Until on a dark February evening a man in one of these focus
groups, in a suburb in Wembley, leant forward and said,“Yes, that’s all very
well but I wouldn’t have that chair in my living room!”
“Why not?” I asked him.
“Because it’s too modern.”
That was it!
IKEA was the only big retailer selling modern furniture in the UK
apart from Habitat which is also owned by IKEA. If significant numbers of
people felt like the man in Wembley, then IKEA’s plans to expand into Middle
England would be thwarted. Conversely if we could shift the taste of the
nation towards modern furniture then IKEA would benefit disproportionately.
That was the simple bit.The harder thing with any new idea is
convincing the people around you and making something that actually
works.
The convincing process started with the St Luke’s team.A week
from the pitch presentation this was all highly destabilizing.And as a
strategy “changing people’s tastes” was unconventional if not a little funky!
How did we know taste was the main problem? How on earth could we
shift something as deeply held as tastes with something as flimsy as
advertising? And how could we convince a client we hardly knew, even if
we could convince ourselves.
For a few days it was very touch and go.The team was split down
the middle on this idea. But the strength of the St Luke’s culture was an
almost reckless disposition for backing people’s hunches and ideas, even if
it meant losing clients in the process.Then a telephone survey of 1,000
UK adults over the weekend gave us more confidence.Two-thirds said
that their taste leaned towards traditional English styles.And two-thirds of
those who didn’t shop at IKEA said it was because the furniture was “too
modern.” Our man in Wembley turned out to be far more representative
than we’d expected.
By the following Wednesday we had a rationale and the beginnings
of an ad campaign aimed at changing the taste of a nation.To our surprise
IKEA bought it (and us).That’s typical IKEA.They make a point of daring
to be different.And they liked St Luke’s because we shared their values,
which helped.
It still took us two or three more months of creative development
to come up with the “Chuck Out Your Chintz” campaign. (Based on theHarnessing Your Creativity 177