JAKARTA - Ingvar Kamprad started his furniture business, IKEA, since he was a teenager. Of course, that business does not immediately turn into a giant like it is now. Kamprad started the business from a young age, with stationery and socks as merchandise.
The Kamprad company then grew and became one of the largest furniture companies in the world to date. Kamprad succeeded in revolutionizing the world of retail.
Kamprad is a tough businessman born in Pjatteryd (now part of Almhult City), Sweden. He was born on this day March 30, 93 years ago or in 1926.
Long before establishing IKEA, Kamprad had a strong entrepreneurial spirit since childhood. Citing the official IKEA website, since the age of five he has started a business selling matches.
Two years later, he started circulating his merchandise to his neighbors by bicycle. Ingvar Kamprad became more and more serious about pursuing his business, even when he was 17 years old. He spent the golden age as a teenager building an IKEA business.
Kamprad's life back then wasn't necessarily any easier than most kids his age. Despite suffering from dyslexia - a condition of impaired learning ability characterized by reading difficulties, Kamprad still managed to get through the tough times at school until graduation.
Due to Kamprad's success through school, his father then gave him some money. That money was what he then used as initial capital to start his business in 1943, in his birthplace, Smaland, Sweden.
The name IKEA is an acronym for his first and last name Ingvar Kamprad (IK). While the other two initials are taken from the name of the garden he built Elmtaryd, which is located adjacent to the village of Agunnaryd. So, IKEA is an acronym for Ingvar, Kamprad, Elmtaryd and Aggunaryd
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IKEA effect
IKEA has its own brand in the eyes of its consumers. The retail giant is not like an "old school" furniture store. The people who go there not only want to buy the furniture they need, they are actually playing into an attractively decorated house.
IKEA displays their merchandise on one floor. There customers can actually see and describe the items they will buy. This company not only sells goods, it also sells experiences.
In addition, the biggest innovation of this company is that they sell flat-pack furniture items or items that can be assembled and assembled by yourself. So, instead of selling finished goods like most furniture stores, IKEA is presenting goods that the customer will assemble himself at home.
In essence, there are two sides to modern innovation brought by IKEA, according to Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a Consumer Behavior Psychologist from the University of Ruskin, quoted by The Conversation, namely flat pack furniture (assembled goods) and store layouts that make people more interested in buy more when it comes to these retail stores.
IKEA first released its signature flat-pack style of furniture in the 1950s. The concept he initiated was successful in making production cost efficiency and making delivery of goods more practical. According to Cathrine, this assembled furniture has an important influence on the consumer's subconscious mind.
As Cathrine explains, there are scientific reasons why consumers are never satisfied when they assemble their own furniture. The simple act when they touch the parts of furniture that they want to assemble, can increase the value of a product that can be felt immediately. Cathrine says the more consumers assemble something the more they like it.
According to research, when someone succeeds in building something so that it becomes a complete object, it will cause a more profitable perception than buying a finished product. "This phenomenon is known as the IKEA effect," wrote Cathrine.
When we touch something, adds Cathrine, the part of the brain that processes our emotions is active, so we experience a close relationship with a product when we touch it a lot. According to him, touch creates a feeling of belonging and increases the value we have about things.
"That way, when someone finishes assembling the flat-pack, there is a sense of pride in their accomplishment and a feeling of being attached to the item," says Cathrine.
Apart from the "showroom" concept promoted in the IKEA retail, the IKEA effect has succeeded in revolutionizing consumer behavior in buying furniture. That is what makes IKEA so much in demand by its customers.
Until the 2000s, IKEA's expansion had reached Japan and Russia. Until 2014, IKEA already had 364 stores in 46 countries, and that year IKEA first opened its branch in Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia.
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