Inspired by the way nature cycles waste in an ecosystem, the circular economy was developed as an alternative to the linear take-make-dispose model and designed to decouple economic growth from resource use. After developing a framework for what it means to be a business pursuing circularity, this thesis examines six different companies to explore the tension between the strategies and business models in theory and what business are implementing in practice today. This exploration continues with an in-depth analysis of the circular success of IKEA, finding that the gains from the circular economy for a large corporation are found within their own operations. With the company’s scale, IKEA is able to act as a transfer hub of technology and best practices, ultimately allowing the company to make a global impact.

Detta arbete är en fallstudie av IKEAs reklamkampanj “Där livet händer”. Arbetet har tvåsyften: att utforska tekniska aspekter på reklamproduktion och skapa sig en bild avmottagarnas uppfattning av reklamfilmerna i den nämnda kampanjen. Det andra syftet är attundersöka i vilken mån IKEAs identitet återspeglas i reklamkampanjen när det gällermänniskors representation. I detta arbete besvaras följande frågeställningar: -Hur påverkar det tekniska utformandet av reklamfilmerna mottagarens uppfattningom dem? -Hur kommunicerar företaget sin identitet så att den stämmer överens med dess vision? -Hur påverkar människors representation kundernas uppfattning om reklamfilmerna? Till detta uppsatsarbete valde vi den kvalitativa undersökningsmetoden. Det genomfördes tiosemistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter samt en mejlintervju med Leila Widgren,byråproducent på Åkestam Holst. Genom att analysera den insamlade datan med de valdateorierna kunde vi forska djupare och besvara våra frågeställningar. Resultatet visade att dentekniska delen spelar en viktig roll i mottagarnas uppfattning av reklamfilmer. Därför är detcentralt för hur de tekniska verktygen såsom kameror, redigeringsprogram, ljus- samtljudsättning används vid både skapandet och utformandet av reklamfilmer.Reklamkampanjen ​“Där livet händer” ​fick en positiv respons från de intervjuade personernasamt ökade deras kännedom om IKEA. Det visade sig att bryta normer i reklam upplevdessom något positivt av de flesta respondenterna och hjälper företaget att sticka ut.

The project was carried out for the Bachelor Degree of Science in Innovation and Design Engineering, performed at Karlstad's university. The contractor 3TEMP develops high-quality equipment for the professional coffee market. They now want to develop a home product and take a step into the consumer market. 3TEMP has its own patented process and accompanying technical units that need to be complimented with a concrete concept. The project has followed an engineering approach and started with a project plan containing timetable, organization, risk assessment and file management. The project consisted of the phases: planning, preliminary study, product specification, concept generation and evaluationas well as layout design. A product specification was created, based on the results of the preliminary study, which satisfies the user's wishes and needs as well as the client's requirements. According to the preliminary study, the user wants a product that is stylish, fast as well as easy to understand with smart solutions for everyday life. A trend analysis was carried out concerning kitchens and kitchen appliances, showing that multitoned kitchens in varying colors, materials and motifs are the new ones that are sought after. Installation possibilities have been investigatedand used as a starting point in the concept generating process were the product specification was used as a check list to screen invalid ideas. The resulting concepts were further screenedby two different methods, first an elimination matrix and then a relative decision matrix. The contractor made the final decision. The concept was further developed through sketching where it was given a form, a set of buttons and a display. The sketches was concretized in CAD and rendered as high resolution images.

In this thesis we investigated the differences and similarities between a big and a small Swedish firms’ market entry process into Japan. This was done by studying the two chosen companies, IKEA and Haglöfs respectively. We conducted our research using a case study collecting data from primary and secondary sources. The primary data was collected by using a semi-structured interview approach while the secondary data has been collected through searching for relevant sources. We concluded that the main similarities between IKEA and Haglöfs were the firms’ extensive use of network relationships in the Japanese market, were both utilized employees with Japanese market knowledge. The main differences, on the other hand, were mainly the enthusiasm shown from actors, such as governors, consumers and municipalities, that actively encouraged IKEA’s market entry. The scope of the entries was also different, with the size of the IKEA product catalogue and the construction of stores requiring more governmental approvals and lengthy processes. IKEA’s extensive international experience gained from earlier market entries were also something which set the two entries apart.

Genom att studera IKEA:s respektive Polisens strategier, är uppsatsens primära syfte att jämföra hur de båda aktörerna framställer sig själva. Genom att förankra materialet i teorin, analyseras därefter om några delar av deras var för sig presenterade strategier, kan leda till att inge förtroende hos svenska folket. Studiens resultat uppenbarar vissa likheter i IKEA:s och Polisens strategier. Bland annat står hos båda aktörerna många exempel på en välvillig attityd att finna och de bygger genom sin framställning upp en identifikation med sina respektive målgrupper. Skillnaderna dem emellan är emellertid större än likheterna. IKEA framställer en tydlig och till stor del klart definierad förtroendeingivande diskurs. Dessutom uppfyller företaget de allra flesta kriterierna för att framstå som trovärdigt. Även Polisen uppfyller flera av kriterierna för att framstå som trovärdiga. Samtidigt är Polisen på flera punkter tvetydig i sin framställning. IKEA har genom sin till stor del entydigt presenterade diskurs goda möjligheter att erhålla högt förtroende medan Polisen genom sin till stor del tvetydiga diskurs har svårare att komma i besittning av detsamma. IKEA kan därtill i större utsträckning än Polisen sägas ha makt över sin målgrupp och därmed ha bättre förutsättningar för att kunna fungera ändamålsenligt.

Title: IKEA, Volvo and Sweden – Brands in interaction Authors: Viggo Lundbergh Akbari & Marcus Engström Aim: The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine commercial actors’ use of state- formulated ideas about national attributes. This, by investigating IKEA’s and Volvo’s self- describing websites to see how they contribute to the national marketing of Sweden. These companies have a huge impact on how Sweden is portrayed internationally and the Swedish state wants them to market Sweden. Thus, it is of relevance to investigate how they portray Sweden to see if it corresponds with the ideas formulated by the state for the official branding of Sweden. To do this, two research questions have been formulated: How does Visit Sweden's brand platform come to be expressed on IKEA's and Volvo's self-describing websites?  Does IKEA’s and Volvo's self-describing websites constitute nation branding? Method & Material: Qualitative text analysis and five self-describing websites each from IKEA and Volvo. Main Results: Visit Sweden’s brand platform is expressed on IKEA’s and Volvo’s self- describing websites. All parts of the brand platform can be found and moreover, the results are showing that it constitutes nation branding in the form of commercial nationalism according to the bachelor thesis’ theoretical framework. Number of pages: 56 Course: Media and Communication Studies C Department: Department of Informatics and Media University: Uppsala University Period: Autumn 2017 Tutor: Göran Svensson Keywords: Nation Branding, Commercial Nationalism, Visit Sweden, IKEA, Volvo.

The purpose of this study is to examine in what way a strong corporate culture can have an effect on the ways that individuals perceive their own identity based on different social aspects, thereby meaning the influence of personalities in relation to the environment. In this essay I have used the theory of employer branding in an analysis of the corporate culture at Ikea Barkarby, with the purpose to answer the following questions: How does the relation between the employee and the corporate culture appear from an identity perspective, i.e can an individual’s identity be affected by the influence of a strong corporate culture? If the corporate culture has an influence on the individual’s identity, what rhetorical tools are part of this? How can the surrounding corporate cultures possibly influence the employee’s process of becoming a part of the corporate culture? The method of research that was used in this study is a framing analysis and a semistructured interview method. In the discussion of the influence of social environment on identity I have used the rhetorical term doxa. The material that was examined was an advertisement for employment from the Ikea Barkarby website as well as the response from my interviews of some of the employees. The result of the analysis shows that it is possible for an individual to negotiate with himself about his identity in relation to the actual situation and environment, meaning a possible transformation of the individual’s behavior in different social contexts, in this example the corporate culture at work. At the same time the employees experience that their perceived identity has not been influenced since being introduced to the corporate culture, which I regard as an effect of efficient recruitment work where Ikea employs people with certain values. The conclusion is consequently that the identity can be affected by social influences but it is problematic to unravel whether it is the corporate culture by the use of employer branding that has an effect on the identity, or if there are other social variables that affect the individual’s perceived identity.

Consumers consider themselves being able to change their consumption behavior and by that make a difference. This makes it easier for organizations in the usage of sustainability in their marketing strategy in order to attract customers and keep the already existing ones. As one of the world’s largest furniture retailing company, IKEA has a well established sustainability policy. They believe that they have a responsibility to control the impact of their business and the role that they play in society. The aim with this research is to contribute to IKEA’s awareness of the Chinese students’ level of knowledge when discussing sustainability in China. This thesis studied the Chinese students’ knowledge and attitude towards IKEA’s sustainability work. The purpose is to establish an understanding of the students’ viewpoint when discussing environmental friendly purchases. It was also within the scope of interest to investigate whether IKEA manage to reach the selected group of respondents. The study was conducted with a quantitative method. Data was collected through a distribution of self-completion questionnaire with 120 respondents.The analysis of this study showed that 57,3% of the respondents have never heard of IKEA before, which leads to next analysis where they believe that IKEA should put more effort in marketing their sustainability work.

Nowadays, with the big background of economic globalization, economic isolation became impossible, therefore,internationalization is necessary for development of enterprise. IKEA is a Swedish multinational group which wasfounded in 1943. Under the big background of economic globalization, IKEA sizes every opportunity to entryforeign markets And nowadays IKEA had already become the world wide largest furniture retailer since 2008.IKEA actually has already entered into Chinese market as early as 1998 .The success of IKEA in Chinese marketis very outstanding. But it’s not difficult to find on IKEA strategy map of China that the most retail stores areconcentrate distributed in the first-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong. And there are very less retailstores in Chinese inland cities and some of areas are still the market vacancy. China as a country who has themost population on the world is never lack of purchasing power. Therefore, a reasonable marketing strategyshould be analyzed to help the expansion of IKEA in Chinese market.The research purpose of this thesis is to analyze a reasonable marketing entry strategy of IKEA for the furtherexpansion in Chinese market. This research would follow the classical foreign market entry strategies analysiswith three steps. And the research focus on answering these three questions: Where should be selected as newtarget market location of IKEA in China? Which entry mode of IKEA should be applied in the future Chinesemarket? Which factors would influence IKEA timing of entry in Chinese market? Which is through the multiresearch method.Summarizing IKEA marketing entry strategy in China is a gradual process. IKEA should firstly select the marketlocation in the areas with lower cultural distance and high level of GDP and GDP per capital, and then graduallyexpand in to the areas with relatively higher cultural distance and relatively lower level of GDP and GDP percapital. And in general, this process also could be viewed as the expansion from the eastern costal area to theinland cities of China. And the gradual “internationalization” of IKEA in Chinese market also reflected on theentry mode choice. From the “joint venture” run to the coexisting of “joint venture” and “wholly ownedsubsidiary”, and finally run to the “wholly owned subsidiary” as the only entry mode of IKEA in Chinese market.Finally, as for the timing of entry, IKEA should catch the “window of opportunity”, accumulate “near marketknowledge” and pay attention to “world-of-mouth” to remain the good reputation of IKEA in China to completethe earlier entry as a gradual process with the “stepwise internationalization” into Chinese new target market.

Behovet av grafisk design ökar i samhället, genom både visuella och kommunikativa aspekter. Genom bestämda regelverk i form av grafiska profiler skapas en kommunikation mellan företag och mottagare. Denna kommunikation förmedlas genom grafiska medel och är väsentlig för formgivare att förstå. Inblick i närliggande kunskapsområden som retorik eller strategisk kommunikation skapar bättre förutsättningar för att skapa igenkänningsbara kampanjer. Denna uppsats tar sig an utmaningen att framhäva det kommunikativa språkets viktiga roll för grafiska designer. Genom att analysera två annonser i IKEA:s kampanj ”Där livet händer” utifrån en semiotisk och kommunikativ analys visar IKEA att de använder olika medel för att sprida sin företagsvision. De använder både information och underhållning för att förmedla sitt budskap samt behålla mottagarens uppmärksamhet. IKEA skapar igenkänning med sin grafiska profil, innovativa element och interaktioner.