IKEA and Icelanders' Passionate Feelings

“Icelanders’ relationship with this catalogue is different than in other countries, reminiscent of Macintosh and Prins Póló. We are much more connected to this product than others, and this seems to be more of a shock for us,” says Kristján Schram, a marketing consultant, about the popular IKEA catalogue.

Kristján says IKEA’s decision to stop publishing the catalogue is not surprising and that COVID-19 likely played a part in it. “COVID is a huge external change in our lives. It causes a mutation. All of a sudden, we’ve stopped going to stores and are buying more online. We’re simply forced to. And it will be interesting to research this next year. What effect this will have. IKEA is looking at this, that people don’t need to come to these big stores; they probably see an opportunity to reduce costs,” he says, although he adds that he finds it interesting why the decision was made so suddenly now and not in smaller steps. After all, the catalogue is very popular, and not just among peculiar Icelanders. “I saw a documentary about IKEA and the making of the catalogue; it takes nine months to produce, 280 people are involved in the work, and they run the largest photo studio in Europe. They saw an opportunity to reduce costs there.” It caught Kristján’s attention that IKEA did not use environmental issues to justify its decision. But for those who follow environmental considerations in print publishing closely, that would be nearly impossible. IKEA has been at the forefront of environmental matters and has strongly supported the expansion of commercial forests in its publishing. They have thoroughly promoted their environmental considerations regarding the publication of the catalogue.

You can't put a price on feelings

But what does this change mean? Kristján says it is important to keep in mind what the company is losing with its decision. A personal and strong connection with its customers. “People are reading these catalogues, flipping through them, leaving them on the coffee table. People have the brand around them. You don’t just throw away the IKEA catalogue! But this decision is unfortunately part of a wave. Companies are significantly reducing publishing; all travel agencies, for example, have stopped publishing travel brochures,” says Kristján, adding that companies, in turn, lose this emotional connection. “As a marketer, I think this is valuable. You don’t just buy something like that, or build up such a connection in 3-4 years,” he says, stating that it is in no way possible to put a price on this strong connection. “You don’t put a price tag on feelings. It can’t be calculated,” he points out.

“We often talk about this as glue. Something that lasts a long time,” says Kristján, adding that it is also easy for people to miscalculate the need people have to walk around a store, touch things, think. “You don’t necessarily just want to look at a computer screen and talk to bots. I will always advise my clients to maintain communication with their customers for as long as they can. I hope this was a difficult decision for IKEA.”