A U.S. marketing manager can take many lessons from IKEA’s experiences entering emerging and developed markets. The primary lesson being that IKEA should have done more background research on the different countries it was entering and applied that knowledge to its marketing strategy in order to better meet the needs of their new consumers.
One way to gather information on the entry level criteria is to perform an International Marketing Environmental Audit (IMEA), which would allow for IKEA to research deeply into the differences within the new market and provide them with guidance on how their brand might be perceived by consumers. The audit helps management to review many different aspects, strengths, and weaknesses of the country it is entering, from its people, environment, domestic, and international issues they may encounter on entry. Had IKEA performed an IMEA before entry to the Chinese market, they might have identified the counterfeiting issue due to relaxed Chinese laws and re-thought their advertising strategy (not used the catalogs since it makes products easy to replicate) or they could have appealed to the Chinese government to help enforce or create stricter counterfeit laws.
IKEA should also investigate the competition before entering a new market. IKEA should research both local and international competitors within the new market to see how their pricing and products compare with their own, and be prepared to update their branding or positioning based