Can the IKEA Principle Work in Blog Marketing?

“One of the most popular business cases I’ve ever written about,” says Youngme Moon, author of Different – Escaping the Competitive Herd, is IKEA North America. One of the most popular consumer brands in the world, IKEA, Moon explains, has built its reputation around a set of negatives, service elements it has deliberately chosen to withhold from its customers. Rather than trying to offer more features and benefits than its competitors, IKEA offers what Moon calls “a reverse brand”, with:

•  minimal variety (the furniture comes in only four basic styles)
• very little shopping assistance
• no delivery
• no assembly
• no promise of durability

Moon’s theses is that a reverse-positioned firm refuses to get on the augmentation treadmill, constantly trying to offer more than other companies, when customers don’t necessarily care about all those bells and whistles. A reverse brand offers something less, but focuses on those things their target buyers care most about.

At Say It For You, we know that the blog for any business or professional practice needs to be targeted towards the specific type of customers they want and towards those most likely to want to do business with them. Everything about the blog should be tailor-made for that customer – the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry – all of it.

In any field, there will always be controversy – about best business practices, about the best approach to providing professional services, about acceptable levels of risk, even about business-related ethical choices. Rather than ignoring the controversy, bloggers need to comment on the different views and “weigh in” with their own.

Helping online readers know the difference between you and your competitors is certainly a core function of blog content writing. Exactly what factors distinguish your products and services from everyone else’s? But, even more important, what features and benefits have you chosen to de-emphasize or eliminate entirely and why?

For example, at Say It For You, we pointedly do not offer Search Engine Optimization analyses, instead taking guidance from our clients’ webmasters or SEO consultants. We do not offer video services opting to focus on the “word-smithing” piece of the content marketing challenge.

The Harvard Business Review has this to say about Youngme’s book: “it will inspire you to rethink your business strategy, to stop conforming and start deviating.” Could the IKEA strategy work for your blog marketing?