Providing deep and memorable experience to the consumers-in various manners and through all channels possible-is undoubtedly amongst the key factors for success in contemporary markets. Moreover, companies need to consider the trends of gamification, person-alization, eco-living as well as the extremely short life-cycle of their products. In this context, design is getting more and more important in branding and consumer' perceptions about the quality and benefits of the product available. It serves as a tool of communication not only for what the product is, but how it works and how exactly it will become part of the everyday life of the consumers as well. As such, design, in branding perspectives, has an active role and engages consumers in new kind of relationships that go beyond pure aesthetics. This article is an effort for a socio-semiotic analysis of the set of practices that IKEA implements regarding the use of design as a main basis on which it tries to create, deliver and maintain value of its huge global audience. What makes the company unique is its multimodal approach in terms of design-based brand management, point-of-sale design, furniture design, entire home interior solutions, catalogue design, and last but not least, lifestyle design. We can easily point out that it has built its own brand meaning by forming a recognizable and self-centered semiosphere, that highly influences the whole category it operates in, and sets the rules in people's self-expression, on the one hand, and their attitude towards the notion of 'home', on the other-home as constantly moving 'immobility' similar to fashion trends and practices. IKEA is a very good example of design semiotics, applied in marketing activities and real life as successfully mixing its own production with customers' desire for designing their own unique world of objects.

Figures - uploaded by Dimitar Trendafilov

Author content

All figure content in this area was uploaded by Dimitar Trendafilov

Content may be subject to copyright.

ResearchGate Logo

Discover the world's research

  • 20+ million members
  • 135+ million publications
  • 700k+ research projects

Join for free

Punctum, 4(1): 165-178, 2018

Design incorporated:

IKEA as personal experience

Dimitar Trendafilov

Providing deep and memorable experience to the consumers—in various manners and

through all channels possible—is undoubtedly amongst the key factors for success in contem-

porary markets. Moreover, companies need to consider the trends of gamification, person-

alization, eco-living as well as the extremely short life-cycle of their products. In this context,

design is getting more and more important in branding and consumer' perceptions about

the quality and benefits of the product available. It serves as a tool of communication not

only for what the product is, but how it works and how exactly it will become part of the

everyday life of the consumers as well. As such, design, in branding perspectives, has an active

role and engages consumers in new kind of relationships that go beyond pure aesthetics. This

article is an effort for a socio-semiotic analysis of the set of practices that IKEA implements

regarding the use of design as a main basis on which it tries to create, deliver and maintain

value of its huge global audience. What makes the company unique is its multimodal ap-

proach in terms of design-based brand management, point-of-sale design, furniture design,

entire home interior solutions, catalogue design, and last but not least, lifestyle design. We

can easily point out that it has built its own brand meaning by forming a recognizable and

self-centered semiosphere, that highly influences the whole category it operates in, and sets

the rules in people's self-expression, on the one hand, and their attitude towards the notion

of 'home', on the other-home as constantly moving 'immobility' similar to fashion trends and

practices. IKEA is a very good example of design semiotics, applied in marketing activities

and real life as successfully mixing its own production with customers' desire for designing

their own unique world of objects.

KEYWORDS experience design, fast fashion, interactivity, multimodality

DOI: 10.18680/hss.2018.0010 Copyright © 2018 Dimitar Trendafilov. Licenced under the

Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd).

Available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

166 Design incorporated: IKEA as personal experience

Introduction

The definition of 'brand and branding', according to the American Marketing Association's

dictionary (AMA n.d.; emphasis added by the author) states that: 'A brand is a customer expe-

rience represented by a collection of images and ideas; oen, it refers to a symbol such as a

name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by

the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to

its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary'. The 'design

turn' permeating the conception of brand is undoubtedly crucial and should be underlined,

even though 'design' is used twice with different meaning. The above definition offers the

cornerstone for our understanding of what contemporary branding is about, since how brand

identity elements look like and if the product shape/form is convenient with respect to its

usage are not sufficient any more. Design became not only 'communicative' in terms of the

higher level of richness of the brand message incorporated in it, but also highly 'interactive',

which includes as much participation of the customer as possible by various acts and processes

of interaction (Krampen 1989, Crawford-Browne 2016). 'Great design, European Intellectual

Property Organization claims, focuses on the user, combines aesthetic, economic and practical

values and is the way consumers identify innovative brilliance' (EUIPO 2018b), which, once

again, highlights design as a product of human creativity, satisfying a wide range of people's

needs.

Involving design

The focus of our article is on the combination of product design, value chain design and

design of customer experience. The latter forms the litemotif of the global marketing tenden-

cies that includes manifestations such as creative industries, gamification, retail-tainment, and

pro-sumeration (Troye & Supphellen 2012), all of which stress the consumer's active participa-

tion in the value chain (Troye & Supphellen 2012, Trendafilov 2016). Pine and Gilmore (1999)

had made a significant contribution, in this regard, through their analysis of the industries and

the market conditions in the 1990s –before, that is, the 'digital turn' in marketing that took

place in the first decade of the 21st century. Their suggestion is that 'the consumer is the (new)

product', because s/he is an actor of full value in contemporary economy, in which customer is

a 'guest', his/her demand is a 'sensation', the company's offering is 'memorable', and the attrib-

utes of the product 'personalized'. They also refer to service design, i.e. the range of services

set around the product in a way to add value to customers as much as possible (ibid.: 27 ff.).

In this way, design has asquired a richer meaning and its functionality was extended towards

organization, in-store environment and consumer relationship management. It has become a

Dimitar Trendafilov 167

key 'hidden' dimension of brand communication, affecting all senses and appealing to custom-

ers' emotions (Sundbo & Hagedorn-Rasmussen 2008, Watkinson 2013).

Julier (2006) argues that it is about time to talk about 'design culture' as a scholarly disci-

pline coming aer the 'visual turn' (dealing with images) and the 'material turn' (dealing with

the physical dimensions of culture). This has come about due to the increasing role of indus-

trial design, and, according to the author, it represents a continuation of the problematics of

cultural studies on the social role of design from the point where methods of visual research

have stopped, due to their inherent limitations. The information process in design is no longer

uni-directional but a multi-directional circulation system. Julier describes the key change in

contemporary cultural relations as follows:

Culture is no longer one of pure representation or narrative, where visual culture conveys

messages. Instead, culture formulates, formats, channels, circulates, contains, and retrieves in-

formation. Design, therefore, is more than just the creation of visual artifacts to be used or

'read'. It is also about the structuring of systems of encounter within the visual and material

world. (Julier 2006: 67)

Norman (2004: 37 ff.) suggests a complex of three levels of design corresponding to dif-

ferent kinds of emotional activation: visceral, behavioral and reflective design. The first refers

to the appearance of the product, the second to the pleasure and effectiveness of using it,

and the third to the user's self-image, personal satisfaction and memories. 'The visceral and

behavioral levels', explains the author, 'are about "now", your feelings and experiences while

actually seeing or using the product. But the reflective level extends much longer—through

reflection you remember the past and contemplate the future. Reflective design, therefore, is

about long-term relations, about the feelings of satisfaction produced by owning, displaying,

and using a product' (ibid.: 38).

Kazmierczak (2003) conceives design as being primarily about meaning-making. Distin-

gusihing between intended, constructed and reveived or re-constructed meaning, she defines

design as the activity that directs the process that enables the interconnection and corre-

spondence between the three kinds of meaning. Interpretation as a semiotic process presumes

cognitive work. Thus, the most significant shi in design is from a preoccupation with certain

uses to focusing on the perceptions and cognitive interfaces that enable the re-construction of

the intended meanings. Her approach focuses on the perceptual and cultural codes involved

in communication, and according to her, it involves 'a paradigm shi from focusing on design -

ing things to focusing on designing thoughts or inferences. Those thoughts are interpretive,

and they result in subsequent behavior' (ibid.: 48).

In terms of its product utility, design has functional, aesthetic and symbolic levels (Mark-

ova 2003: 26). It has a lot of applications in the field of marketing, more than it seems at first

glance. Design has an 'advertising' function in the first place (insofar as each product starts its

contact with the customer from a store shelf) i.e. to distinguish the product from the compet-

168 Design incorporated: IKEA as personal experience

itors in the point-of-sale, to attract attention for more than a few seconds, and to trigger the

customer's desire to own the product. Providing 'information' is its second, more utilitarian

function: how the attributes of given product should be put to a useful purpose or at least to

suggest some, while its 'aesthetic' function refers to the standard of living, the lifestyle and the

product's connection with the specific and significant brand design (ibid., Crawford-Browne

2016).

Close to the French structuralists' perspective on the design meta-function Busbea (2009)

and Berger (2010: 177) assert that artifacts, things, objects, and, in general, everything we call

material culture products, are quite complex and, as such, they reveal how advanced the soci-

ety is, reflecting, at the same time, the aesthetic sensibilities of the age they were made in, by

virtue of passing through the consciousness and intentions of their designers, as well as telling

something about the mindset of their consumers. Additionally, each object reflects certain no-

tions of what is considered to be tasteful, attractive, or functional, which means that they can

tell a lot about aesthetics in given society and culture (ibid.).

Design is an art that is beneficial, hence, teleological and socially active, unlike 'classical' or

'high' art, which is self-sufficient and keeps its audience at a distance (Julier 2006). Its devel-

opment as an art is quite significant in terms of socio-semiotics. From being something only

to see and acceptable to few people in the past, it has become interactive, more involving

and adding value , than being a purely intellectual feast. It is not accidental that we currently

distinguish art from design, even though creativity and aesthetic delight remain their common

ground. Taking a closer look at the definition of design, we see that it comprises notions like

'concept', 'purpose' and 'intention' (Oxford Dictionary 2018). In this perspective, design seems

useful, but, at the same time, unlike art, somewhat limited and finite in its use, and in its du-

rability, as well.

My home, my stage

Why IKEA? The short answer would be 'because it is globally recognizable retail phenom-

enon' or 'the most reputable brand in Europe aer Lego' (Keller et al. 2012: 801 ff.). A more

fully developed answer is that the company is not just a furniture retailer and cult brand, but

that it has actually changed the rules of the game in this industry by introducing the 'fast

fashion' mechanism into it. Its historical roots are in a long gone, product-centered economic

stage, but now the company production fits the market conditions to the highest degree (ibid.:

447). IKEA has extended the impact of the 20th-century Scandinavian Modernism and trans-

formed it into a hugely widespread domestic lifestyle (Fig. 1). Its design approach originates

in Swedish culture and Scandinavian identity (McDermott 2007: 205-206) and is manifested

in the natural wood the company uses, the high technology production processes, the vivid

Dimitar Trendafilov 169

and varied colors of the furniture, and the minimalist shapes. The company supports design

education in its home country and promotes prominent designers, but it also overtly copies

high-profile, successful design work from outside world (ibid.). In accordance with its brand

image, its global mission - 'Making everyday life better' (IKEA, 2018) - and design core values,

IKEA offers standardized products in all markets it operates in.

Figure 1. Simplicity, variety and personal style in IKEA design (CW, 2010)

IKEA embodies the evolution of the notion of 'convenience', adapted in the context of

the sector it has been operating in, and, eventually, leading (INGKA Holding 2017). First, it was

convenience of assembling yourself your new sofa or wardrobe at home, instead of struggling

to move heavy, ready-made furniture. Then it came convenience of distribution (by expand-

ing into a long list of markets) of the points-of-sale (Keller et al. 2012: 113). The third wave

was in providing convenience of buying all what customer needs for his/her home under one

roof, where you are free to try, chose and combine; the fourth wave has been a convenience

of changing your domestic environment according to your taste, mood and fashion trend you

follow (Dahlvig et al. 2003, Hambrick et al. 2005). Technologization, dynamics and a concept

of home as a place for experimentation is what has been dominating the brand discourse in

recent years (Ledin & Machin, 2018). Generally speaking, accessible (convenient) pricing has

been the only element of the mix that IKEA always had as a strict policy, but it is in a 'natural'

relation to the latter wave described (Hambrick et al. 2005: 58). As Leslie and Reimer (2003:

435) put it, 'there is widespread agreement that IKEA has played a central role in shiing the

temporality and longevity of furniture across all market segment' (italic's mine – D.T.).

170 Design incorporated: IKEA as personal experience

Figure 2. The 'democratic design' pentagon (IKEA, 2018)

The so called 'democratic' design philosophy of IKEA (fig.2) is more exact as it combines

three principles (successful business model, natural environment preservation and higher

quality of life) in five closely interwoven dimensions: everyone has the right to a better every-

day life in accessible price (client/community side), finding better balance between the points

that IKEA considers important in what it does (production side), and sustainable design in

terms of materials and production processes (environmental side) (INGKA Holding 2017). The

IKEA Concept (2018) was born with 'the idea of providing a range of home furnishing products

that are affordable to the many, not just the few. It is achieved by combining function, quali-

ty, design and value - always with sustainability in mind'. For the purpose of materializing as

well as of ritualizing this model, the company organizes 'Democratic design days' where the

news, emerging collaborations and products are presented in order to verify the systematic

approach that the model puts in motion (Åkesson 2018).

Figure 3. Pre-buying ('Try before you buy') initiative by IKEA including

augmented reality app, providing more fun and less frustration in the process

of choice and decision-making (image source: IKEA 2018)

Dimitar Trendafilov 171

IKEA is not only a furniture producer, since it works with subcontractors, neither a pure

retailer. It is a service-delivery agency, producing a wide range of opportunities for customers

to choose, act, change, combine, rearrange, etc. (even in the virtual world, Fig. 3 and 4, Franke

et al. 2010). Design has a major role all this and the evidence is, first and foremost, its famous

catalogue, which serves a window for what IKEA currently offers (Hambrick et al. 2005). Design

is implemented in all products and, last but not least, in the in-store environment, that aims to

display every available home concept to the visitors. Another evidence lies in the intellectual

property management. Currently, IKEA has 126 registrations and pending requests for design

innovations in Europe not only for furniture, but also for cooking appliances, textile products,

curtains, carpets, lamps, storage furniture and ventilations (EUIPO 2018a).

Figure 4. Simple model of IKEA's perceived value chain,

driving 'experiential' resonance (Nikolov 2017)

'Sustainability' is amongst the original corporate culture values of IKEA, but nowadays it is

a production principle and a 'new' social message in its design policy. For instance, the 'value,

no waste' mindset corresponds to the way raw materials, design creation processes and brand

image work together for the further development of the company (IKEA 2018). 'But to help

our customers create a better life at home, in a world where resources are scarce, we have to

up our game': this statement reveals the deep meaning of new edge/stage of value chain. The

latter starts with the natural environment as a big home the customers live in and finishes in

their own domestic space, design being the appropriate 'language' for its implementation.

The closer connection of the company with people (INGKA Holding 2017) is demonstrated

in the solar-powered 'Better Shelter' project, that is, a temporary shelter made of recyclable

plastic for five people, that can be assembled in just four hours. Several refugee families gave

feedback for design improvement during the product's prototype period (Tumbertini 2018).

172 Design incorporated: IKEA as personal experience

Design as a holistic approach

From a semiotic perspective, 21st century marketing is more human-based and social-ac-

tive, aer being factory-centered and boardroom-dominated for decades. General audience is

allowed to observe, follow, comment and even participate in the various creative and produc-

tion processes and stages. Thanks to the new interactive media, it has become a key channel

for maintaining dialogue with the customers and for offering specialized information (e.g. how

[which raw materials and natural sources are used, what processes are involved] the products

are built and where they go aer consumption in terms of waste and recycling) as a part of

value proposition (Kim and Mauborgne 2004). It is precisely, the principle of 'transparency'

that has demystified and democratized contemporary marketing, changing in the process the

value chain as a whole and broadening the social basis of brand signification (Franke et al.

2010). Margolin and Margolin (2002) claim that, from a marketing perspective, design theory

and practice is extremely developed now and exploits the ideas and research results com-

ing from management studies and marketing semiotics. However, this kind of understanding

about design is too narrow, not least because it shows only the commercial side of it. Design

should be reconsidered or redirected towards specific social needs and services - like meeting

the needs of the marginalized populations and bettering their life space, health, education,

even crime behavior.

Multimodality is the closest semiotic concept to consumer experience delivery mentioned

above (Trendafilov 2016). It deals with the range of 'modes' that a sender, in the communica-

tion process, uses to transmit a message: visual, verbal, tactile, aural as well as olfactory. These

modes collaborate with each other and jointly complete the intended message (Kress 2010:

30–33). Kress defines multimodality as socially built semiotic resources for meaning-making

(ibid.: 79). Furthermore, it refers to the multi-channel performance happening even during a

casual everyday conversation (Kress & Leeuwen 2006: 154 ff.). In branding practice, the wide-

spread term 'integrated marketing communications' (Oswald 2015) has been adopted by

managers with the same purpose – avoidance of uni-dimensionality and one-way transmis-

sion of the brand message and increased communication efficiency (Schmitt 2009). As Page

points it out (2010: 4), multimodality requires the multiple integration of meaning-making

resources in all communicative acts and events. Considering IKEA's catalogue, for instance,

Ledin and Machin (2017, 2018) made a research on kitchen design, showing how a change in

multimodality can transfer kitchen to 'prestige domestic space' (2018: 6), related to the ideol-

ogy of neoliberalism 'with its need for the self-managing, market-oriented individual consum-

er-citizen' (2018: 2). They discern four historical periods of kitchen development - everyday

'type' in 1975, ordered in 1985, lifestyle since the late 1990s (e.g. space of interaction and joy),

and creative in 2016. The latter, the authors conclude, communicates higher status, presented

in hyperreal vision ('symbolic naturalism'). Suddenly, kitchen took over from the living room

Dimitar Trendafilov 173

and become the most important space at home dedicated to creativity and social interactions

(ibid.: 16). They point out also, that they found increased levels of affect in modern kitchen,

'made lively and engaging through uses of graphics, colour and design, etc. This serves to bind

us to this functionality' (ibid.: 20).

The actual strength of IKEA is in using visual and tactile modes, but we should not un-

derestimate the verbal channel, because its catalogues and web-site/s are not just selling

platforms, but rather powerful storytelling platforms, as we indicated. Particularly design is

narrated from a first-person perspective, just described or emotionally decorated. The stories

narrated increase the value of the products by presenting the designers working for the com -

pany (as real crasmen), the concepts behind each collection, single item or module,while, at

the same time, they set a context that makes each product to seem special, hand-made and,

eventually, humanized.

All of the above demonstrate that IKEA has worked methodically to enhance the mul-

timodal function of its designs, which has a direct impact on its production and branding

activities, as well as on the image of its management as devoted in bettering the quality of

life worldwide. The powerful brands of today are not just excellent in what they produce,

nor simply over-communicative in terms of heavy advertising and strong messages. They are

rather meaning-makers who attract and retain customers by giving them reasons to buy that

go beyond the logic of a bargain or the short-lived pleasure of physical consumption (Keller

1998, Deamer 2005, Batey 2008, Sinek 2009, Holt & Cameron 2010). The brand creates and

develops its own cultural system (incl. codes, rituals, rules, community and common sense)

that influences, overtly or not, both consumers' mindset and behavior as well as competitors'

strategies and behavior; it is a trendsetter instead of a trend-follower; it stays as a reference

point in its category and is part of a particular lifestyle followed by the consumers worldwide

(Vincent 2002, Trendafilov 2015).

IKEA bases its entire marketing mix on design-based thinking (see Fig. 5). This is what

drives its corporate culture, its profits (luxury-like products in low prices) and its narrative (min-

imalistic, practical design for ordinary people). 'Organic growth' is about IKEA's retailing and

supply-chain system in markets where it is possible for them to develop without compromises.

Each of the four pillars, corresponding to the classical marketing mix elements, has a lot of

channels for manifestation. Therefore, design as a corporate philosophy, a positive and dis-

tinctive brand association and a genuine customer experience can be communicated in many

ways, even in the prices, the great variety of the assortments or the Swedish cuisine in the

restaurants.

174 Design incorporated: IKEA as personal experience

Figure 5. A diagram combining marketing and semiotic aspects

of IKEA's design management (author D.T.)

From a semiotic point of view, as a brand with its own distictive 'Semiosphere' (i.e. ab-

stract model of cultural environment where communication could be generated), IKEA has

its own, well-defined boundaries and core (where a particular grammar/structure dominates)

(Lotman 1992). They comprise a democratic, instead of a strictly commercial, design princi-

ple that classifies the rivals as 'authoritarian' or 'exclusive' furniture-makers, i.e. a philosophy

of total design that materializes a lifestyle. Building and developing its own semiosphere

speaks a lot for a given brand. First, it indicates its maturity in terms of brand identity and

knowledge (Keller et al. 2012), and, second, the semiotic system allows the management to

control the dialogue with the customers, to the extent that its structure and recognizable

language together 'load' people with specific cultural codes (i.e. modernism, simplicity, sus-

tainability, etc.), and, eventually, make them more persuadable by the brand messages. It is a

very effective tool for competitive re-positioning, because IKEA communicates to audiences

by means of various channels synergetically and in an almost impossible to copy multimod-

al system of quality perception and experience stimuli, that ensures the customers' active

involvement. 'Active' here means a 'playful' and 'cooperative' way to arrange and rearrange

your home as self-expression (Nikolov 2017).

The key of IKEA's success is the translation of sustainability and mass-customization (a kind

of non-semiotic texts for the business in the past) into a unique business model via telling its

own story as well as introducing a wide variety of design innovations and practical decisions.

Dimitar Trendafilov 175

The brand reconciles art and functionality, fashion and furniture, and, last but not last, envi-

ronmental care and shortened lifecycle of domestic products in the contemporary markets.

Conclusion

Design is a form of aesthetization of the objects, used in everyday life, known for centuries.

Mass production, however, has made design more practical and more interactive. Its roots in

art have been developed to assume certain new functions – utility and brand communication.

Moreover, it has become active by involving customers into a multi-sensory and memorable

experience. IKEA presents an excellent example of how brands can be actual experience. It

designs and manages its distinctive experience by means of various channels –shapes and

materials, integral home modules, retail points containing various in-store experiences, aug-

mented reality app, and its famous catalogues – but, eventually, it is oriented towards one uni-

versally significant platform, home, both as the stage of everyday activities and as playground.

Using semiotic lenses for scanning what IKEA has been dealing with, marketers can see clearly

and assess highly the holistic approach of the company in a socio-semiotic perspective. The

company's design-centrism is everywhere and offers tactile and cognitive stimulation that en-

tice customers' emotional response and loyalty. IKEA deliberately combines cleverly organized

mass production with aesthetic taste education of the customers, offers home decisions and

stimulates creativity, variety and entertainment, as well as sustainable life. Setting and devel-

oping its own semiosphere, is a mark for successful brands as cultural leaders and managers of

a considerable value chain that consists not only of effective and profitable physical produc-

tion processes, but also of a human element, both in the context of corporate culture and the

consumer's prosumeration role (Dahlvig et al. 2003, Holt & Cameron 2010).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank the editorial team of Punctum for the opportunity they

gave me to publish this article, as well as the reviewers for their useful suggestions and direc-

tions, that were highly helpful for the article's improvement.

REFERENCES

Åkesson, Therese 2018. Democratic Design Days. Available from: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/

this-is-ikea/ikea-highlights/democratic-design-days/ [accessed Apr. 20, 2018].

176 Design incorporated: IKEA as personal experience

AMA (American Marketing Association) n.d., Dictionary. Available from: https://www.ama.org/

resources/Pages/Dictionary.aspx?dLetter=B [accessed March 20, 2018].

Batey, Mark 2008. Brand Meaning. New York & London: Routledge.

Berger, Arthur Asa 2010. The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture. UK/USA:

Palgrave Macmillan.

Busbea, Larry 2009. Metadesign: Object and Environment in France, c. 1970. Design Issues. 25

(4): 103-119.

Crawford-Browne, Stuart 2016. How to design a branded customer experience. World of Ad-

vertising and Research Center database, via WARC [accessed Apr. 01, 2018].

CW, 2010. Ikea KLIPPAN sofa 31 years of personality. Available from: https://www.com-

fort-works.com/news/ikea-klippan-launched/ [accessed July 01, 2018].

Dahlvig, Anders, Kling, Katarina and Goteman, I.ngela 2003. IKEA CEO Anders Dahlvig on In-

ternational Growth and IKEA's Unique Corporate Culture and Brand Identity. The Academy

of Management Executive (1993-2005) 17 (1): 31-37.

Deamer, Peggy 2005. Branding the Architectural Author. Perspecta 37: 42-49.

EUIPO, 2018a. Availability Search. Available from: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/bg/

rcd-search-availability [accessed Apr. 03, 2018].

EUIPO, 2018b. Design. Available from: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/design-identi-

fication [accessed Apr. 03, 2018].

Franke, Nikolaus, Schreier, Martin and Kaiser, Ulrike 2010. The "I Designed It Myself" Effect in

Mass Customization. Management Science 56 (1): 125-140.

Hambrick, Donald and Frederickson, James 2005. Are You Sure You Have a Strategy? The

Academy of Management Executive 9 (4): 51-62.

Holt, Douglas and Cameron, Douglas 2010. Cultural Strategy. Using Innovative Ideologies to

Build Breakthrough Brands. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.

Julier, Guy 2006. From Visual Culture to Design Culture. Design Issues 22 (1): 64-76.

INGKA Holding, 2017. IKEA Yearly Summary FY17. Available from: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/

doc/general-document/ikea-read-ikea-group-yearly-summary-2017__1364478360877.

pdf [accessed Apr. 10, 2018].

IKEA, 2018. Official international website. Available from: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/# [ac-

cessed Apr. 10, 2018].

IKEA Concept, 2018. Official website. Available from: http://franchisor.ikea.com/the-ikea-con-

cept-2/ [accessed Apr. 10, 2018].

Kazmierczak, Elzbieta 2003. Design as Meaning Making: From Making Things to the Design of

Thinking. Design Issues 19 (2): 45-59.

Keller, Kevin Lane 1998. Strategic Brand Management. Building, Measuring, and Managing

Brand Equity. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Dimitar Trendafilov 177

Keller, Kevin Lane, Apéria, Toni and Georgson, Mats 2012. Strategic Brand Management. A

European Perspective. 2nd ed . Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Ltd.

Kim, W. Chan and Mauborgne, Renée 2004. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested

Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review

Press.

Krampen, Martin 1989. Semiotics in Architecture and Industrial/Product Design. Design Issues

5 (2): 124-140.

Kress, Gunther and Van Leeuwen, Theo 2006. Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design.

2nd ed. Taylor & Francis e-Library.

Kress, Gunther 2010. Multimodality. A semiotic approach to contemporary communication.

London. UK & New York, NY: Routledge.

Ledin, Per and Machin, David 2017. The neoliberal definition of 'elite space' in IKEA kitchens.

Social Semiotics 27: 323-334.

Ledin, Per and Machin, David 2018. Forty years of IKEA kitchens and the rise of a neoliberal

control of domestic space. Visual Communication Journal.

Leslie, Deborah and Reimer, Suzanne 2003. Fashioning Furniture: Restructuring the Furniture

Commodity Chain. Area 35 (4): 427-437.

Lotman, Yuri 1992. Култура и информация [Culture and Information]. Sofia: Nauka I Izkustvo.

Margolin, Victor and Margolin, Sylvia 2002. A 'Social Model' of Design: Issues of Practice and

Research. Design Issues 18 (4): 24-30.

Markova, Maria 2003. Фирмен дизайн. Второ издание [Firm Design. 2nd ed.]. Sofia: University

Publishing House 'Economy'.

McDermott, Catherine 2007. Design. The Key Concepts. London & New York: Routledge.

Nikolov, Anton 2017. Design principle: IKEA effect. How to make people love the product.

Available from: https://uxdesign.cc/design-principle-ikea-effect-2d908b2de81 [accessed

June 22, 2018].

Norman, Donald 2004. Emotional Design. Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York:

Basic Books.

Oswald, Laura 2015. Creating value: the theory and practice of marketing semiotics research.

Oxford. UK & New York: Oxford University Press.

Oxford dictionary 2018. Design. Available from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/

design [accessed April 10, 2018].

Page, Ruth 2010. Introduction. In: Ruth Page (ed) New perspectives on narrative and multimo-

dality. New York, USA & London, UK: Routledge, 1-13.

Pine, Joseph and Gilmore, James 1999. The Experience Economy. Work is Theatre & Every Busi-

ness is a Stage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Schmitt, Bernd 2008. A framework for managing customer experiences. In: Bernd Schmitt and

178 Design incorporated: IKEA as personal experience

David Rogers (eds.) Handbook on brand and experience management. Cheltenham, UK &

Northamption, MA: Edward Elgar, 113-131.

Sinek, Simon 2009. Start with Why. How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. London

& New York: Portfolio.

Sundbo, Jon and Hagedorn-Rasmussen, Peter 2008. The backstaging of experience produc-

tion. In: Jon Sundbo and Per Darmer (eds.) Creating Experiences in the Experience Econo-

my. Cheltenham, UK & Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 83-110.

Teen Vogue 2017. People DIY Blue Ikea Frakta Bag Into Everyday Items. And they're going

viral. Available from: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/diy-blue-ikea-frakta-bag-thong

[accessed July 01, 2018].

Trendafilov, Dimitar 2015. Chasing the Myth: A Harley-Davidson Story(telling). Semiotica 204,

315-339.

Trendafilov, Dimitar 2016. From Artifacts to Experiences: Brands in the Era of Prosumeration.

Public Journal of Semiotics 7 (1): 59-78.

Troye, Sigurt Villads and Supphellen, Magne 2012. Consumer Participation in Coproduction: 'I

Made It Myself' Effects on Consumers' Sensory Perceptions and Evaluations of Outcome

and Input Product. Journal of Marketing 76 (2): 33-46.

Tubertini, Camilla 2018. Good Design, That's Doing Good. Available from: https://www.ikea.

com/gb/en/ikeacontentcatalog/this-is-ikea/ikea-highlights/good-design-thats-doing-

good/ [accessed April 22, 2018].

Vincent, Laurence 2002. Legendary Brands. Unleashing the Power of Storytelling to Create a

Winning Market Strategy. Dearborn Trade Publishing.

Watkinson, Matt 2013. The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experience. New York, Lon-

don & Harlow: Pearson.

Dimitar Trendafilov is a member of Southeast European Centre for Semiotic Studies at

NBU and holds a PhD in applied semiotics, New Bulgarian University – Sofia, Bulgaria.

Email: dtrendafilov@nbu.bg

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

This article uses a social semiotic approach to look at the representations and designs of kitchens in the IKEA catalogue from 1975 until 2016. The authors find a shift from function to lifestyle of the order observed by scholars of advertising. But using Fairclough's concepts of 'technologization' in Discourse and Social Change (1992) and Van Leeuwen's New Writing (2006) concept, they are able to dig deeper to show that there are four stages of kitchen that become, they argue, more and more codified, with increasing prescription over the meaning of space and also regarding what takes place there. Such coding aligns with the ideas, values and identities of neoliberalism: 'flexible', 'dynamic', 'creative', 'solutions' and 'self-management'. The authors show how the features of New Writing allow a suppression of actual causalities and context, and permit symbolic and indexical meanings to take over. Domestic life itself becomes technologized, coded and stripped down to a number of symbols and indexical meanings which assemble easily into the requirements of the neoliberal order.

This paper carries out a social semiotic analysis of an IKEA commercial to show how their contemporary kitchens, despite being market for those on a more modest budget, present an aspirational form of elite space, constructed on the basis of ideas, values and priorities favored by a neoliberal ideology. Using the notions of new writing and technologization, and carrying out an analysis of form, texture and color, we show how the kitchen, its occupants and their actions are designed and represented as a tightly coded and functional whole into which the ideas and values of neoliberalism can be realized. The designs erase personal difference and actual context and in the commercial allow performances which mark aspirational values according to neoliberalism. Here the kitchen space itself, as is usual across IKEA commercials, allows the protagonist to be "creative," improve his performance, be "dynamic" and "flexible." Yet these, like the objects and textures in the kitchen, are merely symbolic components which appear reasonable in the context of the tightly coded system.

  • Dimitar Trendafilov Dimitar Trendafilov

Consumer behavior is a complex and dynamic phenomenon as it embraces cultural and social aspects, previous experience and mass media influence. This paper proposes that in order to study how brands frame consumers' perception and preferences an interdisciplinary perspective is fruitful. It uses a socio-semiotic perspective to define and analyze some contemporary marketing practices in brand building and consumer relationship management that demonstrate the relativity of the notion of " product " and underline the active communicative interaction between a brand and its consumers regarding the experience provided. Some of the most prominent analytical models of the product value building are presented, along with a discussion of the cultural typology of experience production. Finally, it is argued that multimodality has a special place as an actual and useful tool for improving the communication management via sensorial and cognitive stimulation.

  • Matt Watkinson

Life-changing events are not always obviously so. Eleven years ago, the man sitting next to me at work struck up a conversation about photography. Today we are best friends and business partners. A few years later he introduced me to a Danish woman at a restaurant in London. I am now that lovely lady's husband.

  • Katarina Kling
  • Ingela Goteman

IKEA started in 1943 as a one-man mail order company in a small farming village in the southern part of Sweden called Småland. The founder, Ingvar Kamprad, only a 17-year-old boy at the time, initially arranged for the local county milk van to transport the goods to the nearby train station. Today the IKEA Group has 70,000 co-workers and a turnover of over 11 billion euros (close to $11 billion). The IKEA concept started in the 1950s with catalogue marketing combined with a showroom where customers could see and touch IKEA products. The company's three distinct features were function, quality, and low price. Problems with suppliers led the company to start purchasing from foreign producers in Eastern Europe. During the 1960s the concept was taken even further by introducing the warehouse principle. A huge store in Stockholm was opened where customers picked the products from the shelves themselves. IKEA turned a capacity problem into a new way of delivering products to customers, which is now a cornerstone in the IKEA way of doing business. The first attempt to go abroad was made in 1963 in nearby Norway, outside Oslo. IKEA took the lead in using nontraditional materials for furniture, like plastics, that made IKEA design well-known worldwide. The company also targeted younger families. It moved to the U.S. in the mid-1980s and has been targeting Eastern and Central Europe since the 1990s. Today IKEA has over 150 stores in more than 20 countries. CEO Anders Dahlvig started his career at IKEA in 1984, after an undergraduate degree in business administration at Lund University in Sweden and a master's degree in economics from the University of California. He has held various positions in Sweden and abroad including Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and the UK. He started off as a controller and advanced to store manager, country manager, deputy retail manager for Europe and, since 1999, CEO of the IKEA Group.

  • Gunther Kress

The 21st century is awash with ever more mixed and remixed images, writing, layout, sound, gesture, speech, and 3D objects. Multimodality looks beyond language and examines these multiple modes of communication and meaning making. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication represents a long-awaited and much anticipated addition to the study of multimodality from the scholar who pioneered and continues to play a decisive role in shaping the field. Written in an accessible manner and illustrated with a wealth of photos and illustrations to clearly demonstrate the points made, Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication deliberately sets out to locate communication in the everyday, covering topics and issues not usually discussed in books of this kind, from traffic signs to mobile phones. In this book, Gunther Kress presents a contemporary, distinctive and widely applicable approach to communication. He provides the framework necessary for understanding the attempt to bring all modes of meaning-making together under one unified theoretical roof. This exploration of an increasingly vital area of language and communication studies will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of English language and applied linguistics, media and communication studies and education.

  • M. Batey

How a company 'positions' a brand is not necessarily how the consumer perceives that brand. Brands allow marketers to add meaning to products and services, but it is consumers who ultimately determine what a brand means. The sources of brand meaning are many and varied, as are the ways in which meanings become attached to brands.

  • Donald C. Hambrick
  • James W. Fredrickson

After more than 30 years of hard thinking about strategy, consultants and scholars have provided an abundance of frameworks for analyzing strategic situations. Missing, however, has been any guidance as to what the product of these tools should be - or what actually constitutes a strategy. Strategy has become a catchall term used to mean whatever one wants it to mean. Executives now talk about their "service strategy," their "branding strategy," their "acquisition strategy," or whatever kind of strategy that is on their mind at a particular moment. But strategists-whether they are CEOs of established firms, division presidents, or entrepreneurs - must have a strategy, an integrated, overarching concept of how the business will achieve its objectives. If a business must have a single, unified strategy, then it must necessarily have parts. What are those parts? We present a framework for strategy design, arguing that a strategy has five elements, providing answers to five questions - arenas: where will we be active? vehicles: how will we get there? differentiators: how will we win in the marketplace? staging: what will be our speed and sequence of moves? economic logic: how will we obtain our returns? Our article develops and illustrates these domains of choice, particularly emphasizing how essential it is that they form a unified whole.