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Why Chinese retailers hijack the Ikea experience and other Brand and What To Do Western Company?
Knock-off store is indicate of new wave of piracy sweeping through China.
Based in a southern district of Kunming city in southwest China, is a 10,000 square meter, four-story building that could make Swedish furniture giant Ikea uneasy.
11 Furniture, as the store is known, copies Ikea’s blue and yellow color scheme, mock-up rooms, miniature pencils, signage and even its rocking chair designs. Its cafeteria-style restaurant, complete with minimalist wooden tables, has a familiar look, although the menu features Chinese-style braised minced pork and eggs instead of Ikea’s Swedish meatballs and salmon.
This knock-off Ikea store is indicate of a new wave of piracy sweeping through China.
Increasingly urbane counterfeiters no longer just pump out fake luxury handbags, DVDs and sports shoes but replicate the look, feel and service of successful Western retail concepts — in essence, pirating the entire brand experience.
This is a new phenomenon, typically there are a lot of fake products, now we see more fakes in the service aspect in terms of (faking) the retail formats.
Brands are much more than a logo on a handbag or some half-eaten pip fruit on a computer.
Many of the most successful consumer companies have invested millions dollars in promoting and building brands which encapsulate ideals, values and aspirations, creating valuable and loyal customer bases that sometimes border on cults.
Ikea as one of the biggest home furnishing companies in the world, protecting Ikea’s intellectual property rights is crucial, – Ikea China said in a statement to Reuters.
At 11 Furniture — its Chinese name “Shi Yi Jia Ju” sounds very much like Ikea’s Chinese name “Yi Jia Jia Ju” — furniture is made to order, not flat-packed as it is at Ikea.
Customers also notice other differences.
The jumble of real and fake stores in lower tier cities across China makes it hard for companies such as Apple, Disney, Nike and more so Ikea, which are closely identified with their outlets, to exert control over their brand image.
Companies such as Starbucks Corp have long battled copycats in China, but the shift to imitations of the likes of Ikea presents a new set of challenges.
The store is a key element of the brand, so faking it, in particular in a way that consumers don’t recognize as a fake, is impacting the brand image and reputation.
Chinese law prohibits organizations from copying the “look and feel” of other companies’ stores, but foreign companies must register their trademarks with China and enforcement is often spotty.
The United States and other Western countries have often complained China is woefully behind in its effort to stamp out intellectual property (IP) theft.
Foreign companies often expect the Chinese government to handle their enforcement for them and though they sometimes will, they also sometimes will not…
The problems often arise from the fact that the damages are often quite low and the Chinese courts do not have a lot of power to make sure their own judgments are enforced.
Back at 11 Furniture, it is apparent that copying Ikea’s ideas may not be enough to win over all consumers.
What are you think about it? Please  leave a response in comment….
COMMENT FROM LINKEDIN
Tony Gibby
• They do it,because they are ALLOWED to do it, so many so called western countries are in dire financial straights,its simple as that, what can we the West do about it?nothing!!
Its simple,why debate it? China will always be this way,because they do not know any difference, to them they are doing nothing wrong!!! Yahoo were totally correct 100% but who supported them?no one,it is what it is,end of story.. Unfortunately WE need them far more than they need us,and they know it!!!
COMMENT FROM LINKEDIN
William James Manel
• Isn’t imitation the greatest form of flattery? 11 Furniture will have to compete with IKEA, which is already established in China (I can see one from my apartment in Beijing). Plus, competition is natural, as is imitation- Companies will do whatever works. How much different are Walmart, Target, Zellers, and Kmart?
COMMENT FROM LINKEDIN
Richard Ting
• In an ever changing business environment with more Chinese furniture business retailers fast enough to emulate the success model of Ikea in the hope to make more money. Case in point, the food chain like UTF is always open side by side with with KFC or Mc Donald & today they are very successful. In line with this, European manufacturers cannot just be using the same strategies (8Ps) or at their comfort zone once they are successful. They must hire many independent marketing professional to assist them in their planning and strategy.
COMMENT FROM LINKEDIN
Guenther Beck • What “intellectual property” has IKEA acquired? Did they invent the blue colour? Do they own the colours of the Swedish flag?
Misleading a consumer by selling something under a trademark that it is not should be illegal. But everybody can decorate his furniture shop in blue and yellow and display his products the way competitors do!
The only thing Ikea may have invented is the desaster of putting together their furniture in DIY. And nobody can copy that mess!
It is a clear case of the misuse of intellectual property rights to keep competitors out. A causeless limitation of free markets. And the communists in China seem to care more about free markets these days than the western hemisphere.
Ikea: come back to claim IPRs when you have invented something useful to humanity!
COMMENT FROM LINKEDIN
Ron Scicluna
• I’m finding it hard to appreciate why mimicking the look and feel of a retail store “experience” warrants a slap across the face of China or the Chinese. It is done quite regularly in the US. We call it “marketing”.
When it’s done in China why should we refer to it as “piracy”?
Western companies have been “this way” for quite some time! Should we, however, indict a whole country because of their actions? As is true in any country, the blame for “unethical behavior” should fall upon individual business owners and not the entire country.
IP protection in the US — protection of a US company’s IP from other US entities — employs thousands of lawyers on a continuous basis. Pretty sad, actually, that Western ethics are so poor that it requires such vigilance and cost!
Again — why shed a bright negative light on China? Perhaps we should be embarrassed because they are mimicking Western culture!
Forget laws and copyrights and rules for a minute…
Does anyone know of a company that has thrived and grown into a world class organization by copying another brand? Is this a viable long term business strategy to grow your business? I don’t think so…
Rueben Marley
• It’s sad, but it’s simply a case of supply and demand in action!
If people didn’t want to buy cheap garbage, they would invest in quality for a higher price. Unfortunately the global market dictates a trend towards cheap, fast, and very temporary goods these days. Look at the wholesale industry right now, for indicators and examples of the deterioration effect.
There only seems to be 2 solutions to this, for someone seeking a profitable business in today’s market:
1- Offer your own cheap, fast, high-volume, low-quality garbage;
2- Spend enormous time and effort finding customers who appreciate quality.
Unfortunately for those of us who favor true quality at a premium price, the luxury goods market in China isn’t helping matters much either, since brands are copied and made into cheap knock-offs almost as soon as the goods are introduced into China… and there is an overwhelming majority of unsophisticated consumers with a lot of money driving the demand for more and more…
COMMENT FROM LINKEDIN
April Shuxia Wang
• Low-quality garbage or high end goods, the key is to find your own Unique Selling Proposition. Matching up the needs with your USP is what to do next.
COMMENT FROM LINKEDIN
Rueben Marley
• China’s old USP: “We make cheap goods cheaper than anyone else.”
China’s updated USP: “We can make mediocre rip-offs of anything.”
Is this what we have to look forward to?