On LinkedIn, Tuesday morning – Dean posted this…
It’s true- people do.
On Tuesday – I had the day off (I know, right? – I actually put an Out Of Office on and took a day off!) – so, Tuesday…I decided to go to Ikea.
Now, many of you who go Ikea – will know, doesn’t matter what you aim to do – if it’s just looking, or you’ve done your research and know exactly what you want, you’ll always end up buying something that you think later… do I really need it?
So why does Ikea do this? – (and this blog post idea was created by my friend Raj, who mentioned the below….)
Well… so during my visit on Tuesday, I did wonder, a) what will I end up buying and b) there must be some science behind it!
Now, before I even entered the store – I knew what I wanted. I knew the exact items, etc… however, yes – like most folk, somehow… I’d ended up at the cashier till with not only the items I wanted to buy originally but some other nice ‘additions’ in the basket.
Now… couple of reasons when I did some research and looked into this…
- Children – or shall I say, ‘children-less’. That’s right, Ikea have Smaland – a place where you can leave the kids to be entertained and you go off to enjoy Ikea without the nagging, shouting, fighting… and ultimately thinking ‘hope my kid doesn’t break that’.
- Windows – Now, I’d heard about this previously – but it is kind of true! – There aren’t many windows once you are in the realm of Ikea. This means, you are isolated some-what in the Ikea World, and have no idea what time it is (obviously you can check your watch)… clocks on the wall don’t tell the real time – so being honest, you can literally spend hours…and hours…. and hours….
- List – I always thought it’s very kind of Ikea to provide you with pencils and the measuring guide…. oh, and the paper list (to write down what you want). Yep – there’s science behind that, once you write down what you want or thinking to get – you’re kind of making a commitment to purchase it. You’ll only write things down you want – and if you’re in two minds – chances are, once you’re written it – it’ll be in the back of your car in no time.
- Mix – I love it, that I’ll be walking looking at beds, and all of a sudden… I see an extension cable. Why would I need an extension cable? – maybe because I can plug several things that need charging overnight near my bed? – oh look… this bed side table I was looking at, can store everything I want an on top, there’s space for my mobile phone… Do I have enough sockets… I think I should buy one to give me that flexibility. And there you go – there was a reason I picked up that blue/yellow bag at the front of the store – to pick up little items that might make my life easier.
I think I could write a book about this – in fact, I’m sure someone has already!
The other final note was – Ikea Family. Not clubcard, not Nectar points, not anything like that… not even loyalty card… but Ikea Family card. That’s right, You’re part of the family. And family support each other.
So, there you go… so much we can learn from Ikea to incorporate into our organisations, into our companies and places of work…
… and yes, I didn’t even mention the hot dogs. That’s a whole blog post on it’s own!