Le biz c'est chic

stoweboyd:

IKEA has announced launching the Uppleva line of integrated HDTV and furniture: it’s genius, and completely supports my contention from yesterday that only two kinds of retailers are growing. One, like IKEA and Apple, are selling their own designs, more or less exclusively. The second are specialty purveyors of carefully curated goods, like Trader Joe’s.

The Uppleva line is going to be very successful, I predict, and opens the TV market to IKEA, and will hasten the demise of chains like Best Buy:

Matt Burns via TechCrunch

The new UPPLEVA line completely disrupts the big box store’s HDTV buying process with a high-dose injection of Ikea genius.

Ikea has yet to announce the nitty-gritty details around the UPPLEVA line including the price. The line will apparently hit key stores in Stockholm, Milan, Paris, Gdansk, and Berlin in June 2012. Come autumn it will arrive at additional stores in Sweden, Italy, France, Poland, Denmark, Spain, Norway, and Portugal with a more broad launch following in 2013.

The YouTube teaser lays out some basic spec concerning the HDTV. It seems up to the task with a 1080p LED LCD screen, 400Hz response time, and some sort of smart TV functionality — all good stuff. But the HDTV really doesn’t matter. Even though it has the specs of a high-end screen, Ikea could have employed a mid-range model and still made the same magic.

Ikea understands that everything needs to work together. This new product line from the Swedish retailer exemplifies the notion of an all-in-one system. Sure, this probably doesn’t appeal to audio heads or A/V geeks, but it brings a beautiful system that works to the masses. Like with everything else Ikea sells, the UPPLEVA system is completely customizable with a range of TV sizes and cabinet designs. Buyers probably still have to piece them together using those dumb keys, though.

IKEA is one of the few companies that can really battle Apple for the living room.

lalibertarienne:

Back 20 years, David Jones had a monopoly on this in Sydney. Ask your grandparents. A trip to town meant a trip to the David Jones cafe. Other than providing IKEA another revenue stream, the cafe – placed at the half-way point of your escapade – does a few smart things. It reinforces the brand (price, quality, social). It turns IKEA into a community zone – not just a shop. It provides a timeout so we can energise before we continue. It provides time to examine the catalogue ‘in case there’s anything we don’t want to miss.’  And, surely, the noise and smells add to that home feeling Ikea is trying to spark.

Other retailers should take note of Ikea’s branding strategy. It’s fascinate and so effective. I love it