Assignment "IKEA Slowly Expands Its U.S. Market Presence"
• To help you better understand the concepts of Marketing Analysis, you will be asked to complete a case study for each weekly assignment. To prepare for this level of analysis, first read "How to Analyze a Case" in the W1 lesson folder.
This Week's Case
"IKEA Slowly Expands Its U.S. Market Presence" (located in textbook appendix)
After reading, reviewing and analyzing the case study, pretend you are the VP of Marketing for IKEA. Outline your position and objectives in a plan to the Board of Directors. Develop a PowerPoint Presentation that will address (at a minimum) the questions listed below. You may include other insights gleaned from our study of marketing analysis so far. Also, cite at least 2 outside sources to support your analysis.
1. Given the SWOT analysis presented in the case, what are IKEA's key competitive advantages?
2. What should the strategic focus be as the company looks to expand further into the US market?
3. What strategic options, steps and alternatives would you direct IKEA to make to further penetrate the US market?
The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:
• Write between 750 - 1,250 words (approximately 3 - 5 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style (download an APA sample paper from the Purdue OWL here).
• Use font size 12 and 1" margins.
• Include cover page and reference page.
• At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing.
• No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references.
• Use an appropriate number of references to support your position, and defend your arguments. The following are examples of primary and secondary sources that may be used, and non-credible and opinion based sources that may not be used.
1. Primary sources such as, government websites (United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Census Bureau, The World Bank, etc.), peer reviewed and scholarly journals in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library) and Google Scholar.
2. Secondary and credible sources such as CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, trade journals, and publications in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library).
3. Non-credible and opinion based sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. should not be used.
• Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased statements, information, etc.) in the paper and list each source on a reference page using APA style.