With the globalization and China’s reform and opening policies, many multinational enterprises have entered into China. In the furniture industry, IKEA caters to the trends among the youth that everyone aspires to be a leader and ruler. And IKEA brings this spirit of equality and freedom throughout the world other than the well-formed, reasonable-priced furniture. Therefore, it is a huge hit and arouses the intense competition in the furniture industry. In the furniture market, the competition among Red Star Macalline, Easyhome and Markorhome is extremely fierce.
Under such circumstance, for local furniture retailers, learning from IKEA’s strengths and opportunities and transforming their marketing strategies to seek better development has been a key problem to solve. In this thesis, the author takes Wuxi for instance and concentrates on the SWOT analysis on IKEA's marketing strategy. Then, the author synthesizes the internal factors and external factors of IKEA’s marketing strategy in Wuxi and acquires four practical strategies (SO strategy, ST strategy, WO strategy and WT strategy). In the end, some suggestions are offered on the revival of the local furniture industry.
1.2 Research Significance of the Thesis
Through the research of IKEA’s marketing strategies in Wuxi, the author lists the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from four aspects of product, price, place and promotion. Then the author synthesizes the four factors to obtain effective strategies of IKEA’s future activities in Wuxi. Meanwhile, outcomes of this thesis can be a guide for local furniture retailers.
According to Yang Baozhen, a Chinese academic, "The marketing strategy is the cornerstone of the enterprise whole marketing work.” (Yang, 2011, p. 76). For IKEA, it has the appropriate marketing strategies corresponding to its localization. IKEA has achieved great success in China while local furniture retailers are facing dilemma in marketing. If marketing activities of IKEA can be further improved and be used as a reference for local furniture retailers, both sides will have their own places in Wuxi furniture market. Therefore, the study of IKEA’s marketing strategy in Wuxi is of certain realistic value.
1.3 Overall Organization of the Thesis
The thesis is pided into five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction composed of the general statement of the thesis, the objectives and the realistic value of the study. Chapter two is a literature review, which briefly lists the predecessors’ studies of SWOT analysis and IKEA’s marketing strategy. Chapter three describes the theoretical frame this thesis based on. Chapter four demonstrates a battery of IKEA’s marketing activities in Wuxi and the comprehensive analyses of these activities. The last chapter summarizes the major findings together with the restrictions of the thesis. 宜家在无锡市场营销策略的SWOT分析(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_22645.html