Earlier this year Ikea launched a catalogue of branded emojis too, through which the retailer hopes to improve communication around the home by helping to keep the conversation “light and friendly”.
Jeroen Hubert, country marketing manager of Ikea Netherlands, which produced the app, says: “We wanted to create a modern solution for an old problem: tension between people about clutter in their homes… Emojis help to refine the message and make it more clear, but they also add a smile.”
In addition to various household items such as a vacuum cleaner, a house and a storage unit there is also a Swedish meatball emoji, an Allen key and an Ikea shopping bag.
Emojis can lighten the mood
In one light-hearted example illustrating how emojis can be used, Ikea shows a man texting a woman using the hoover and house icons to says thank you for vacuuming, and she responds with a picture of a bed and a heart alongside the caption ‘thanks for last night’.
“Of course emojis are not a replacement for personal conversation,” adds Hubert, “but if you want to send a message to your roommate about his shoes lying around, a message accompanied by an emoji can break the ice and make [life] at home easier.”
The app performed particularly well in the Netherlands, Spain, Austria and Slovakia, according to Hubert, who says it reached the top 10 downloads in each country, as well as the top 20 in Belgium, Sweden and Germany.
However, Ikea apps have received mixed reviews on the App Store and Google Play in terms of usability.
Ikea doesn’t have any concrete plans to use emojis again at the moment but Hubert believes they “are a modern and fun way of communicating… [so] it is possible that we will use [them] again in one way or another” in the future.
The brand’s UK marketing boss Peter Wright told recently told Marketing Week that it is keen to widen its appeal beyond furniture and meatballs through the launch of smaller stores and pop-ups.
Source: Marketing Week
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