How to promote a company at minimal cost: IKEA experience
Julia Manaeva,
In this article you will read:
How to cut promotion costs and stay on top
What budget marketing tools are effective
IKEA experience in using budget marketing
Promote the company at minimal cost and prove to yourself and your colleagues that a good idea wins big money? Sooner or later, a businessman has to face such a task. It may seem impossible, but this is only at first glance. The experience of using budget marketing proves that there are always options.
To promote a company with the help of budget marketing, you need to look at the situation a little differently, for example, through the eyes of customers. Indeed, in a limited budget, the success of an advertising campaign more than ever depends on how correctly you answer the question of who your target audience is, where and how to convey information to them. This will be a good basis for creative promotion.
Get to know your consumer
A typical buyer portrait can be drawn up for absolutely any business. The task is made easier if you already have an established customer base. In this case, it is enough to conduct an analysis of buyers.
In our company, the marketing, advertising and PR strategy for each city is developed using market research. We monitor it, and then annually analyze the activities of the newly opened store. In addition to independent research, we use the data of media agencies, which also constantly investigate the effectiveness of a particular channel for promoting products or services in each city. In this regard, narrowly focused professionals from the media agencies with which we cooperate are very helpful.
But there are other, less standard ways of researching the target audience. Each enterprise can implement them depending on the specifics of the activity and type of product. The main task of our company is the creation of new interiors. But before we rebuild the interiors of the store (as we usually do on the eve of the release of a new catalog), we conduct a study called Home Visited. Its essence is as follows. Designers and decorators visit the houses of the residents of our city, look at their layouts, take photographs, ask what they lack, what is convenient and inconvenient, what suits and does not suit (figure). About a hundred such visits were made this year. In addition, in general, all existing layouts that are presented in Nizhny Novgorod, especially the most typical ones, were analyzed. And already on the basis of the collected information, the first five interiors were rebuilt.
There are many options for influencing the target audience (table). Not all of them lie on the surface, but I would recommend moving from simple to complex.
Advertising at points of sale. If you have a store, why not use this platform for promotion? POS materials can be an effective and inexpensive option. Video advertising works great on monitors, displays, multi-screens. It is this kind of advertising that visitors pay the most attention to. For example, our stores constantly play videos (on TV screens built into the interiors), where employees talk about products, including new products.
Crowdsourcing. A good tool for low-budget marketing is using the potential of the crowd to implement their ideas (the so-called crowdsourcing, from the English crowd - “crowd”, source - “source”). One of the elements of this technique was implemented during a low-budget campaign involving young designers. They made huge pieces of furniture for us out of cardboard, replicating those that are presented in the IKEA store. We put these models on the street in front of the entrance to the shopping center. Such an exposition attracted the attention of not only buyers, but also the press. The information environment of the event was created, they began to talk about us, give assessments, share impressions. For IKEA, this was a good opportunity to make itself known, and for novice artists - an opportunity to gain experience and be featured in the press.
Partnership programs. Low-budget projects in cooperation with other companies or government agencies have a good effect. In one of the projects, the employees of a vocational college sewed clothes and accessories from our textiles, then professional models staged a fashion show. A lot of media wrote about the action - it was visited by many regular guests. As a result, it became an annual event.
Loyalty Club. In my opinion, this is one of the most effective ways to promote. In our company, it all started with IKEA Family club cards. We issue such cards to our regular customers, and once a month you can use them to take part in a home improvement seminar free of charge. People participating in our promotions are active buyers of products. Sometimes they themselves offer us some ideas, they say that they would like to know more from the company, what kind of special offers they would like to see. In the process of such interaction, the idea arose to create a club of buyers, whom we can periodically invite for conversations so that they share their impressions, tell what changes they would like to see in the store, up to the restructuring of the interiors.
Find a non-standard approach
Creative solutions help to save a lot. I would call flash mobs and promotions a good option for such solutions. They are inexpensive and yet have good returns.
Enter the life of the consumer. One of the most effective promotions is our Night at IKEA campaign. She was as follows. We provided an unusual opportunity to spend the night in the store at a time when there are no customers in it anymore. You could choose any bedroom. The first action was dedicated to February 14: we organized it especially for couples. The second time “Space Night at IKEA” took place on Cosmonautics Day. If a person decides to take such a non-standard act for the sake of the company, then he belongs to the category of loyal, regular customers. And then the logical goal is to get to know them better, to communicate, which we did.
Interesting promotions include “Wedding at IKEA”, when for two years in a row on February 14 we organized a wedding ceremony for everyone. And the only condition was the presence of a wedding attire. We issued an official certificate from IKEA that these people are married. And now the company has dozens of couples signed up that day. Every year on February 14, they come to the mall to receive a gift with this certificate. And if they have a child, he also receives a souvenir. We try to maintain communication with all these people, because they are the most loyal customers, and therefore they are ready to share ideas and advice.
Bet on the desire for popularity. Many people like to share photos, put them on the Internet, send them to friends. This is a natural desire and should be used. For example, we launched such a project for buyers. Any of our clients can be photographed on the cover of the new catalog and then receive it (with their photo) by mail. We tell about the campaign in leaflets, which can be found both directly in Mega and in other stores in the city.
Play a theater show. It sounds loud, but in terms of complexity, this action is not too different from organizing a New Year's corporate party, and at the same time it is very effective. We took advantage of this technique in anticipation of the opening of a new catalog. With the help of actors, typical life situations were played in our interiors, while the main functions of the objects used in the interior were demonstrated. The actors acted out scenes, and our decorator spoke in detail about the advantages and features of the new furniture. To enhance the effect, we invite media representatives and our regular customers to each such action. The return on such events is really high.
Use the potential of customers
Dmitry Smirkin, director of public relations of the central branch, Megafon
The most effective and low-budget way to promote the company's services, products and brand is to establish communication with regular and new customers through your own website. In our case, through the "Forum" section. This is a kind of targeted social network that unites people according to their interests. Moreover, subscribers themselves act as moderators on our forum. They do not work for the company, but actually manage our information resource. This is its main value.
Today, more than 10,000 users are registered on the forum of the central branch of the company. We meet with activists and moderators quarterly. Usually these meetings are held in a democratic atmosphere. We discuss current topics, answer questions and, most importantly, we are waiting for feedback on the company's operational activities. Often subscribers offer very valuable ideas. Surprisingly, people working on our forum can often give odds to any technical specialists. They are a kind of mobile communication fans who have information about the initiatives of domestic and foreign operators. And this is the filling of our forum, because it is they who form the information resource. They discuss all the new products, talk about them themselves and thereby expand the audience of our loyal customers.
Julia Manaeva Graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University. N. A. Dobrolyubova (Translation Department). In 2005–2007, she held the position of creative director of the event company Vash Prazdnik. Since 2007 he has been working at IKEA in Nizhny Novgorod.
IKEA is a manufacturer and distributor of home improvement products. The company started as a small private enterprise in Sweden almost 70 years ago and over the years has grown into an international network with offices in 41 countries. There are 14 IKEA stores in Russia; the company came to Nizhny Novgorod seven years ago. Official website -www.ikea.com/ru
Dmitry Smirkin Graduated from the Bashkir State University (Department of Philosophy and Sociology). While still at the university, he began working in the press service of the leading Russian aviation company UMPO OJSC, where he prepared materials for the internal corporate newspaper, website and radio station. In "Megafon" - since 2004, he went from PR-manager to director of public relations.
Promsvyazbank- Russian private bank, one of the leading banks in Russia and 500 largest world banks. In February 2010, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development became a shareholder of Promsvyazbank. The bank's regional network includes more than 290 points of sale in major cities of Russia, a branch in Cyprus, representative offices in India, China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Holding "Unification" is engaged in business in several diversified areas. Leading among them is the production and sale of printing products in Nizhny Novgorod. The printing house employs about 100 people.
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