Nowadays, the living standards of people continues to improve and the need of people is

getting increasingly diversified. Companies face with a variety of customer’s requirements

so customization of services is becoming more and more popular for a firm to achieve
variety and high customer satisfaction. But the problem is individual customization must
have cost a lot, so mass customization addresses the tradeoffs between cost-saving and
customization effectively.

IKEA is a Swedish-founded, Dutch-headquartered multinational conglomerate that designs

and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories, among
other goods and home services

Standardization – Standardized marketing strategies in retail business

IKEA, followed the ‘traditional’ pattern in becoming global. It first moved to neighbouring
countries that had similar cultural tradition before stepping into other continents. The
company followed standardisation method; meaning it had implemented a same model in
market entry and store operation. The company followed a DIY method – “do it yourself”
in most of the markets it entered: customers collect flatpacks like furniture’s & carry it
home, and assemble with easy set of instruction. IKEA follows a standardisation of
‘cutting price’ method through high volume manufacturing & achieving economies of
scale. Their business model of selling high volumes of innovative home furnishings at
affordable prices is constant across markets.
Taking about the services, there are minimal sales people in the retail stores. IKEA follows
standardised market communication by giving huge emphasis on in-house catalogue. All
IKEA stores have restaurants. Their product line is also same everywhere. 95% of the
products found in every IKEA store are same.
Mass-customization in services –

Mass customization is the process of delivering services that are modified to satisfy a
specific customer's needs. Mass customization is a marketing technique that combines the
flexibility and personalization of custom-made products with the low unit costs associated
with mass production. Companies that offer mass customization can give themselves a
competitive advantage over other companies that only offer generic products.

Example - Certain furniture companies offer mass customization by providing multiple

options for choosing various components or features. This flexibility may include different
fabrics, furniture legs, or furniture pieces that combine in numerous configurations. So, this
selection of furniture like dimensions (length, width, height), colour, design, assembly,
features is nothing but customization. Customers collect flatpacks like furniture’s & carry it
home, and construct & assemble with easy set of instruction.

Adding an Innovation layer: (Servicing their product offerings) –

1) They also have retail Kiosks by the name KIOWARE at each retail store where-in a
customer could design their own furniture & be able to see the different product
line offerings and get a support service option. If customers have a question, they
can utilize an Interactive Customer Service assistant, allowing customers to ask
questions and receive immediate replies without the need for human presence.
Once they have worked out the configuration & visualized the flatpacks results
the retail stores could give them the customized assembly instructions which will
be unique to the configuration the customer created.

2) They have a dedicated augmented reality (AR) app by the name “IKEAPlace” which
they launched recently in 2017. It there on Appstore which allows users to test
IKEA's products in real time which helps customer to create 3D models & design
their own furniture