A TV report explains the furniture giant Ikea's system, where customers are manipulated in a sophisticated way.
Nothing is left to chance - and that makes a lot of money.
Munich - When it comes to furnishing, no furniture chain is as popular as Ikea.
After all, the Scandinavian empire is the largest furniture chain in the world.
The report “Ikea: Die Insider” on Tuesday on ZDF (available in the media library) explained which perfidious marketing tricks help to maintain supremacy.
With meticulous, but also funny, alienated ex-employees, the reporter team uncovered the alleged machinations of the Swedish furniture giant.
It's about "sales tricks at the furniture giant" and the question of what makes the shopping experience in the more than 400 Ikea branches so attractive for a large number of people?
Ikea scam: Big bags bring a lot of money - "Fill the bag with life"
There is no question that consumers are constantly exposed to manipulation when shopping - whether conventionally or online.
However, Ikea * has implemented a sophisticated sales strategy for the analog shopping experience, which leads to significantly more sales, as the anonymous ex-employees explain.
Even the big shopping bags are the first "trap" that customers can step into - and this inevitably affects the wallet.
It is a true "money printing machine" based on the following behavior: people instinctively fill empty pockets - and a customer with a bag spends an average of around 20 euros more.
No wonder then that in an Ikea furniture store there are bags on every nook and cranny, which, by the way, are also so big because they then appear "empty" for a longer time.
The need is awakened to “fill the bag with life,” explains the former sales employee.
Incidentally, the furniture giant recently announced that it would reduce its product range in 2022.
The reasons are increased demand and problems with trade routes from Asia:
An ex-team leader speaks of another important factor: It's about the method by which Ikea places the furnishings.
There are various hotspots that customers cannot pass because they are heading straight for them.
The labyrinth-like corridors force customers to look continuously at certain sales islands - and these are staged with special visual stimuli.
This is particularly true of pieces of furniture that have already proven to be bestsellers.
Ikea furniture stores: Arouse emotions with a perfidious sales strategy
The fully furnished living space is also a perfidious sales strategy. One of the insiders even considers it “Ikea's greatest secret of success”. Here a seduction takes place by means of “storytelling” for the purpose of an emotional bond. On the one hand, the corridors in Ikea furniture stores are rather dark, but the lovingly furnished rooms ("homes") are warm and "seductively" illuminated. This contrast affects the well-being of visitors and attracts them “like light to moths”.
As soon as a corresponding emotional bond is established, the manipulative trap snapped shut - because that would make the wallet looser.
However, special lighting is not only important for Ikea.
Conventional supermarket chains for daily shopping have also long been putting such funds into practice.
Ikea offers: “Cheap products in abundance” - beware of price hits
The shopping experience in Ikea furniture stores is rounded off with “cheap products in abundance”. The aim of the market halls is to convey the feeling that you can shop for unbeatable prices. At the beginning, customers would be put on a buying frenzy, at the end they can then collect little things because the bag is not even full. When you wake up when you are settling at the till, why so much money has come together, the one-euro hotdog can calm your conscience - because at Ikea there is a lot for little money.
Accordingly, according to insider “Ella”, there are four price categories for the articles: In addition to cheap, medium and expensive, there is also the so-called BTI (“breath taking item”). This should "take your breath away" and suggest that you can't go wrong with such a cheap price. A comparison with frying pans shows: In terms of quality, care should be taken with the cheap offers - because the shelf life is usually short. Here, too, Ikea is concerned with the psychological effect that the supposedly inexpensive utensil triggers on people.
If the descriptions in the TV report are correct, Ikea with its perfidious sales meshes should take a system to extremes that is used in the entire consumer goods industry: Encourage potential buyers to spend as much money as possible. A remedy is simple, at least in theory: With every product that appears attractive, ask whether you really need it. Because it is not uncommon for less is more in the end - also with regard to the wallet.
(PF) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
