The IKEA Suburb is an ambitious plan by the furniture giant to build a micro-city in London's East end, close to Olympic Park. The suburb would contain just over 1,200 homes and a 350-person hotel room.
Inter Ikea Systems, the owner of the IKEA suburb concept, maintains that increasing the availability of IKEA products worldwide is its main mission. Come to think of it, creating your own city is not a bad way to make your products more accessible.
Implications - IKEA's suburb is a great example of a company creating a campaign that people naturally want to talk about. Companies that are looking to gain global attention should think of ways to package their company and products that will make people talk, and eventually make the designs go viral.
City-Forming Furniture Ventures
IKEA Suburb Gets Set to Break Ground in East London
Trend Themes
1. Micro-cities - The trend of building self-contained residential and commercial areas is on the rise.
2. Brand-based Urban Planning - More companies are leveraging their brand to build entire communities that promote their products and services.
3. Attention-grabbing Campaigns - Companies are finding success by creating buzzworthy campaigns that generate organic interest and conversation.
Industry Implications
1. Furniture - Furniture companies have the potential to leverage their products to build entire self-contained communities.
2. Real Estate - Developers can leverage branding to build unique communities that differentiate themselves in the market.
3. Marketing - Marketing companies can learn from IKEA's success and develop campaigns that grab the public's attention and go viral.