Marketing Case Ikea

In response to the invitation of German documentary producer the Ms. Barner should not send any representative to participate at the documentary. Because it is apparent that the documentary producer intends to portray IKEA in a negative light as they are directly aimed at IKEA. By appearing at the interview, the IKEA representative would give more credibility to the documentary and would also give them more material to use against IKEA. It does not matter how well the IKEA representative addresses the issue, the documentary producer would be able to distort the message by editing video footage and taking the representative's responses out of context.

In my opinion, IKEA should provide a written statement to the documentary producer mentioning the values of IKEA as well as the actions it has taken against the child labor practice instead of participating in the documentary. The statement should also focus that the IKEA takes all of these claims seriously and is currently conducting a full investigation into the matter. This statement will give IKEA the opportunity to control the content of its message and the documentary producer would not be able to claim that the IKEA did not respond.

Besides these, IKEA should provide the same written statement in a press release or through newspaper outlets. This could enable IKEA to protect the public image even the documentary producers do not use the information provided in the written statement. This written public statement should be delivered a few days before the documentary is broadcast. Therefore, IKEA should release this public statement before the documentary airs and which will in turn diffuse the impact of the documentary.