30 Jan 2025 IKEA: The wisdom of the meatball

The best salesperson in IKEA’s history is totally unlikely – it’s the meatball. Since 1985, the famed flatpack-furniture giant has sold more than a BILLION of its trademark Swedish meatballs every year….

But how did a furniture company come to rely on meatballs to sell couches? The answer lies in consumer psychology.

Every now and then, you encounter a business that has its feet in two seemingly unrelated yet equally lucrative markets.

Yamaha is one of my favourite examples: they are as well-known for their motorcycles as they are for their musical instruments, particularly keyboards. Another is the Virgin Group, famous for its airlines and gyms. 3M manufactures Post-It Notes and specialty dental equipment.

What do these pairs have in common with each other? Almost nothing, except for the fact that each pair comes from the same company. 

Whenever I encounter a business like this, I can’t help but wonder about the trajectory that led to such an outcome. The business majors in the audience will probably tell me the less interesting story, which is that some of these divergences are the result of company acquisitions or a time in the world when conglomerates were popular – and that’s probably true.

But once in a while, you hear a story about a business that turned a sidequest into a fully-fledged source of income, and then some. Such is the story of IKEA and the meatball. 

Enter the labyrinth

We don’t have IKEA in South Africa (yet), but many of us know the name, either from hearing it mentioned in TV shows and films, or from visiting an IKEA store overseas.

Now, in a typical furniture store, you’d walk straight to the section you need, find your item, and leave. At IKEA, it’s more of a meander; somewhat of a carefully engineered labyrinth designed to keep you browsing, dreaming, and inevitably leaving with way more than you came for.

At the heart of this strategy is the “one-way layout,” a winding path that guides you through each section of the store in a set order. You don’t just stumble into the living room section; you’re led there after walking through the bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms.

And while you could technically take one of the sneaky shortcuts sprinkled throughout the store, the layout is designed to keep you on the main route as long as possible. Each section you pass through feels like stepping into a fully realised home, with perfectly styled spaces that make it easy to imagine products in your own life.

The idea is not to buy anything off the floor. Instead, you make a note of the items you want and then collect them, flatpacked, from the warehouse, which is usually found on a level under the showrooms.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the average IKEA shopper spends two and a half to three hours in the store every time they visit. 

In-store café included

Foreseeing the inevitable, IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad launched his very first store with an in-store café included. Back then, it was all coffee and cake – just enough to keep shoppers caffeinated for the maze ahead.

This brings us to where these little cafés are located – always halfway through the store, never too close to the entrance or the exit. It’s all part of a carefully calculated plan, says Alison Jing Xu, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota. Xu studies consumer behaviour, particularly how hunger impacts decision-making, and she notes that IKEA has a clever system in place.  

The goal isn’t to feed you right away; it’s to let you build up an appetite as you wander through the first half of the showrooms. Once you’re feeling peckish, you’re encouraged to pause for a snack or meal before heading back onto the path. Hunger, Xu explains, focuses the mind on acquiring food, but that desire often spills over into other kinds of shopping.

Her research shows that hungry shoppers spend 64% more money than their well-fed counterparts…..

Read the full story here: Ghostmail