Concept Document
Developing a Recruitment campaign for IKEA.
Solve-
3Concept Document
ChapterIndex00
03
01. INTRODUCTION 02. METHODS Requirements Message to Deliver Persona Brainstorms IdeaGenerationGrid PMI Method
03. CONCEPT Looking Box TimeFramedQuestion InteractiveJourney Rewards
04. PROMOTION CAMPAIGNS Looking Box IKEA Pencil Social Media
05. CONCLUSION
06. LIST OF REFERENCES
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Introduction01Chapter
Concept Document 05
In the concept phase we thought about which tools tousetoattractmorehigheducatedlogisticstudentstoIKEAbecausetheydonothaveenoughnewap-plicants in this department. Next to this we also tried tothinkhowtodeliverthefourbenefitswhichIKEAwantstoshowtothetargetgroupnamely:
// Interesting jobs // Career opportunities // Entrepreneurship // Company Culture
Itwaschallengingtocomeupwithasolutionthatcommunicatesallfourofthebenefitssinceyouhavetothinkofanorderofpriority.Sothereforewede-cidedtofocusoncommunicatinglessbenefits.Using our research and output from the interviews with the target group we concluded that “career opportunities”andthe“entrepreneurship”benefitsare the most valuable for students and graduates. So togetherwiththeresearchfindingsandourowncrea-tivitywehavecomeupwiththreedifferentconceptsfor the future product, together with campaigns to promote it. Wefoundourinspirationinothercompanies’recruit-ment campaigns and various tools. Some of the campaigns were successful, some were not. What we aretryingtoreachisaproductthatwillbeinnovativeon one hand and will include the best from the other
campaigns on the other hand.Ourgoalistocreateaproduct/toolforrecruitingthatwillshowthatIKEAisnotonlytheleadingfurnituremakerbutalsoagreatemployer,whichcangivetheiremployeesalotofbenefits.Inthisdocumentyouwillfindthethreeconceptsthat we have been working on in order to answer the phrasedresearchquestions.
At the end of the research phase we have found a lot of interesting information about the target group and how to approach them and which tools we are going to use to do this. We based our research on a main question and several subquestions. The revised version of the main question is:‘How can we increase the awareness of the IKEA Employer Brand to high educated logistic students and graduates and interest but also motivate them to start a career at IKEA using an interactive and creative online platform?’
The most important main findings from this phase are:- Students have no insight in the logistic world of IKEA- Seek appealling ways to interact with logistic students- Use digital storytelling and gamification as tools to communicate and connect- Use interactive marketing to get their attention
Concept Document
Chapter
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Methods02
The most common method we used during the concept phase was brainstorming. We had several brainstormsessionsandworkshopsondifferentsub-jectsstartingwiththerequirementsfromtheusers’,clients’andourownpointofviewandendingwiththefunctionalityoftheproduct.
Requirements
Afterdefiningthemainmessagewestartedthinkingof requirements that IKEA has for the future product. WiththehelpofsomeconceptingmethodssuchasbrainstormingandbyusingtheinformationwegotfromthemeetingwithColindaDijkstraandinterviewwithMandyKouwenhovenwemadealistofrequire-ments: // Increase engagement between brand and target group // To create a bigger network // Interesting // Should communicate the 4 benefits // Accesible // Increase awareness // Stand-alone product/campaign (thus no connection to the consumer brand) // Result-orientated // Creative // Appealing // Communicative
// Cost-conscious
NexttoIKEAs’requirementswealsohadbrainstormsessions on topics such as “what the client wants/does not want”, “what the user wants/does not want”, “what requirements do we have”.
What requirementsdo we have? (product)
video/
animation
presentationskills
techinicalaspects
online
possibilities
socialmedia
design
fun
visual
rewarding
appealing
accessibleadvertising
diverse
motivating
challenging
functional
impl
emen
tation
story-telling
happyclient
interesting
welldevelopedeasyto
understand
nicelooking
open
recruitment
promotion
What the client doesn’t want.
no
connection
with ikea
reachwrongpeople
short term campaign
tooexperiencedemployees
expensive
“officeworkers”
boringpeople not only
management/operational
similar
to previous
projects
customer
brand
mixed with
employer
brand
a lot of
costs
loweducatedpeople
money/power
hungrypeople
bring thewrong message
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Message to deliver
Thefirstthingwehadtodecidewasthemessagethatwe want to deliver to the target group and we came upwiththemessagethatisshownbelow:
‘IKEA is out there as an interesting employer’
However this message itself is not enough. To at-tractstudentswealsoneedtoshowthemwhyIKEAismoreinterestingthanothercompanies.Inotherwords;whichofthebenefitsarethemostattractivefor the students and graduates. In order to do this we havemadeagrid.Withthiswecaneasilyseewhichbenefitsareuniqueincomparisontoothercompa-niesandalsowhichbenefitsarethemostimportantto the target group.
0
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
Importance among studentsInterestingjobsCareeropportunitiesEntrepreneurshipCompanyCulture
Uni
quen
ess c
ompa
ring
to o
ther
com
pani
es
Figure 2. Matching the uniqueness and the importance of different values
Figures 1. Requirements analyzed
We took 0 as the minimum weight and 4 as the high-est.Thebenefitswhichappearinaredblockarethebenefitstodelivertothetargetgroupbecausetheyare both unique and important for the target group. Thoughthecompanycultureisverypopularamongstudents(seefigure2)itishardtosaythatitisveryunique.Nowadaysalotofcompaniestrytokeepstrongcompanyculture.SoitdoesnotprovideIKEAwithaverycompetitiveadvantageinthisfield.Interestingjobswerelesspopularamongstudentsbut in this case the divers and developing character ofthejobismoreunique.Thefactthatyoucanstartasaco-workerinlogisticsdepartmentandendupina HR department is not common at other companies butprettyusualatIKEA.Asitisshownonthegrid,interestingjobsareintheredblock.However,itcanalsorefertocareeropportunities.
Interviewshaveshownusthatcareeropportunitieswereonthesecondplaceafterthecompanyculturewhen speaking of values that students are searching forinacompany.TheuniquethingIKEAcanoffertoitsemployeesistogrownotonlyvertically(aswithothercompaniesdomeaningpromotiontoahigherfunction)butalsohorizontally(meaningdevelopingyourskillsandcompetences).Thepopularityamongststudentsandtheuniquenessofthisbenefitbroughtittotheblueblock.Thesamething happened to entrepreneurship.
Tosumup:thetwobenefitswehavedecidedtocom-municatearecareeropportunitiesandentrepreneur-ship.
Figure 3. Students’ values during the job searching process
Salary
Company Culture
Personal development
Career/Challenging
20
10
7
14
13
10
Needs
n°Students
What theclient wants.
high
educated
people
corporateidentity
implemented
differentmediaused
increaseawareness people
who bringinnovation
people
who can
quickly
switch
peoplethat fitthe ikeaculture
addvalue tocompany
addvalue tocompany
notvery
expensive
communicatethe 4
benefits technicalworker
1000applicantsor more
60 logisticmanagersand/or
specialists
mostmotivated,ambitious futureemployees
fill the
gaps
logisticstudent
repeata
ble
stand-alonesolution
What the user doesn’t want.
boringqu
estio
nnar
ie
to belied
short term campaign
toomuchwork
hardto get
in
expensive
OVER-
SOLVEDtoo
technical
too
LONG
no
rewardstooeasy
not onlymanagement/operational
similar
to previous
projects
Don’t have
the feeling
that they
can’t achieve
the things
simplespammed
reada lot
timeconsuming
NO INTERNETCONNECTION
money/power
hungrypeople
littlechancesuccess
too
complicated
“notsocial”
costs
Concept Document 09
Persona
To create a more clear view of the target group we createdapersona.RobertBeentjesisafictionalchar-acter,buthisstoryisbasedontheoutputfromtheinterviews.Weseehimasanarchetype.
Twenty-three-year-oldRobertBeentjesisagraduatingstudentofSupplyChainManagementattheHogeschool van Amsterdam. The thing that he loves aboutlogisticsisthefactthatthelogisticsfieldofstudyoffersalevelofstabilitythatisnotgoingtodisappearinthenearfutureandwillcontinuetotransformitselfandoffernewchallengesandoppor-tunities.When Robert was sixteen he worked at Albert Heijn toearnsomeextramoney.However,whenhewasasked to work in the warehouse of his local Albert Heijnatsomepoint,herealizedthatheenjoystheprocessesaroundlogisticsandeventuallythatbe-cameoneofthemainreasonshechoseforlogisticstudies.AlbertHeijnalsogavehimanopportunitytolearnandworkatthesametimewhileattendingschool,butherejectedthisoffer.NotonlydidRobertwanttodedicatehimselftohisstudybuthealsobelievedthatAlbertHeijnisnotthecompanyhewantedtostartacareer.CoupledwithhisinterestinthelogisticworkingfieldhealsolikedtospendhisfreetimeplayingRTS(real-timestrategy)games,inwhich there are some elements that are related to logistics.Andfranklysaying,hewasverygoodatit.Sothatwasthesecondreasonheisstudyinglogisticsnow.Afterthesecondyearofhisstudyheneededtoapplyforaninternshipatacompany.Sincehestartedtosearchforitquitelate(comparingtootherstudents)mostplacesweretaken.SohefoundacompanycalledMondialLogistics.Helikedthejobandthe
tasksheperformedbutonlyduringthefirstmonths.Later he realized that it was not the thing he had in mind for his dream job. All the tasks looked like a dailyroutineandhealsounderstoodthathedidnotdevelophimselfverymuch,whichisveryimportantfor him. Backtothepresentdays,asitwasalreadymentionedbefore,Robertisnowgraduating.Heiscompletinghisthesisbutwiththatheunderstandsthatitistimetolookforarealjob.HehadsomeconversationswithhisteacherandRoberttotallyagreeswithhimthatheneedstoorientatehimself.Thatisbasicallywhatheisdoing now.He knows what is important for him. What he seeks inacompanyarewidecareeropportunities,possibili-tiestodevelophimself,chancetousetheknowledgehegotatschool,strongcompanycultureisalsoonthat list. Robert is also sure that the work he is look-ingforshouldbechallenging.HealreadyaskedhisfriendsaboutcompaniesthattheyhaveinmindandsearchedontheInternet.ButmostofthetimesbothofthosesourceskeepnamingindustrygiantssuchasKLM,PostNl,Phillipsetc.buthedoesn’tfeelthatthecompanystructurewillsuithim.Nevertheless,hehasalreadyfoundcoupleofcompa-niesthatreallyinterestedhimbuthebelievesthathehasn’tfoundthecompanythatsuitshimthebestandkeeps searching.
Name:Robert BeentjesAge: 23
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Idea generation Grid
Thereafter,tocomeupwithsomethingmore‘tangi-ble’weusedtheIdeagenerationgrid.Itsheadingsrepresent the possible tools that could used in a future product, i.e. social media that could be used, thetoneofvoicethatcouldbeused.Alsothebenefitsor the messages that we want to communicate. With itshelpitiseasytoseewithwhichtooleachofthebenefitscouldbedeliveredtothetargetgroup.With the help of this grid we came up with approxi-mately100ideas.However,weneededonly3ofthemsowehadtofindthewayhowtoproceedallthisinformation.
Brainstorms
Westartedourbrainstormswiththequestionslike“whatisimportantforgraduates”,“howcanIKEAreachtherightpeople”.Forthiskindofquestionswehadaverygoodbasemadefromtheinterviews.
Figures 4. Brainstorm example sheet “What is important for graduates?”
Figures 6. Brainstorm example sheet “How can storytelling/gamification help IKEA’s problems?”
Figures 5. Brainstorm example sheet “How can IKEA reach the right people?”
Figures 7. Brainstorm example sheet ‘How can IKEA recruit students?”
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PMI Methods Duringoneoftheworkshopsheldbythelecturerfrom Hogeschool van Amsterdam we were introduced to the PMI method. PMI tool was developed be Edward de Bono and was published in his 1982 book, “De Bono Thinking Course”.PMI helps to weight all the pros and the cons of a de-cision against each other. It is also useful for structur-ingyourwayofthinkingsothatbeforeanopinionisformed,youexploretheupsides,thedownsides,andtheinterestingpointsoftheissue.Whenyouformyouopinion,itwillincludemorepointsofviewtohelpyoumakeamorebalanceddecision.
Tomakeitmoreeffective,wewerelimitedto3-min-utes brainstorm sessions – one minute on all the plus points, one minute on all the minus points and one minute on the interests of the idea.Thecriteriaareexplained:
// Plus Whatarethepositiveaspectsofeachidea/cluster? // Minus Whatarethenegativeaspectsofeachidea/cluster? // Interesting Whatareinterestingpointsoneshouldthinkaboutwhencreatinganidea?
Inordertopointouttherightpositiveandnegativeaspects we used the chart from the research docu-ment,whichrepresentswherethestudents’needsmeetswhatIKEAhastoofferthem.
ByusingthePMImethodwefilteredalltheideasandselected the most valuable ones.The next step was to compare the best elements of each concept and also decide which concept is most suitable for which medium. Besides this we also had toevaluatewhichconceptconnectstothestudents’andIKEAs’wantsandneedsinthebestway.
Figures 9. Matching needs grid
Figures 12. Using PMI method example
Figures 13. Using PMI method example
Figures 11. Using PMI method example
Figures 10. Using PMI method example
Concept Document 13
However,wenoticedthatsomeofthemcouldbemodifiedandmaybeevencombined.Soafterafewmorebrainstormsessionswefoundseveralwaystodo this and as a result we came up with three con-cepts, which are presented in the next chapter.
Figures 14. Best Ideas
Users choose key moments, where
good decisions have to be made
in order to reach the ‘right’ ending.
Game that simulates the
real-life simulationsabout all of IKEA’s
logistic world.
Journey through logistic department
with virtual and real-life elements.‘Explore the store’
Show logistics challanges and clear different levels to
gain experience and learn more
about promotion opportunities at IKEA.
Lifestyle community by IKEAto connect
with theirtarget group.
logistical problem that is
solved by IKEA.
A game where you navigate through the
warehouse to learn everything about the logistic processes.
People work together to solve complicated logisticproblems using on
online platform.
show thelogistic challenge
at ikea througha series
of mini-game
Augmented Reality App
Interactive Story ManagementSimulator
Experience Game Lifestyle App
Top-down Point&Click
Social Media/Crowdsourcing
Mini Games
Flashmob
15Concept Document
ChapterConcept03
Looking box
ThisisaninteractivestorythattellsthetaleofIKEA.Itstartsoffwithanintroductionanditasksyoutoselectyourstudy.
Ifthisstudyislogisticsthentheusergetspresentedwiththreeminigames,whichreflectreallifechal-lengeswithinthisfield.Ifthestudyselected,isn’talo-gisticalstudytheusersproceedswiththreedifferentminigames.Oneofeachdepartment:InteriorDesign,LogisticsandSales.
Time framed question
Thisiscomparabletotheinteractivestorybuthasmore emphasis on a problem that needs solving using yourowncreativityandknowledge.Howeveritstartswithanintroductionwhichcanalsobeinteractive.
This concept has a more serious approach towards the hiring procedure.To perform this concept a website should be devel-
Figures 14. Looking box concept visualization
Figures 14. Looking box concept visualization
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oped.ItstartswithaninteractivevideothatshowsthebenefitsofIKEAasanemployer.Afterthatitpresentstheuserwithachallengetheyhavetosolveintheirowncreativeway(thechallengeispresentedinsomeformofanopenquestion).TomakeitmorechallengingthequestionscouldbecustomizedandupdatedregularlytomeetIKEA’sdemands.Theopenplatformgivesthetargetgroupthefree-domtobeinnovativeandcreativewithinIKEA.Themostcreativeandinnovativesolutionhasalegitimatechance to get an interview with a recruiter. Aside from this all the ideas will be presented on some kind of leaderboard so students will be able to compare his/herideaswithothersandacompetitiveelementis present.
Interactive journey
Thisisaninteractivejourneythroughawebsite,where the user travels through the IKEA world. This journeyissimilartoanecosystem-aneffectatthestart of the chain can have great consequences at the end.Thisideamakestheimpressionthatlogisticsisa part of a whole; it is a process which has room for fine-tuning.
Rewards
Tomotivatepeopleincompletingthetaskswethinkthat rewards should be presented. It could be small things like a package of Swedish meatballs or some-thing like trip to Sweden. But also an interview with a recruitercanbeanattractivereward.However,allofthisshouldbediscussedinordertoagreeifanykindof rewards should be used or not.
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Chapter04 Promotion
Campaign
Even if a product is believed to have a great success itwillneverhappenwithoutanypromotionbeforeorduring the launch. So to be able to let the target audi-ence know about the existence of the product we had tothinkaboutpossiblepromotioncampaigns.Withthehelpoftheideagenerationgridthatwasshownonthefigure7wealsocameupwithsomeideas for campaigns. Aside from the grid we also used the PMI tool in order to sort out the ideas. As a result we chose three campaigns that are pre-sented below.
Looking box
This idea consists of a so-called looking box that eve-ryonehadtomakewhentheywereinprimaryschool.A small box that has an opening on one side that showsastorywhenyoulookintoit.Butinsteadofactuallybuildingsomethinginsideitweare planning to put a QR-code on the front that can bescannedbyasmartphoneoranyotherdevice.To
attractattentionanycatchyphrasecouldbeadded,forexample:
// IKEA, The world full of opportunities // IKEA, Work smart not hard
WhentheuserscansthiscodetheywillberedirectedtoawebsitethatshowsthestoryofIKEAanditslogisticworld.The strength of this concept is that the box is some-thingsolidandcanbepresentedatuniversities,jobfairsandotherfrequentlyvisitedplacesbythetargetgroupsotheycouldbeeasilyfound.Itmakesthetar-getgroupcurioustofindoutwhatisinitandhasaninnovativecharactersincethisissomethingthathasnotbeendonebyothercompanies.
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IKEA Pencil
Inthiscasethecampaignliterallycomesintothestudents’hands.TheideaistotakethefamiliarIKEApencil and print our URL on it together with a nice catchphrase. The pencils could then be handed out to students at universitiesorattheirexamsforexample.Throughthiswaywecancreateacost-conscious,simpleandeffectivemarketingtooltoincreasetheawareness of our product. Based on the values that arereallyimportanttoIKEAandarethereforealsoimportant to communicate to the target group. On top of that it is also a nice gadget to receive since it isactuallyausefuliteminsteadofjustaflyer,button,stickerorotherpromotionalitems.
Social Media
Thefinalmarketingtooltocampaignourproductisasocialmediapage/communitywheretheproductisactivelypromotedandwhereuserscanmeeteachother and discuss their visions and opinions on the product. Social media can spread an idea, product or service likeawildfireandisoftenusedintheintroductionphase of a new concept, product, brand or service. ItalsoconnectsreallywelltothetargetgroupsincemostofthemareactivelyengagedonsocialmediaplatformssuchasFacebook,TwitterorLinkedIn.
Concept Document 19
Conclusion05
Using various methods and brainstorming on the dif-ferent topics we have come up with 3 concepts of a futureproduct:
// Looking Box // Time Framed Question // Interactive Journey
EachoftheconceptsrepresentsIKEA’sbenefits.However, we decided not to communicate all the four benefits–interestingjobs,entrepreneurship,careeropportunitiesandIKEAculture.Inordertochoosewhichbenefitstocommunicatewehavemadeagridthat matches the importance among students and the uniqueness among other companies. As a result we madethedecisiontofocusontwobenefits,namelyentrepreneurshipandcareeropportunities.Next to these concepts we also came up with several promotioncampaigns:
// Looking box // IKEA Pencil // Social Media
Thesecampaignswillattractthetargetgroupandcreate awareness. Thepresentedconceptsarenotfinalanddorequirefurtherdevelopment.Afterelaboratingtheconceptsthefinaldecisionwillbemade.
Chapter
Concept Document
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06 List ofReferences
01. Elgazzar, Feenstra, Genemans, Turina, Vakhrush-eva(2012).Research Document “Developing a recruit-ment for IKEA”, v 0.3 02.BLR.(2006).BestPracticesinRecruitmentandRetention.From:http://www.attcnetwork.org/explore/priorit-yareas/wfd/grow/documents/Best%20Practices%20in%20Recuitment%20and%20Retention.pdf
03.A.Wheeler.(2009).Design Brand Identity: a com-plete guide. Wiley.
04.MindTools.(24October2012).Plus,Minus,Inter-esting.WeighingtheProsandConsofaDecision.From: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/new-TED_05.htm
05.SourceofInsight.(2009).HowToUsethePMITechnique to Improve Your Thinking.From:http://sourcesofinsight.com/avoid-the-intelli-gence-trap/
06.InterIKEASystemsB.V.IKEA.(2011).IKEA Supply-ing. We are all in it together. 07.InterIKEASystemsB.V.IKEA.(2010).In the foot-steps of Ingvar Kamprad.
08.InterIKEASystemsB.V.IKEA.(2008).Operating an IKEA store. An introduction to the logistics process.
Solve-ation group.Mail. [email protected]. medialab.hva.nl/ikea