At the International Design Show (IDS) in Toronto in January, artists Daniel Young and Christian Giroux used Ikea tables as the raw material for a series of sculptures. While some marketers would be wary of such a "brand hack," Ikea Canada marketing manager Thomas Kyle wasn't fussed.
"Whenever people are willing to experiment and have fun with our brand, it's fantastic," says Kyle, who has been with the company for 13 years this month. "You could see that these guys had a connection into the brand. It's about buzz, it's about conversations."
IDS is a great forum for "a design manufacturer retailer" like Ikea, explains Kyle, whose shining moment at this year's show was when CityLine designer Lynn Spence stopped to admire the demo kitchen at the Ikea booth.
"We're trying to bring opinion-makers on board with us," he says, adding that kitchens have done a lot to strengthen the position of the Ikea brand in Canada. "For me, that's the culmination of all that work. It's about brand building and how all of these things synchronize together: great TV ads are about top-of-mind awareness and consideration. Then you have to layer in DPS ads in the magazines, then you have people blogging about us, then you have the editors talking about us. Maybe it all starts out of kitchens, but then they start to look at the brand in a bigger way."
With 11 stores in Canada (number 12 is coming to Winnipeg in 2013) and a marketing budget that has remained relatively flat over the past few fiscal years, Kyle has worked to find new ways to make an impact. PR plays a big role in promoting Ikea as a design leader, through new tools such as the design trends kit that Kyle launched with his PR team last year to publicize the annual catalogue, released each August. Top trends for 2009 - provided by the product design team at Ikea of Sweden in Älmhult - included walnut, curves and the colour grey, which was incorporated into a cupboard door and a Karlstad armchair. The resulting media attention turned the arrival of the new catalogue into a news event.

"North American culture, because of this explosion in DIY programs and home décor magazines, is vastly more design savvy than even 10 years ago," says Kyle, who describes his core customer as women aged 25 to 45, with families with small kids as a close second. "People talk [and] read about design more, and we take our cues from that in how we communicate."
Although the merch mix varies very little from country to country, the marketing team in Canada has a lot of freedom in terms of positioning. "I think what has happened over time is the global organization has realized...that people live differently. In that regard, it's very hard for global to say, ‘you must communicate the brand this way'," says Kyle. "There are some things that you must do around logos and gridmarks and tone of voice, but we pretty much run our own ship, and we don't take a lot of global stuff."
Born and raised in southern Alberta, Kyle started out working at a commercial interior design firm before a friend, who was a manager at the Ikea in Calgary, encouraged him to come in part time. What started out as a "temporary" retail job developed into a love affair with the brand's core value of "democratic design."
"Ingvar Kamprad felt, in the most basic way of putting it, that everyone should be able to have good design in their home," he says. "He took it upon himself to create a brand - at the time he wasn't creating a brand, but that's how we talk about it now - [so] that the average guy or woman could have things of beauty in their home and it wouldn't break the bank, so to speak."
After stints as communications and interior design manager and then store manager in three stores in two provinces, Kyle was promoted to marketing manager in November 2008. "Thom's understanding of the brand is remarkable," says Ikea Canada president Kerri Molinaro. "He is totally dialled into Ikea and truly understands customers and how they live life at home. Thom constantly challenges convention and has brought a lot of innovative thinking to our marketing campaigns."
Kyle set about taking stock during the annual planning phase the following January, with his 10-person team and his AOR Zig. "I'm a very curious person, and I want to question what we're doing," he says. "I kept saying to the agency, ‘I don't want you to go 180, I want you to go 90 degrees.' I just wanted to turn the dial little bit."
The result was not a dramatic change, but rather a subtle refresh in messaging, including a new tagline which launched last fall, replacing "Love your home" with "Any space can be beautiful."