IKEA and kika start promotion battle to revive sales
The biggest foreign furniture retailers on the domestic market,
IKEA and kika, are betting on a promotion strategy based on
catalogues this autumn, in which they invest over 1.5m euros
together.
A large part of furniture retailers have product presentation
catalogues, but only IKEA and kika distribute them in large numbers
in Bucharest and around it.
While IKEA has based its entire promotion on catalogues ever since
it entered the domestic market, distributing almost 1 million
catalogues, kika has recently launched its first catalogue, in
300,000 copies.
"The catalogue is much more complex than the usual fliers. Also,
the launch of this catalogues brings a 'fresh air' of kika brand,"
said Lars Lund, country manager of kika Romania, who specified the
retailer invested 0.3m euros in the catalogue.
kika's new promotion strategy comes as Danish-born Lars Lund has
been at the helm of the company since December 2009. He announced
he would not touch the "marketing budget", but that the media mix
may change, with the company focusing more on the radio and
print.
IKEA also maintained it marketing budget at 1.3m euros and
distributes the catalogue in 960,000 copies in Bucharest and
neighbouring areas.