally punished by Zeus for his actions. Frankenstein similarly took a kind of ‘fire’ for himself, by harnessing a power not otherwise known to mankind, and is forced to repent for his actions. Throughout the novel, light refers to knowledge and power and weaves in myths and allegories to make these concepts more complex—calling into question whether enlightenment for humankind is possible to achieve, and whether or not it should even be pursued. Symbolism of Texts The novel is filled with texts, as sources of communication, truth, and education, and as a testament to human nature. Letters were a ubiquitous source of communication during the 19th century, and in the novel, they are used to express innermost feelings. For example, Elizabeth and Frankenstein confess their love for one another through letters. Letters are also used as proof, as when the creature copies Safie’s letters explaining her situation, in order to validate his tale to Frankenstein. Books also play an important role in the novel, as the origin of the creature’s understanding of the world. Through reading Paradise Lost, Plutarch’s Lives and the Sorrows of Werter, he learns to understand the De Lacey’s and becomes articulate himself. But these texts also teach him how to sympathize with others, as he realizes his own thoughts and feelings through the characters in the books. Likewise, in Frankenstein, texts are able to portray the more intimate, emotional truths of the characters in ways that other forms of communication and knowledge cannot. The Epistolary Form Letters are also important to the novels structure. Frankenstein is constructed as a nest of stories told in epistolary form. (An epistolary novel is one told through fictional documents, such as letters, diary entries, or newspaper clippings.) The novel opens with Walton’s letters to his sister and later includes the first-person accounts of Frankenstein and the creature. Because of this format, the reader is privy to the thoughts and emotions of each individual character, and is able to sympathize with each one. That sympathy extends even to the creature, with whom none of the characters within the book sympathize. In this way, Frankenstein as a whole serves to demonstrate the power of narration, because the reader is able to develop sympathy for the monster through his first-person storytelling.