IKEA General international markets activity Essay

IKEA General international markets activity - Essay Example Hence, purpose of this essay is to understand marketing environment of Indonesian furniture industry and assume what can be plausible marketing strategy of IKEA to achieve competitive advantage over existing player in Indonesian furniture market. Understanding strategic dimension of international marketing mix of IKEA will help the study to predict viability of any marketing strategy of the company from international perspective. The study will also try to understand existing international marketing and strategic activities of the company in order to validate the proposed international marketing mix for IKEA in Indonesia. There are two major limitations are associate with this essay, 1- the researcher has used statistical data prior to recession in order to decrease the scope of outlier intervention in the growth projection and 2- the researcher has only relied on secondary data in order to prepare this report. Business Background of IKEA IKEA is renowned Dutch furniture retailer wit h Swedish origin and the company has established its presence over 30 countries across the globe. The company is headquartered at Delft, Netherlands and it was established by Ingvar Kamprad in the year 1943 (IKEA PS, 2012). The furniture retail giant has established its strong presence across 35 countries with the help of more than 300 retail outlets. According to report published by Euromonitor International (2009), IKEA is the biggest furnishing retailer in the world and earns annual revenue more than â‚ ¬20 billion from its worldwide operation. IKEA offers customized home furnishing solution, readymade furniture, and functional home furnishing products to customers. Scandinavian design and low price are the unique selling proposition (USP) of the Swedish furniture manufacturer (IKEA PS, 2012). Target customer of the company includes middle income families, couples, young people and students (IKEA, 2013a). According to report published by Euromonitor International (2009), IKEA targets those customers who are ready to participate actively in the sales cycle process, for example, self transporting the furniture parts, self-assembling different parts of the furniture etc. These customers are ready to engage in the service delivery matrix of IKEA in order to get quality furniture in affordable price. Business Operation of IKEA- International Context IKEA used centralized business model in order to maintain its international operations. International operation of the company is channelized and monitored by headquarter of the company whereas product development activities are monitored from Almhult, Sweden. According to IKEA (2011) has reported that, more than 600 million people across the world visit IKEA stores throughout the year whereas there are more than 700 million online visitors of the company website. IKEA maintain an international supplier base of more than 1000 in order to maintain its value chain operation. These suppliers belong to 55 different co untries and help