Ikea
may be a market leader in terms of the carefully crafted shopping experience.
Almost every part of the experience from layout to product variety is crafted
to maximise the desire to purchase.
If
‘items for the home’ is taken as the over-arching term describing the products
for sale, then Ikea offers an almost unreasonable amount, necessitating huge
department stores extending over six floors. Simonson (1990) looked at the effect
of both variety of product available and amount of product desired on consumer
purchase. Participants were asked to imagine they were either purchasing a
single item for an occasion on a single day or purchasing several items for
occasions over several days. They found that variety significantly increased
buying behaviour but only when participants had in mind the notion that they
may need several items.
Most
people would not go into Ikea for a single item, the floor plan and one way
system lift system alone makes this an undesirable notion. At the same time,
customers are forced to walk around the entire floor and view all items on
offer before exiting. The fact that customers often do not enter Ikea with the
idea that they will be buying only single item and the huge variety of products
on offer, ensures that trip to the store will be neither quick nor inexpensive.
Furthermore,
Ikea offer “complete apartments for different demographic groups” (Davis, 2005,
pp.702). It could be argued that this employs the foot in the door technique,
in buying one item you are then more attracted to the overall look for an
entire room that can be achieved with further purchase (Freedman & Fraser,
1966).
Davis,
D. (2005). Urban consumer culture. CHINA QUARTERLY-LONDON-, 183,
692.
Freedman,
J. L., & Fraser, S. C. (1966). Compliance without pressure: the
foot-in-the-door technique. Journal of personality and social psychology,
4(2), 195.
Simonson,
I. (1990). The effect of purchase quantity and timing on variety-seeking
behavior. Journal of Marketing Research, 150-162.
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