MKT 460

Section - 02

Launching of IKEA Bangladesh

Presented by

Name ID

Abu Jaber 1610293030

Ashique Shams 1610463030

Amjad Hossain Tushar 1612225030

Sazidur Rahman 1510504630

Shamima Binte Alam Shanta 1610777030

Abid Ahsan Rusho 1631630030

Submitted to:

Ms. Aunima Nazmun Nahar

Lecturer

Department of Marketing & International Business

North South University

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Acknowledgement

It gives us immense pleasure in bringing out our project on Strategic Management for IKEA
Bangladesh. Firstly, we would like to thank our teacher and guide, Ms. Aunima Nazmun Nahar,
who gave us her valuable suggestions and ideas when we were in need of them. She encouraged
us to work on this project.

We are also grateful to North South University for giving us the opportunity to work with them
and providing us the necessary resources for the project. We are immensely grateful to all involved
in this project as without their inspiration and valuable suggestion it would not have been possible
to develop the project within the prescribed time.

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March 18th, 2019

Ms Aunima Nazmun Nahar

Lecturer

Department of Marketing and International Business

Subject: Submission of Report on launching IKEA in Bangladesh

Dear Ma’am,

We are delighted to complete our report on “Launching International Brand in Bangladesh” and
have chosen IKEA to work on. We have gathered information through secondary Market Research.
We have formulated different strategies and campaigns to launch IKEA in Bangladesh.

We are thankful that we have been given this opportunity to create this report which helped us to
learn more. We hope you will accept this report from our part and appreciate our work.

Regards,

Abu Jaber ________________________

Ashique Shams ________________________

Amjad Hossain Tushar ________________________

Sazidur Rahman ________________________

Shamima Binte Alam Shanta ________________________

Abid Ahsan Rusho ________________________

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Executive Summary

This report contains the business plan for launching IKEA in Bangladesh. IKEA is a Swedish
furniture brand founded in 1943. It has been the world’s largest furniture brand since 2008. We
think that if IKEA opens in Bangladesh it would be huge success.

To understand the market, we have done environmental analysis. For macro–environmental

analysis, we have done PESTLE where we have analyzed macro-factors like political, economic,
social, technological, legal and environmental factors. Then, we have done porter’s five forces for
micro-environmental analysis. We have done industry analysis to assess the overall market forces.
We have also done competitor analysis. Their main competitors are Otobi, Hatil and Akhter. After
analyzing all these factors, we have come up with strategies. For corporate level directional
strategy, we will use stability strategy through pause and proceed for first two years and horizontal
growth strategy for next five years. For SBU level, our products will fall under differentiation
strategy according to porter’s generic strategy. And, for bowman’s strategy, it falls under hybrid
strategy. It will be a challenger based on competitive position. We segmented the market in
different aspects. Geographically, we will target Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. Demographically,
we have segmented market based on age, income, occupation, social class and family life cycle.
We have also done psychographic segmentation based on VALS model. We will target achievers,
thinkers and makers. And for behavioral segmentation, we have done loyalty and benefit sought
segmentation. Our targeting strategies would be differentiated and selective specialization. And,
we will position the products as “World class furniture at low prices”. Keeping target market in
mind our media to promote the brand through social, media, television, radio, guerilla marketing
and BTL campaigns. Through all these strategies and campaigns, we can grab the Bangladesh
market.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….i
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Pestle Analysis............................................................................................................................................... 2
Porter’s five forces ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Competitors Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 4
Strategic decision at Corporate Level ........................................................................................................... 5
Directional strategy for the first 2 years: .................................................................................................. 5
Directional strategy for the next 5 years: .................................................................................................. 6
Strategic decision at SBU Level ..................................................................................................................... 6
Porter’s generic strategy: .......................................................................................................................... 6
Bowman’s Strategy Clock: ....................................................................................................................... 6
Strategic decision at functional level ............................................................................................................ 7
Ansoff Matrix Strategies for first 5 years: ................................................................................................ 7
Competitive position in the market ........................................................................................................... 8
Segmentation ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Geographic ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Demographic ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Psychographic ......................................................................................................................................... 10
Behavioral ............................................................................................................................................... 11
Targeting ..................................................................................................................................................... 11
Positioning .................................................................................................................................................. 12
Promotion ................................................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 17
References .................................................................................................................................................. 18
Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 20

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Introduction

IKEA is a global brand which solves its consumer pain point by providing unique ready-to-
assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories. The company’s vision is ‘‘to create
a better everyday life for the many people’’ (Tarnovskaya, V.V. and de Chernatony, L. (2011).

With this vision in mind, IKEA was founded by Feodor Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. Within a few
short years Mr.Kamprad was able to develop Ikea into a furniture retailer. In 1958, the first store
of Ikea was launched in Älmhult has 6,700 square metres of home furnishings. The launch of
Ikea’s store in Oslo, Norway paved the gateway for Ikea to be open 424 Ikea stores in 52 countries
(as of November 2018). In 1965, IKEA launch one of its larget store in Stockholm, Sweden. The
store has a circular design, inspired by New York's Guggenheim Museum. The store's success
leads to the opening of a self-serve warehouse - an important part of the IKEA concept is born.

At first IKEA was a retail based company selling locally manufactured furniture. As Mr. Kamprad
was not producing his one product, other retail companies started to enter the industry and soon
the competition became fierce. This led Mr. Kamprad to lower the prices of the furniture, causing
manufacturers to boycott IKEA. This forced him to design items in-house. The company started
to design and manufacture product which were simple and affordable. This concept lead to the
simple, yet revolutionary innovation that is the flat pack. Thus the basic IKEA concept – simple,
affordable flat-pack furniture, designed, distributed and sold in-house – was complete. These
simple concept helped IKEA to design over 12000 products and en route to build the largest store
in Philippines, occupying 65,000 m2 (699,654.2 sq ft). (Ikea, 2017)

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Pestle Analysis

Political: Bangladesh political system is a parliamentary government but political stability in the
country is very uncertain and it suffers from high corruption levels. (Tinker, n.d.) Value added tax
for selling and manufacturing furniture is 5 and 7 percent respectively while Importing raw
materials is 15 percent for furniture. (Ahmed, 2018) High bureaucratic barriers makes it difficult
for foreign companies to invest. (Paul, 2019) High foreign direct investments can get tax incentives
from government. Incentives for investors include: 100% ownership in most sectors; tax holidays;
reduced import duties on capital machinery and spares; duty-free imports for 100% exporters; and
tax exemptions. (Investment Incentives, n.d.) Government provides 15% cash incentives for all
furniture exports. (Ahmed, Furniture industry growing rapidly in Bangladesh, 2017)

Economic: Bangladesh has experienced stable high GDP growth rate for years. Currently the GDP
is at 7.86%. (Asian Development Bank, n.d.) There is stable inflation rate at 5.7% and
unemployment rate is low at 4.2%. (Asian Development Bank, n.d.) There is a rising middle class
with growing disposable income in the country. Bangladesh is manufacturing a sizeable amount
of quality and world-class furniture. The domestic furniture market is growing at a brisk pace of
around 20 per cent a year. (Ahmed, Furniture industry growing rapidly in Bangladesh, 2017) Raw
materials, such as wood, hardware, finishing materials, and other stuff, has to be imported which
pushes up the cost. (Ahmed, Furniture industry growing rapidly in Bangladesh, 2017)

Social: Bangladesh is the 8th largest population of the world with 16.2 million people and is 12th
most densely populated country of the world. The age distribution of the country is as Age 0-14 is
34.63%, Age 15-64 is 60.62% and Age 65+ is 4.75%. (CIA, 2019) 27% of the population lives in
the urban area while the rest 73% lives in the rural area. (CIA, 2019) Life expectancy male: 70.3
years and female: 72.9 years. (CIA, 2019) The vast majority (about 98.5%) of Bangladeshis are of
the Bengali ethno-linguistic group. Minority ethnic groups include Meitei, Tripura, Marma,
Tanchangya, Barua, Khasi, Santhals, Chakma, Garo, Biharis, Oraons, Mundas and Rohingyas.
Official language: Bengali (also known as Bangla). (CIA, 2019)

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Technological: There has been rapid technological advancement in Bangladesh. There is heavy
reliance on imported technology. Growing number of technical experts such as engineers and IT
specialists. Bangladesh implementing “Digital Bangladesh” vision. (Rahman, 2015)

Legal: The existing Bangladeshi legislation related to doing business in Bangladesh dates mostly
from the period of British rule. (minlaw) The legislation inforce are as follows:

 Patent and Design Act of 1911

 Patent and Design Rule of 1933
 Trademark Act of 1940
 Copyright Act of 1999
 Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009

Environmental: Environmental dreadful conditions and depletion of natural resources are often
observed in Bangladesh Natural calamities like floods, cyclones and tidal-bores also result in
severe socio-economic and environmental damage.

Porter’s five forces

The furniture industry in Bangladesh is very competitive. Due to the sheer number of SMEs, price
of furniture is highly competitive at the middle and lower segments of the market. We have
analyzed the market using Porter’s five forces framework.

Bargaining power of buyers: The furniture Industry has over 70,000 firms in Bangladesh, which
basically portrays the monopolistic competition. In a monopolistic competition firms take the
prices of their competitors, with limited pricing power; and that’s why the bargaining power of the
buyer is very high. The top 6-7 firms those who are serving to the top segment of the market have
the higher bargaining power over buyers. (Rahman I. , 2016)

Bargaining power of suppliers: Due to the recent environmentalism and decrease in tree cutting
in the country due to legislations, the supply of raw materials from the domestic or the local market
has decreased. The furniture manufacturers face the problem with fewer choices when it comes to
choosing a suitable supply source. Hence we are planning to supply the raw materials from abroad

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also. Countries like Myanmar, India and African countries are reliable import sources. (Rahman I.
, 2016)

Threat from substitutes: There are no direct substitutes to furniture industry as a whole.
Although the use of plastic and steel made furniture is there but they are not widely popular as the
furniture made from woods are. So we can say that there is no direct threat of substitute in this
industry. (Rahman I. , 2016)

Threat from new entrants: The market is already crowded and will be growing even more due
to lack of entry barriers. Hence the entrance of the enterprises in the market will be normal but it
won’t create an impact or effect on the market share of the existing top companies. The top segment
could possibly be disrupted by entrance of a big brand e.g. Ikea, since Bangladeshi consumers are
more biased towards brand image. (Rahman I. , 2016)

Rivalry among existing competitors: We can see now that the rivalry among the existing
enterprises is fierce, due to the sheer number of enterprises that exist in the market and the threat
that exists from the possible entrance of big foreign brands. (Rahman I. , 2016)

Competitors Analysis
Direct Competitors

There are more than 70,000 enterprises that produce furniture in Bangladesh but the market is
dominated by a few large companies; some of the significant companies are as follows.

 Otobi: Started off in 1975, Otobi is one of the pioneers of Bangladesh’s furniture industry.
They have the largest distribution network with over 18 retail outlets and 288 exclusive
dealer outlets. In total, it has over 450 selling hubs across the country. (Rahman I. , 2016)

 Akhtar: The company started off as Akhtar Furnishers in 1976. They have seven industrial
units spanning over 75 Acres of Land and selling a range of products including foam,
furniture, door, timber coatings, mattress and adhesive. They have eight large showrooms
in Dhaka and a few more in other city. It has also established the Akhtar Furniture academy,
the first and only private institution in Bangladesh that specializes in teaching furniture
production. (Rahman I. , 2016)

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  Navana: Navana Furniture Limited was established in 2002. It currently has over 80
outlets across Bangladesh. They import all of their major raw materials and their
production plant is fully integrated. They mould, design, assemble and test the materials
by themselves. (Rahman I. , 2016)

 Hatil: Established in 1969, Hatil started off as a timber company. It rebranded itself as a
furniture producer in 1989. They currently export to countries including (but not limited
to) USA, Canada and Australia. They are also the only FSC certified furniture manufacturer
in Bangladesh. (Rahman I. , 2016)

Indirect Competitors

Indirect competitors are the ones who basically offer the customers a substitute product against a
specific industry offering. The biggest indirect competitors of furniture industry are the plastic and
steel industry. Most of the time people those who can’t afford wooden furniture go for plastic and
steel made furniture’s as they are much cheaper than the wooden one.

Pran RFL could be the perfect example of indirect competitors. They are selling products such as
shelf, book shelf, shoe shelf, wardrobe etc. And these products are in fact less cheap than the
wooden one products and are considered and perceived as below standard compared to wooden
made products. Sofa set and Bed made from steel are one of the biggest substitute of wooden
furniture too.

Strategic decision at Corporate Level

Directional strategy for the first 2 years:

Ikea will follow stability strategy for the first 2 years. Because as we are new entrant in
Bangladesh, we will follow the pause and proceed with caution strategy. This will help us to get
acquainted with the norms, values, decision making and purchase behavior of Bangladeshi
consumers. We are going to observe and analyze our target group first. We will see their reaction
towards our brand and how they are going to accept and adopt the brand. That’s why we will not
bring changes in our existing activities and will try to make our profit stable initially. We will open
an outlet in Dhaka first and observe our target group’s attitudes towards the brand and analyze
their needs and preferences and whether they are interested and willing to pay.

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Directional strategy for the next 5 years:
The first two years will help us to establish the brand IKEA in the market. By this time we will
be able to find out the demand and attitude of our target group and the market too. And after we
have successfully created the position for ourselves, our plan for the next 5 years is to grow
horizontally. We will increase our product line and produce variety of products according to the
demand and preference of our customers. Growing horizontally and at the same time providing
premium products at an affordable price requires domestic resources. Luckily over 10,600 Sq Km
of forests in Chittagong Hills and the Sundarbans will provide us with various quality timbers. The
use of localized woods for local products and imported woods for IKEA products will give an
added advantage over other competitors by providing our consumers with various choices under
one roof. So we are planning to manufacture our products here and in that case we will go for
forward and backward integration to grow vertically.

Beside that we will follow retrenchment strategy too if we see any of our products is not demanded
by our customers anymore. We will discontinue the production of that particular products.

Strategic decision at SBU Level

Porter’s generic strategy:

IKEA is the first ready-to-assemble brand in Bangladesh which will provide various range of
product regarding home furnishing and decoration. Due to its unique and huge inventory of
products available for its consumer to enjoy IKEA will follow industry wide differentiation
strategy. We will target the mass market with our unique quality products. As we are creating
significant differentiated offerings by providing better design, quality, brand image, technology,
customer service, it will create customer brand loyalty. Our target customers will be more loyal to
our brand which will help to minimize customer’s price sensitivity. Not only that, it will create an
entry barrier too for our competitors. That’s why we are going for industry wide differentiation
strategy.

Bowman’s Strategy Clock:

Being an international brand, IKEA will have a higher perceived value in the minds of the
consumers. As we are targeting mostly younger cohorts of the Bangladesh in the urban areas, they
are technologically savant. These people are very active on social media and they consume both
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national and international contents. Therefore to a certain degree they will be aware of the brand
and we are going to leverage that opportunity. Hence our consumer’s higher perceived value
coupled with affordable cost of IKEA’s wide range of products will help us to create a meaningful
association. Besides we have some products that are a bit expensive for the people of Bangladesh.
As people are aware about our unique quality, they will definitely choose our products over local
products. So with respect to the Bowman’s strategy clock, our strategy falls under hybrid to
differentiation strategy because of its high perceived value.

Strategic decision at functional level

Ansoff Matrix Strategies for first 5 years:

Penetration strategy:

For the first 2 years, we will focus on market penetration strategy. We will go for intense
promotion to create a buzz in the market place. We will make people aware about our brand and
position the brand in our customer’s mind gradually. We will focus on capturing customers by
using different promotional strategies. We will carry out different campaigns to reach our target
audience. Along with that we will promote our brand through ATL and BTL media both to create
a hype and spread word of mouth among our customers. We will educate our customers about
IKEA and its offerings and hopefully convert them from being non-users to users. All these will
help us to increase our market share and share of customer spending.

Market development strategy:

After observing our target market and customers and creating a better brand image for 2 years, we
will go for market development strategy. Initially we will try to capture our target customers by
positioning our brand in their minds and increase market share. Then we will develop our market
by expanding outlets if the demand for our products gets higher. We will create new distribution
channels in new geographic areas like, Chattogram and Sylhet to make our products more available
to our consumers according to their demand.

Product development strategy:

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After establishing our brand in the market and gaining brand loyalty, we will launch new products
according to local demands of customers. We will modify our products by adding new features
and different quality levels which are better than our competitors, based on the needs and
preferences of consumers. It will give our consumers variety of choices under one roof and will
also reduce the chances of switching from our brand. In this way our customers will stick to our
brand and we will be able to increase our market share too.

Competitive position in the market

According to our analysis, we are a market challenger. Even though there are no direct competitors
in the flat-pack designs, there are already a huge number of players in the market competing to
grab consumer’s attention. Therefore, for our first few years in the market, we will be a market
challenger. Being a challenger means that we have to use tactical marketing to compete for our
consumers with the big-box furniture stores of Bangladesh. For established players such as Hatil,
Akhtar, Navana etc., we will use frontal tactic to directly attack these players with our pod of smart
and unique designs. The frontal attack would help us create brand engagement and convert our
prospects into the sales and hopefully a supporter of Ikea. As Bangladesh is a very price sensitive
market we will then use guerilla tactics through 360 marketing campaign. This is so that we can
hit every touch point where our target audience will be. Our main objective through this tactic is
create as much as impression as possible so that a consumer or buyer only thinks Ikea for furniture.

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Segmentation
Segmentation
Geographic Urban
City Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet
Demographic
Age 1-12, 20-26, 26-35, 35-45
Income BDT 30,000-120,000
Occupation Students, Job-holders, House-makers, White collars
Social Class Middle class, Upper middle class
Family Life Cycle Bachelorhood, Honeymooners, Parenthood
Psychographic
VALS Thinkers, Achievers, Makers
Behavioral
Loyalty Brand Insistence, Brand Loyalty, Split loyalty
Benefit sought Home décor, office furniture , Good Quality, Low price
(Table 1: Segmentation for IKEA Bangladesh)

Geographic
Geographically we will target the urban population of Bangladesh. Initially, we will set up our
outlets in Dhaka as most of the urban people resides there. We will provide wide range of products
in Dhaka. Later on, we will expand to Chattogram and Sylhet. In Chattogram varieties of product
will be less than that of Dhaka but it will still be quite many. After that we will expand to Sylhet.
Here urban population is not that much. So, we will offer fewer choices of products that are tailored
to their preference.

Demographic
We can segment the market in demographically in following ways.

Age: Based on age, we are going to divide the market in three segments. First segment is 20-26.
We will make product for people of that age. We will provide funky and stylish furniture for this
category. Second segment is 26-35. People of this age range are more conservative. They need
blend of both style and convenience. So, furniture will be designed that way. Finally, third segment

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is 35-45. They will normally prefer functionality over anything. We will try to concentrate on more
functional furniture for them.

Income: There will be products targeted toward medium and high income people. Different
category will be introduced to accommodate both price range.

Occupation: Occupation-wise, there are Students, White collars, House Makers. Students will be
interested in products like book-shelf, reading table etc. White collars will be interested in working
desk, file cabinets etc. And, house-makers will choose furniture to decorate their house and make
it comfortable for example beds, sofa, Almira etc.

Social Class: We want to attract middle class and upper-middle class people. Our products’ price
and quality will attract both of these segments. We will offer reasonable priced furniture to middle
class people. And, we will provide better quality and bit high priced product for upper-middle class
people.

Family Life Cycle: We will segment market based family life cycle in three categories. Our single
type products like single bed, narrow closet will be targeted to bachelorhood. Whereas our couple
bed, queen dressing table etc. will be geared toward honeymooners. Then, products like baby crib,
baby closet, baby proofing products etc. will attract people of parenthood.

Psychographic
We will do psychographic segmentation based on VALS model. We will Thinkers, Achievers and
Makers.

Thinkers: Thinkers are conservative and practical consumers. If they see functionality and quality
in Ikea products, they will purchase the product. So, it is important to give them proper knowledge
of the product as they will not buy any product impulsively. As, Ikea provides good quality product
in reasonable price, thinkers will be attracted to it.

Achievers: Achievers value consensus, predictability and stability. They don’t like uncertainty.
There prefer to big brands. So, that’s the hitting point for Ikea. Ikea is one the most recognized
international brands. Their products are used by millions of people around the world. And, there
quality and durability is well known to all. So, all these factors will be beneficial for targeting
achievers.

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Makers: Makers like to express themselves and experience the world. They also like to build
things. Ikea is well known building DIY furniture. This may grab attention of makers. They will
buy Ikea furniture to build their own furniture.

Behavioral
Loyalty: Our goal will be to acquire and retain brand insistence customers. We will provide loyalty
cards to gain their support. This will motivate them to advocate our product. Brand loyal customers
will get rewarded with discounts and offers. We will try to convert split loyal customers into brand
loyal customers by providing products tailored to their need.

Benefit Sought: Furthermore we can segment the market depending on what benefits they are
seeking.

 Home décor will be the biggest offering from us. People who are searching for home
furniture and accessories can easily find them in IKEA outlets.
 Office furniture will attract the people who are looking for functional work station. They
can find their needed furniture in office section.
 We can separate the market who are seeking low cost. We will make low cost furniture for
the people who care more about price than quality.
 We will make good quality furniture for the people who prioritize quality over price. So,
price will be higher for such furniture.

Targeting
Kotler’s Targeting Strategy: Our targeting would be differentiated. Ikea has a very wide range
of product suited for different target groups. Products will be offered based on segmentation
provided above. So, there will be diverse group of people. Because of that we will use
differentiated targeting with numerous varieties of product.

Derek’s Targeting Strategy: In this method, we will do selective specialization. As mentioned

earlier our customer group will be very diverse. We will have to choose the right products for right
segment. This means we will tailor the product for each segment. That’s why we would use
selective specialization.

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Positioning
POD: We will try to differentiate our products from that of competitors’ in following ways.

 Ikea is well reputed international furniture brand. We will use this factor as POD. We will
highlight the fact that it’s a world class furniture. So, Our POD will be World Class Product
at very reasonable prices.
 After that, our outlet’s biggest offering will be home décor. We will try to make our home
furniture and accessories unique and vibrant. We will make the product stand out through
distinctive design elements.
 We will introduce ready to assemble furniture. People will not need any professional
assistance to assemble such furniture.

POP: Our products’ point of parity will be office furniture. The basic functionality of the products
will be same. It may differ a little from competitors’ furniture in term of design but design will be
kept conservative. Functionality will be main focus for office furniture just like that of the
competitors’.

Position Statement: “World Class Furniture at prices you never could have imagined”

This statement reflects the world class quality of the product and reasonable pricing for such good
quality product.

Promotion
Campaign Tagline: “Happiness Everyday”
Promotion Strategy: For promotion, we will follow two strategies. One of them Above the line
(ATL) strategy. Another is below the line (BTL) strategy. Our goal of promotion would be to get
into the consumers’ minds and get them to visit our store. Even though IKEA is a global brand, a
lot of people from different areas of the country might not know about it. That’s why we will try
to be as vocal as possible. All of our campaigns will be using the campaign theme “Happiness
Everyday” to highlight the fact that IKEA would help making people happy every day. We would
also focus on creating a positive image by using the statement.

Social Media Engagement: We live in the moment of social media. The use of internet has made
it very easy for different social media channels to connect people. Social media is used for getting

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news, connecting, sharing and even entertainment. At present, “there are 3.196 billion active users
in social media” (Chaffey, 2019). Among all the social media platforms, “Facebook (82%),
YouTube (75%) and Instagram (53%) are used at least once per week” (Herhold, 2018). That’s
why we will use these three platforms to engage with our customers.

Facebook: Facebook is the most popular website in Bangladesh. Among 74.736 million internet
users of the country, approximately 25 to 30 million people use Facebook (Tarik, 2018). That’s
why we are choosing Facebook as the first medium of social media engagement. Facebook would
be used to

- Share information about the brand

- Promote advertisements or contests to boost sales
- Staying relevant using social contents
- Provide customer service
- Share news on PR activities
- Educate consumers about different products and their use
- Broadcasting promotional offers directly to consumers
- Answering Frequently asked questions and giving customer support
- Showing advertisements inside Facebook Messenger application

We will open a group named “IKEA Users of Bangladesh” and try to add our users there.
This will help us to —

- Post important announcements to our customers

- Get feedback from the customers and work on them
- Create brand supporters
- Identify crisis beforehand and act on them

Instagram: Instagram is a very popular application for smartphones that helps brands to
showcase products and leads them to the website of the brand. The rising trend of Instagram
Influencers has engaged youth to the platform. We can use this trend as an advantage by sharing
contents on Instagram. We can use Instagram to—

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 - Create a brand persona
- Share promotional offers
- Showcase products
- Use popular Instagram influencers to connect with the consumers

YouTube: YouTube is known to the most popular video streaming platforms on the internet.
YouTube has approximately 1.9 billion monthly active users (YouTube Now Has 1.9 Billion
Monthly Active Users, 2018). Just like Instagram, YouTube also consists of some celebrities
who influence a lot of YouTube users. We will use YouTube to –

- Promote brand related video contents

- Partner with relevant YouTube channels increase brand recognition and trust
- Educate the consumers on different products and their use

Print Media: We use will newspapers and magazines to promote our print ads. There are a lot of
popular newspaper and magazine outlets in our country which have regular customers subscribed
to them.

Newspapers: Newspapers will be used to get immediate action for our promotional offers.
For newspaper, we will promote our prints in Prothom Alo, The Daily Star, Bangladesh Protidin.

Magazines: Magazines will be used because it has more shelf life than newspapers. That’s why
in magazines we would try to connect with our consumers in an emotional way rather than
showing promotional offers.

Television Media: Usage of television media has decreased over the last 10 years. Not everyone
watches television like before. That’s why we will not show ads that consistently on television.
But we will focus on some television channels and some TV shows that has high TRP and show
ads that will engage our target customers who are aged from 28 to 60. We will place ads on—

- DiptoTV

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 - Ekattor TV
- NTV &
- Shomoy News

Radio Media: Radio has a significant use for our target customers who are in upper middle class
and upper class. As, Dhaka has a very high traffic congestion, our target customers often tune
into radio to pass time in the traffic. That’s when we want them to listen to our radio ads.
Specially at office hours which start from 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM and 5 :00 PM to 8:00 PM. We
will place ads heavily on-

- Radio Today
- Radio Foorti
- Radio Amar

SMS Marketing: SMS marketing is a very effective way of broadcasting messages to mass
population. Apparently, a lot of companies in our country have developed databases using phone
numbers from a lot of users. It helps companies to promote different offers. We will use SMS
marketing to—

- Broadcast launch date

- Promote offers
- Promote new arrivals

Moving Billboard (Innovative Bus Posters): Since Bangladesh has banned the use of
billboards inside Dhaka City, we will place posters on buses. The idea is to make the posters in a
way that it looks like the passengers are having a good time sitting on IKEA chairs. Different
time, different heads of the passengers from the windows represent IKEA furniture. This would
be –

- Seen on the road by a lot of people

- Has a potential to get viral
- Create brand recognition

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 - Create positive image in the consumers’ minds about the brand

Hanging Furniture in Shopping Malls: Some shopping malls are the best destinations to shop,
hangout, watch movie and meet with friends. That’s why they have a very high traffic all the
time. Keeping that in mind, we wanted to introduce something unconventional. Which having
furniture hanging at different location with our logo that shouts IKEA. This would be –

- Seen by a lot of people who visit shopping malls

- Create brand recognition

Imagine your dream room in University Campuses: We will set up some empty rooms with
white boards in different university campuses. The students will have to wear a VR headset and
enter the room. Then, they will walk around and place different furniture that will be given in
front of them in the VR world. After completing the room, we will take a picture of the student
and post it online. This would-

- Help us create a buzz among university students

- Help us reach our secondary target markets
- Create positive brand image

Contest Ideas on Social Media:

1. Guess the launch date: We’ll ask consumers on social media and different social media
outlets about when our launch should be and we would ask them to share the post with
the date from their profile. In return, we will invite them to be the first people to visit the
IKEA store.
- This contest has a potential to become viral and help us spread the word.

2. Guess the IKEA store location: We’ll ask consumers on social media about our location
of our first store. People would randomly guess our location and comment on our post.

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 - This contest will create an excitement among our consumers about our launch and
visit the store.

3. What an IKEA? This contest will be based on IKEA products. We will show IKEA
products using our social media channels about a product by just showing a picture. The
consumers have to guess the name of the product by searching IKEA Bangladesh
website.

- This would educate consumers on our different products.

- Increase website views and boost online sales
- Learn about other products while searching

Conclusion
Even though this industry is huge and the competition is huge, there’s always a scope to attain the
market. And as Bangladeshi people are more into brand image, IKEA would get the advantage of
an established brand. And as people want quality product in cheap price they will definitely be
choosing IKEA. As IKEA is an international brand and people have the reliability on that brand
so we hope that IKEA would be a successful one in Bangladesh also.

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References
 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/
 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd
 Ahmed, S. (2017, July 15). Furniture industry growing rapidly in Bangladesh. Retrieved
from The Independent: http://m.theindependentbd.com/printversion/details/104062
 Ahmed, S. (2018, june 28). Increased VAT on furniture dismays industry players.
Retrieved from The Independent: http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/154557
 Asian Development Bank. (n.d.). Retrieved from Bangladesh: Economy:
https://www.adb.org/countries/bangladesh/economy
 CIA. (2019). The World Factbook. Retrieved from www.cia.gov/:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html#People
 Investment Incentives. (n.d.). Retrieved from Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry:
http://www.dhakachamber.com/home/investment_duty
 Paul, B. P. (2019, February 17). The vicious impact of bureaucracy in business. Retrieved
from The Daily Star: https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/28th-anniversary-
supplements/entrepreneurship-key-youth-employment/news/the-vicious-impact-
bureaucracy-business-1702966
 Rahman, I. (2016, January 31). Market Insight: Bangladesh Furniture Industry. Retrieved
from Light Castle: https://www.lightcastlebd.com/insights/2016/01/31/market-insight-
bangladesh-furniture-industry
 Rahman, L. (2015, March 15). Digital Bangladesh: Dreams and reality. Retrieved from
The Daily Star: https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/24th-anniversary-the-daily-
star-part-1/digital-bangladesh-dreams-and-reality-73118
 Tinker, H. R. (n.d.). Bangladesh since independence. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com: https://www.britannica.com/place/Bangladesh/Bangladesh-
since-independence

 Chaffey, D. (2019, February 12). Global social media research summary 2019. Retrieved
from www.smartinsights.com: https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-
marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/

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 Herhold, K. (2018, February 17). How People Use Social Media in 2018. Retrieved from
The Manifest: https://themanifest.com/social-media/how-people-use-social-media-2018

 Tarik, I. (2018, April 08). Demographics of Facebook Population in Bangladesh, April

2018. Retrieved from Digiology: http://digiology.xyz/demographics-facebook-
population-bangladesh-april-2018/

 YouTube Now Has 1.9 Billion Monthly Active Users. (2018, July 23). Retrieved from
Gadgets360: https://gadgets.ndtv.com/entertainment/news/youtube-now-has-1-9-billion-
monthly-active-users-180-million-hours-watched-on-tv-screens-every-day-1887916

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Appendix

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We created a Facebook page in order to create a campaign using some contents to demonstrate
the reactions of Bangladeshi consumers. Without any sponsored ad or effort, our page was able
to get over 1500+ likes in 1 day and reached over 20,000+ people by our contents.

Contents
Post #1

Copy - Sit tight, we are coming!!!!!

Be part of our grand launch and get exclusive IKEA experience before
anyone else by simply doing the following:
1. Like our official Facebook page
2. Correctly guess the date of our grand launch
3. Share the post on your wall
So hurry up!!!
#ikea #HappinessEveryday

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Post #2

Copy - We want to pay homage to one

of the bravest leaders of all time. If he
wasn't born, making happiness
everyday wouldn't be possible in
Bangladesh.
Happy Birthday!
#HappinessEveryday #IKEA

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Post #3
Copy- Where do you want us to launch our
first store?

Let us know in the comments below! 😀

#IKEA #HappinessEveryday

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Moving Billboard

Floating Furniture Concept

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