Ikea: The Reliable Option

In The Persuaders the marketing concept of Lovemarks are brought up, essentially a company building up love and respect with its clients so that that client will always see that brand as something positive just by instinct. This is the marketing technique that I feel I have the strongest connection to. I have several brands that I believe are lovemarks for me including Converse, Annie’s Mac n Cheese, Clif Bars, and Kanken. The biggest brand that I feel shows the concept of love marks in my life and the lives of so many others is Ikea.
In my experience, I have grown up with Ikea furniture. I remember from an early age getting to go to the ikea store and just loving getting to walk through the store and pick out which staged room was mine for the day. And then of course there was the kids section which was full of all kinds of toys that I begged to go to the entire time we walked around. Then after that there was the cafeteria where I could get spaghetti and meatballs with a classic vanilla ice cream for dessert. These are the things of think of when I think of Ikea because for so long, that brand has built up a level of trust and love between them, the producer, and me, the consumer.
The trust comes from their constantly reliable furniture and decorations that always have been more than amazing for me, and also the way Ikea has in most ways stayed the same. Their marketing is always the same and they always keep the layout and color scheme of the stores similar as to bring in a sense of calmness in recognizing your surroundings.
Ikea has also set up love between me and it with how it appeals the families with its low priced yet quality products. Being raised with Ikea products, I have come to associate their brand and their products with my family, whom I love. So, anytime I am thinking of buying furniture that is cute and useful but that doesn’t break the bank, I will always think of Ikea before any other brand. Perhaps this will change with time if they change the way they do things, but I have a feeling that this reliability will be around for awhile.
I think lovemarks are an amazingly effective strategy for companies to use because automatically upon learning about this concept, several brands went through my head. No matter what, I will instinctively think of those brands as good and reliable because of their long term marketing strategy that has stayed close to me throughout my life. I know that I am not the only one who feels this lovemark connection to Ikea, or to any brand really and I think that it is by far my favorite technique just because of how it kindly tricks the customer into buying their products. It isn’t a huge tricky thing where the companies are lying to you, the companies are just making you feel emotion and connection towards them in a way that sticks with you for a long time.

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