Vying with IKEA: HANSSEM’s Competitive Advantage at Marketing Frontier

Abstract

HANSSEM is a furniture company that leads the market of residential space in Korea. The goal of this case study is to focus on how HANSSEM copes with IKEA, the world's largest furniture retailer after entering the Korean market in December 2014. IKEA’s entry into Korea is possible to destroy the existing orders in the retail industry and reduce the profit of incumbent local players by realigning industry relationships. However, HANSSEM achieved rapid growth with the largest market share in the furniture market through its internal capabilities. The authors propose the main success factors in three ways: (1) residents-database including apartment floorplans in Korea, (2) high-quality human services provided by construction and A/S (After-sales Service), (3) channel diversification that provides comprehensive consultations (e.g., flagship stores, home shopping channels, stores in marts, and interior dealers). Especially, there have been various consumer needs in Korean market, such as creating their own stylish space economically. HANSSEM meets customer’s needs by reinforcing the space-package (complete-interior is provided to customer in a package rather than combining individual piece of furniture) and opening showrooms, which makes customers freely experience the products and receive detailed consultations on interior designs by alleviating customers’ difficulties in decorating their homes. Based on HANSSEM's outstanding activities and new investments, we look forward to seeing that HANSSEM will achieve its ultimate goal of maintaining the position of number one furniture company by attaining customer satisfaction through higher quality in Korea.