Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…Totally astonishing. In fact, I think it’s worth a little sidebar on the coffee table right now as an example. It perfectly illustrates the new consumer dynamic and demand explosion that IKEA is about to head into. The LACK coffee table is the first example of this idea that Ingvar starts to develop, of the item with the “breathtaking price.” Every product that IKEA sells in its range should be high quality, great value, ideally way better on both dimensions than any competition. Have beautiful form. I think that’s a part of it, too, is it’s supposed to have the form and design. It’s not just build quality, but actually the form should be elegant to look at. Yes, but over and above, just like the standard products in the range, IKEA should always have a few products that are these breathtaking price products. These products should also be high quality, but they should be priced at least 50% below any competitive or substitute of products out there. Ideally well less than 50%. A $10 table today, that’s breathtaking. That’s astonishing. Ingvar says, “It’s our job to figure out, start with that end goal in mind and then design backwards from that of how we are going to make that happen.” He would later write and describe, “The whole idea is based on the substantial price difference, the easily understood price by the consumer. We don’t lose on the deal nor do we make much profit, but at least we make a little, and in the end that’s what matters. We can’t actually lose money on these products, and thus we need to design not just what the furniture looks like, the manufacturing process, the transport process, the raw material sourcing process. Everything end-to-end about how are we going to sell…”…

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