Hyper Consumers and IKEA

In case you can’t read this banner, it says: Following IKEA News and Gossip For The Buckeye State Since 2004: Because Its Okay To Have Your Couch Be Cooler Than You Are.
Students in my class laugh at me when I go on and on and on about IKEA. I guess I tried to pick a company that everyone knew but didn’t get too excited about, that had online fans. I mean, of course there are Harley Davison sites and Ducati sites and band and sports sites by fans. But IKEA? Rather than Google IKEA, let’s wiki search it… WikiPedia search: a new improved version over Google search (28 million pages about IKEA).

IKEA is a privately-held, international, low-cost home products retailer that sells modern, utilitarian design furniture, much of which is assembled by the consumer. IKEA was founded in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad and it is owned by a Dutch-registered foundation controlled by the Kamprad family. IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder’s name, Ingvar Kamprad, and home village, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd. The owner/franchiser of the IKEA trademark and the IKEA Concept is Inter IKEA Systems B.V. It has corporate offices in the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium. The IKEA brand is owned by another company with complex ownership via several companies and foundations in several countries. Stores pay a 3% royalty on all products sold to the brand owners.

So far so good. But the encyclopedia goes on to outline all the good and the bad about IKEA – issues with store openings, and positive feedback from their charity work. And then the official sites are listed:

Official Sites

• IKEA – Official site
• How IKEA works
• IKEA Advertising Campaign

Catalogue

• IKEA US catalogue – IKEA US catalogue splash
• IKEA Catalogue Remix – Music video using collage of 2003 catalogue
• IKEA Australia catalogue – IKEA Australia catalogue site

Hey cool, social knowledge is giving me on one page what Google Search can’t give on about 28,000,000 search listings. But lets see further down on Wikipedia:

Fan Sites

• Positive Fanatics – The Unofficial IKEA Web Journal
• OH, IKEA! – a weblog monitoring rumors regarding IKEA possibly coming to Ohio
• IKEA Fansite FAQ’s and Photos prima rily focusing on IKEA Kitchens
• IKEA Fansite Forums
• Lyrics to Jonathan Coulton‘s ‘IKEA’
• Lyrics to Mitch Benn‘s ‘IKEA’
• IKEA Coventry
• IKEA Hacker – a blog compiling IKEA hacks worldwide
• IKEA Tattoo – in 2003 the Austrian art group monochrom convinced a young man to have the IKEA logo tattooed on his upper arm.

And the list goes on – for example, I could edit Wiki and add Google Earth maps of IKEA stores. And here’s a review of IKEAFANS – so consumers talking about other consumers’ content. Word of Mouth gone mad? I haven’t even added in the Flickr and YouTube stuff yet. And one last image – from IKEAHACKS – a site where you take various IKEA products and hack them together into something else. Very very user generated content:

I wonder if IKEA knows that this is all going on? And what is being created around YOUR product hmmm?
Edit: I couldn’t NOT post this marvy foto (yes its a real tattoo). Now, if you really, really love me, you’d have a tattoo of SilkCharm on your arm. *points at her avatar(profile foto)* yep, the pink grumpy thing. G’on. Dareya.