Green Marketing Initiatives at IKEA

(a) Introduction

This study reveals the different concepts of green marketing within a chosen organization called IKEA. The organization is well recognized as a Swedish furniture brand that creates its strategy called people and planet positive. It was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1953 and it follows the vision of "Creating a better everyday life for many people". "IKEA's core belief as a company is that consumers should not have to choose between stylish designs, affordable prices, and sustainability when purchasing their products (ikea.com, 2021)." This organization proposes a purpose for eCommerce content to provide their brand a competitive advantage and it is important to embrace the purpose. The brand works toward 100 percent renewable energy along the reduction of packaging waste is seen to be green. Environmental conscious lifestyle has been improvised by this company as they promote the concept online. In the maximum building of the United States, this green approach of using solar panels is introduced so that a lesser amount of waste is delivered to landfills. Leading examples of this company doing green marketing include eco-friendly practices like using solar panels in maximum buildings. IKEA has gained marketing rewards by following its green efforts and serving everyday needs.

(b) Thesis

Climate and environment-friendly options along with keeping the heritage intact are identified as essential. “Green and fair trade marketing are just marketing ploys to get more money from consumers without really furthering the goals of sustainability or fairer trade”. This statement is found out to be true to some extent as many organizations are using the tagline for their benefit only and it has no potential value to be shown in the long run. The chosen organization is making their 50% off furniture from particle board rather than solid wood (Bhattacharjee, and Chakraborty, 2021). It is a surprising finding that discourages people from buying furniture from IKEA. Hence, the green marketing concept can be tagged as a gimmick as the furniture sold has questionable durability. Quality might not be the only issue, conventional manufacturing of particleboard is found to be far more detrimental.

It is observed that there is poor quality and shoddy craftsmanship taking place in IKEA furniture assembling. Mostly, tragic incidents have occurred as people have been complaining about allergic reactions occurring due to the glue used in assembling furniture. Improper uses of such chemicals might degrade their green campaign. It is also observed that the improper assembling of furniture might cause a sharp corner or edge to be oozing out which creates injuries (Bojanowska, and Kulisz, 2020). There is also a use of plastic tape seen that reduces compatibility of the extensive management process of packaging. Promotion of environmental and socially responsible products can improve the business USP and create sustainable marketing options for businesses like IKEA. Social and environmental marketing strategies are reduced while consumers are identifying the need of saving upon energy and engaging in futuristic goals. The organization is advertising post-consumer recycled materials for packaging. However, practical data is identified to be less of this segment.

Advertisement and false claims regarding real wood furniture reduce the customers' trust. There are costly items observed for renewable and recyclable material use. A technology perspective is also associated with this advertisement (Chung, 2020). The use of energy is not always renewable while the company is using the internet and social media as the medium of spreading their work. The people may not become aware of green products and this is taken as an opportunity by the IKEA Company to present a gimmick of taking adequate corporate social responsibility. Green marketing is needed for raising voices against uses, disposal, and production that might create harm for society and consumers. IKEA solely focuses on its activities only to manage recycling and sustainability. They are not contributing to other campaigns that are going on for sustainability. There is no specific hashtag created that would focus on resource efficiency (Dangelico, and Vocalelli, 2017). The argument is hence justified as IKEA is just trying to make money by starting all this green campaigning. A trick up for green marketing is associated with IKEA that can be termed as greenwashing as the greenness is termed as over presenting. The sale of plastics is identified as the most alarming threat of the century. Some of these examples of over advertisements on green marketing encourage imaginary friends, ‘now this a label that looks like a third-party endorsement, except it's made up”. There is no proof or record available over the internet that might support a claim of going green by the organization. There is a sustainable fashion that could be right but has no evidence (Walia, Kumar, and Negi, 2019). In some of the aspects of IKEA, the company is struggling on leaving a carbon footprint and there is a lack of proven records on that segment. A costly practice like greenwashing might deteriorate the employee service quality as well.

Four IKEA sustainable practices that deserve appreciation are as follows:

• Tankard: A production process which sustainable and cost worthy at the same time, it also uses fewer chemicals and is more focused on natural resources (Papadas, Avlonitis, G.J. and Carrigan, 2017)
• Little Sun: The quality of living is increased for the people living in off-grid areas.
• Misteln: Water saving nozzle for reducing up to 90% of the water consumption
• ANNANSTANS: Promoting sustainable development by helping communities via creating sustainable jobs

For the maximization of profits, the company is more focused on managing its expenditure. Strategies lie in reducing waste, energy, and shipping cost through sustainability-driven innovations (Groening, Sarkis, and Zhu, 2018). Most of the recycling approaches include balers that are associated with compressed packaging. The reduction of recycling facilities is observed for the management of waste material and gradual refinement of the process. IKEA's operations are mostly contributing to cost management. The gradual refinement of IKEA's process is embedded in cost management and operation control. Space-saving capability with workforce engagement and education improves market components. IKEA is contributing to the green market by rolling out recycling services for furniture and allows people to return their old furniture to stores. It is further donated to charities or families that need that (Kardos, Gabor, and Cristache, 2019). The exponential growth of population is becoming one of the primary reasons for resource scarcity and carrying capacity is lessening as well. Hence, long-term profitability can be expected with a unique way of recycling furniture for IKEA. This is also expected to ensure long-term profitability for the organization in terms of going green and reusing furniture. Improved action plans and resources are managing the energy goals for the total company.

Energy management is identified as one of the improved processes for store managers and decision-making action plans are taken for meeting the goals of the company. Decentralization of energy management is making the store flexible and supervisors are providing a greener solution. Other managers can share information through IKEA forums as well (Mahmoud, 2018). The creation of brand identity and telling personal anecdotes is helping them go green and generating valuable CSR. While ranking at the top-selling company in the U.S. "IKEA started charging consumers when they opted for plastic bags and encouraged people to stop using its "Big Blue Bag".”

The scopes can be discussed in terms of the following such as:

• Owned energy generation from gas, oil boilers, and diesel generators
• Carbon footprint
• Raw materials production and emission control from suppliers along with good transport is observed for the sales management within IKEA as a company.

IKEA has shown its excellence in green marketing through using wind, geothermal ways working. LEDs have been introduced as a part of becoming greener through their blue and yellow megastore. Shipping costs have been lowered with excellence in recycling and creating shopping bags that are worth the environment while replacing shopping bags (McCullough, and Melton, 2017). The company works on a competitive strategy of reducing the climate footprint as the value chain has been estimated to be 26.9 million tonnes. A 2.8% increase is observed from 2016 due to the growth of IKEA business which potentially increases the amount of CO2 released in the environment.

"The goal is identified to be completely circular within 2030, however, progressive renewability and recyclability of products are addressing the inherent sustainability." Smaller environment concessions are made while continuing on business in case of IKEA and it has adopted a new sense of advertisement claiming to provide adequate furniture needs to low income level people along with urban resident commuters.

IKEA’s shared passion is identified as a key to success while there are different visions and business ideas incorporated. The culture is built upon enthusiasm, togetherness, and the idea of getting all work done. One of the important aspects of IKEA is associated with equality, diversity, and inclusion (Nadanyiova, and Kliestikova, 2017). A real difference has been observed as a part of IKEA sustainability and the brand might progress their growth towards a better tomorrow. IKEA is currently investing in different aspects of tech-friendly opinion such as emailing green marketing concepts along with delivering their work stories on social media platforms and blogs.

(d) Synthesis

The organization has created some important policies that support the arguments of sustainability. In defense of the organization's practices for managing green marketing, certain issues can be highlighted such as reducing carbon footprint. There can be arguments presented on how the organization is going to deal with the perspectives of sustainability such as safe packaging and balancing the wastage material amount (Nekmahmud, and Fekete-Farkas, 2020). On the other hand, there is an issue identified on using particle board for furniture making and not real wood. This particleboard is identified to be even more dangerous and requires to be managed thoroughly. The focus is on green marketing mostly by the organization in concern. However, there are sustainability fostered which improvises on the concerned issue of gathering money green advertising only. The actual requirement of being an environment-concerned authority is served to some extent. Though there is a lack of potential observed in the organization's core values. The material which is being used as a core one for furniture development is itself a threat to Mother Nature. Going green will also require the use of paperless billing systems. This organization IKEA is supporting solar systems, however, it does not support paperless billing though (Nistoreanu, P., Aluculesei, and Avram, 2020).

The tapes which are used for packing furniture are also made of plastic. This indeed becomes a threat to nature as there is no point in reducing packaging wastage and taking initiatives to reduce packaging threats. There are ideas generated "to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low, that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.” Democratic design is required to be managed as good home furnishing is essential for every person that belongs to every group (Novela, and Hansopaheluwakan, 2018). With a large production of space-efficient furniture, the quality might get reduced. Storage and transportation cost reduction lowers the prices eventually. IKEA is found out to be potentially contributing towards zero wastage and a better tomorrow. This entire planet is filled up with big and small trash which is tried hard to be organized by IKEA (Widyastuti, and Santoso, 2018). Logistic operations are kept as minimalistic as possible. Recycled per plastic desires for a rethinking of design and transport. Reused, repaired, and reassembled products for customers helps in saving energy in the most possible way which is identified to be contributing towards the planet and supporting major sustainability. As a final statement, it can be concluded that IKEA is truly a nature-friendly company. Apart from some flaws, their maximum contribution is observed to satisfy the environment. Hence, in this case, the statement of gimmicking customers of green marketing can be partially true.

Continue your exploration of Global Expansion Strategies for Alba Beds Ltd with our related content.

References

Journals

• Bhattacharjee, A. and Chakraborty, S., 2021. The Impact of Green Marketing on Electric Vehicle Adoption: A Critical Sustainability Study in Auto Industry & Model Development. BUSINESS RESEARCH AND INNOVATION, p.231.
• Bojanowska, A. and Kulisz, M., 2020. Polish Consumers’ Response to Social Media Eco-Marketing Techniques. Sustainability, 12(21), p.8925.
• Chung, K.C., 2020. Green marketing orientation: Achieving sustainable development in green hotel management. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(6), pp.722-738.
• Dangelico, R.M. and Vocalelli, D., 2017. “Green Marketing”: an analysis of definitions, strategy steps, and tools through a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Cleaner production, 165, pp.1263-1279.
• Groening, C., Sarkis, J. and Zhu, Q., 2018. Green marketing consumer-level theory review: A compendium of applied theories and further research directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, pp.1848-1866.
• Kardos, M., Gabor, M.R. and Cristache, N., 2019. Green marketing’s roles in sustainability and ecopreneurship. Case study: Green packaging’s impact on Romanian young consumers’ environmental responsibility. Sustainability, 11(3), p.873.
• Mahmoud, T.O., 2018. Impact of green marketing mix on purchase intention. International Journal of Advanced and applied sciences, 5(2), pp.127-135.
• McCullough, B.P. and Melton, E.N., 2017. The benefits of becoming a green company: A corporate marketing approach. Journal of Contemporary Athletics, 11(1).
• Nadanyiova, M. and Kliestikova, J., 2017. Green Marketing vs. Greenwashing. How to protect against Negative Impact of Greenwashing?. Journal of Management and Marketing Review, 2(1), pp.53-58.
• Nekmahmud, M. and Fekete-Farkas, M., 2020. Why not green marketing? Determinates of consumers’ intention to green purchase decision in a new developing nation. Sustainability, 12(19), p.7880.
• Nistoreanu, P., Aluculesei, A.C. and Avram, D., 2020. Is Green Marketing a Label for Ecotourism? The Romanian Experience. Information, 11(8), p.389.
• Novela, S. and Hansopaheluwakan, S., 2018. Analysis of Green Marketing Mix Effect on Customer Satisfaction using 7p Approach. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities. Widyastuti, S. and Santoso, B., 2018. Green marketing: A study of the factors influencing the repurchase decision for Javanony Herbal Products. ASEAN Marketing Journal, pp.125-135.
• Papadas, K.K., Avlonitis, G.J. and Carrigan, M., 2017. Green marketing orientation: Conceptualization, scale development and validation. Journal of Business Research, 80, pp.236-246.
• Walia, S.B., Kumar, H. and Negi, N., 2019. Consumers' attitude and purchase intention towards' green'products: a study of selected FMCGs. International Journal of Green Economics, 13(3-4), pp.202-217.

Website

• ikea.com, 2021, Avaialbe at: [Accessed on 15/07/2021]