Introduction

IKEA's advertising strategy can be analyzed from a cross-cultural point of view. This approach gives the possibility to understand how cultural differences may affect the advertising strategy of this multi-national company.

IKEA, founded in Sweden in 1943 by Igvar Kamprad, is the home furniture retailer operating in 49 countries with 403 stores (August 2017)_[1]. The company is one of the most successful for its ability to localize its global target market and create advertising campaigns that vary significantly across territories_[2].

Its goal is to show that comfortable and functional design doesn’t have to be expensive and everyone can afford a nice interior. In order to communicate it, IKEA uses a well-prepared advertising strategy.

IKEA general advertising strategy

IKEA employs a soft sell advertising strategy that tries to appeal to the customer’s emotions by communicating positive feelings and demonstrating how life can be easier with IKEA products. To pursue its goal, the company shows cheerful people of different ages, singles, young couples and families enjoying time together in pleasant and cozy homes. IKEA advertisement approach consists mostly of humor, scenes of real life and demonstration of how its products work_[3].

To develop an effective and successful advertising strategy, a company can adopt two different approaches: standardization and adaptation.

Standardization is the “formulation, publication, and implementation of guidelines, rules, and specifications for common and repeated use, aimed at achieving optimum degree of order or uniformity in a given context, discipline, or field” (Business Dictionary). In the advertising context, standardization means to keep the same elements across advertisements in different countries irrespective of the cultures customers belong to.

Adaptation, instead, is defined as “modification of a concept or object to make it applicable in situations different from originally anticipated.” (Business Dictionary). In other words, in an increasingly global economic environment, international marketing crosses national boundaries through customized advertisements that show different features according to different countries_[4].

These two approaches do not exclude each other. Rather, multinational companies, as IKEA, can integrate standardization with adaptation when crafting communication campaigns.  The combination of the two approaches means to convey the same message and replicate the concept (standardization) while using different advertisement structures that are based on the country cultural origins and habits (adaptation)_[5].

In conclusion, IKEA operates a standardized concept but, at the same time, tries to customize and adapt its advertisements to the local cultures of its customers by referring to their values and shared beliefs.

(来源：Cross-Cultural Advertising | Advertising101 Wiki | Fandom)

Q1: Can you describe what "soft sell stratagy" is?

Q2: How is "stratagy" different from "approach"?

Q3: Can you summarize the two approaches in your own words?