Abstract

IKEA, a major international retailer of furniture based in Sweden, was well known for its ready-to-assemble furniture, home goods, and accessories. IKEA’s massive warehouse-style stores were primarily located outside of urban areas and customers had to drive a inordinately long distances to reach these stores. To encourage its customers to visit the stores, IKEA launched a unique and innovative marketing campaign ‘Buy with your time’ in IKEA Dubai’s new store at Jebel Ali, Dubai, in February 2020. The marketing campaign ‘Buy with your time’ allowed IKEA’s customers to convert their trip time into time currency. At IKEA’s checkout stations, customers could pay in cash, time, or a combination of both. According to industry experts, this marketing campaign aimed to attract more customers and persuade them to buy things using time and money. If the time currency concept was successful in IKEA Dubai, the retailer planned to adopt it at other locations worldwide.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand how companies manage incentives as a marketing promotional tool
• Evaluate the factors that influence incentive decisions of companies
• Know the different types of incentives that boost sales
• Understand the different theories and models of sales promotion

Keywords

Pricing and promotion strategy; Marketing communication strategy; Consumer incentives; Marketing promotional tool; Sales incentives; Consumer incentives; Pull and Push strategy; Trade incentives