IKEA is one of the most widespread and well-known brands in the world today. Even from miles away, the massive blue warehouses with bright yellow lettering serve as a beacon of affordability to our increasingly price-sensitive society. And for marketers, IKEA is the epitome of an affordable brand that doesn't feel cheap.The company spends 70% of its annual marketing budget on its annual catalog, which is now published in 55 editions, in 27 languages for 36 countries. Distributed to over 200 million people worldwide, IKEA's catalog has now surpassed the Bible as the world's most published work. This puts the company squarely in the spotlight for all aspiring marketers to look up to.
So it was no minor edit when IKEA decided to change its iconic font for all marketing materials from Futura, which it has used for over 50 years, to the more widely available Verdana. From a purely financial standpoint, it's easy to understand why the company decided to do this. IKEA spokeswoman Camilla Meiby responded to an uproar of controversy within the design community with this statement:
"We're surprised, but I think it's mainly experts who have expressed their views, people who are interested in fonts. I don't think the broad public is that interested. Verdana is a simple, cost-effective font which works well in all media and languages."Sure, the average IKEA customer is not going to be that "interested" that the company changed its font. After all, people shop at IKEA because they want design-conscious furnishings at very low prices. However, the company is clearly forgetting one important aspect of this equation: brand equity. Obviously, WalMart customers aren't "interested" that the company recently changed its logo, but its apparent that the new design, which drops the blocky original font for a more approachable font with a sunburst at the end, makes the brand feel better.
Verdana was originally created for clear, easy-to-read online applications due to its simplicity; it was never intended to be used in print. Dropping the Futura font from the company's arsenal has severe implications. Browsing through the recently released 2010 catalog, I can't help but get the feeling that IKEA is moving into the bargain bin. The use of the streamlined, personality-less Verdana shows a brand cheapened by its own desire to save money and create additional efficiencies, a concept the brand stands for but has taken too far. IKEA is a simple brand composed of a few memorable things, and Futura was one of them, speaking to the simple but elegant design of its furniture. It would be wise for IKEA to take a good hard look at itself and decide just how far it wants to take its cost-cutting.
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