Bulgaria
IKEA assignment
Prepared by:
George Georgiev
Evgeniya Mincheva
Zornica Rasheva
Executive Summary
Furniture remains the largest home furnishings and housewares sector.
Bulgaria’s furniture industry is a dynamically developing sector in the past few years. It is well known that most furniture companies in the country are based on strong traditions and good correlation between price and quality, but (as in many other countries), although the major part of the customers on the inner market prefer Bulgarian-made furniture, high prices are seen as a sign of high quality, so most furniture pieces produced by the companies are considered high priced and hardly affordable for the majority of people.
IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad. It started as a place where a person can buy pens, picture frames, watches, etc. and with the time turned to be the world’s largest furniture retailer. One of the main aims of the organisation include: keeping costs low and assist customers and products combining good quality, durability and functionality and this replies to the needs of the Bulgarian customer.
Trough analyzing the situation within the country and IKEA the decision to open an IKEA store in Sofia was taken.
A PEST analysis was held to recognize all the factors that might have an effect on the company entering the Bulgarian market. The current situation of the furniture industry was analyzed and trough that the target market and the positioning of IKEA were identified. The competitors’ and customers’ analyzes that were made show what IKEA has to adapt to when entering the market of the country. The Internal and SWOT analysis show why IKEA has the opportunity to enter, develop and gain a market share in the Bulgarian furniture sector. The Market was researched and based on all that the marketing mix strategies were developed. And a PERT analysis was also held to show how the decisions made will be implemented.
History of IKEA