 Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back after lunch. I am Siddharth Kanan. And yes, a big thank you to our tech munch presenting partner timesnownews.com. The action begins here. Ladies and gentlemen, talking about action, the next gentleman is going to create a lot of action for us this afternoon. Creating a brighter everyday life and how IKEA communicates this to the new age consumers through digital communications. Now he's had more than 20 years of experience in marketing in IKEA and has held multiple roles in marketing across geographies which include Sweden, Belgium, China, Russia and Korea. Please welcome on stage Country Manager, Marketing, IKEA India, Mr. Ulf Smedberg. Good afternoon sir, how you doing? You read well? Can you hear me? Great to be here. Did you enjoy the lunch? Unfortunately not yet the Swedish meatballs are coming, actually next month. So I'm here to talk about make everyday brighter and that is, because our positioning, what we have decided to be known for now when we enter India. I've been in India for four years preparing our entry. So I will talk a lot about the brand, IKEA first, then of course how we really connect with the many people in India and then go into more digital solutions. That is of course also for us very important. So first of all, hey, as we say in Swedish, informal hello. This is part of the team that have been presenting and preparing this marketing approach. We are 20 of us working in service office, we call it, or head office based in Bangalore. But when I came to India, I first came to Delhi because we started actually with IKEA brand 30 years ago in India purchasing from products from India. But retail is of course very new and I will talk a little bit about the background and our plans for India. So actually this August is very important because we have an anniversary. We are turning 75 years of age as a brand. And our founder unfortunately passed away this spring, but he founded IKEA in the early 50s. And we are now entering the world, you can say quicker and quicker, very much led by very strong vision as you see here, creating a better everyday life really for the many people. Of course, very true for India as well. So this has been our guiding star and we are very, very consistent. This will be throughout. This is our red thread or lalsutra. So India is one of the biggest, you can say, and fast is growing markets also for us. But if you look quickly about us today, we have 403 stores throughout the world. Of course, we are biggest in Europe where we started in Sweden with 275 stores and also big in the US, North America. But Asia is growing very quickly. You see 47 stores, half of them are based in China, but we are soon entering India. Today we are in 49 countries, next month 50 countries because we are opening India and that is, I think you know, Hyderabad. But our expansion will be very, very quick, much quicker in India than elsewhere. So already in six months, we will enter Mumbai with a new approach with a big store, 55,000 square meters in Navi, Mumbai, but also city center stores, Bandra, South of Mumbai plus e-commerce. So this is a new approach for us entering not just India but globally. So 403 stores, 50 countries and a turnover of around 40 billion euro. Then of course, IKEA is nothing without our coworkers and I will talk a lot about coworkers and customers. Almost 200,000 coworkers working for IKEA globally. Already today we are actually 1600 in India, but that of course will grow very quickly. Now, talking about India, we have huge plans and we have said we really would like to enter India and position ourselves at the heart of India. So when it comes to branding, we've done a lot of preparation, research, home visits, more than 500 home visits to understand how people are living in India in different cities. And we have said that we would like to be seen as a brand that people trust, that also find IKEA unique, different and meaningful. We are not saying we are better than others, but for sure we are different and hopefully you will see that throughout the presentation. So there are three components you can say. The core of the brand is of course to talk about life at home, but not just talk about it, providing affordable solutions for a better life at home. So that is the brand promise you can say. Then we say that coworkers, they should not just feel it's a great place to work for IKEA, but also spreading this, using social media, talking about working at IKEA. What does it mean? Because we are very much a value driven company. We believe a lot in togetherness and doing things together with our coworkers as well as of course our future customers. So we will see in some examples how we work with digital that we very much engage consumers, but also coworkers. And then of course again the big heart, the yellow Swedish heart in the middle of everything. So today I will talk about first of all how can we get into this huge market that is more, as you know, more recontinent than a country. Before India was in Korea, which is much easier actually. One language, one religion, one culture. In India it's much more diversified, but it fits us very well and I will talk about why and what is the connection between IKEA and India. So we believe to create a strong position, a base for India that will last for many, many years. Because we have said during the coming three years we would like to reach more than 200 million people in India. That means very, very rapid growth of course. So yes, I talked about next month Hyderabad, then Bangalore. No, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and then Chennai, Kolkata, Pune etc. So a lot of cities will come in the coming years. And then the hub of all communication is very much digital. But we say that actually it's mobile first. The content is very much developed globally for desktop. That doesn't fit in India. We know that 85% of consumers are using only mobile. So we need to change also the way we work with an IKEA globally. Then about positioning. So what is the thing here? What is the positioning? Well, it is about what people will talk about. How we would like them to perceive IKEA as a brand. And it's very much based on IKEA values and Indian values. And that merging point. And of course Sweden is very much reflected in the IKEA brand and the values. And sometimes very different from India. But we decided to focus on what we have in common instead. So that is the base for everything we do. So you can say that we looked at the merging points and we said Sweden and India, Sweden is the formula going forward. And there are many, many things. But four things that really stands out is if you talk India, it's a huge love for their home. And that is not always the case. In Korea, in Japan and even China, people are not spending so much time at home. They are not inviting friends or family even at home. They go out socializing. We know in India it's completely different. People are really, really proud of their homes. So that is maybe the biggest connecting point. Because we are about life at home. And we have a strong point of view that we very much would like to share. Second thing, which is also very important, is this love for food. India, everything revolves around food. And even though we are a home furnishing company, food is important to who we are. Very vital to the brand IKEA. Because yes, we have a restaurant, we have a bistro, we have a café, we have a Sweden shop. But more so, connecting food about healthy lifestyle, how you can live, you can say better thanks to eating better food, but also how you are reducing waste sorting, etc. So it's about food as such as part of who we are. Then we know that children is extremely important in India. When we open the first store in Hyderabad, actually 80% of the people living around the store are families with kids. 80%. In Europe it's 25, 30%. So of course extremely important. And we say at IKEA that children are the most important people in the world. And we have lots of solutions how kids could develop, play and learn with IKEA, of course. Finally, maybe one of the most important entering India is about Pesavasul. We believe without having an offer of value for money we will not succeed. So when we open now next month, 1,000 products will be lower than 200 INR, which is a great offer. So people also with thin wallets will be able to shop at IKEA. And that is what we want. We would like to attract the many people to come to IKEA brand, not just the few and privileged. So value for money and we'll talk more about that a little bit later. Then we have, as I said, we've done a lot of research and we have done focus groups, we're looking at trends and we're talking to Indian people. And then we talked about what is your dream about the future. And many, many expressed that you believe in a brighter tomorrow. So we actually hijacked the word brighter and brought it into our vision of IKEA entering India. But brighter is not enough, of course. We also need to add something more, maybe even more important. And that is the everyday. We don't believe that celebration is just around the big events. Weddings, hopefully just once a life. Diwali one time per year. But the everyday needs to work for you when it comes to solutions to find a better way to living with family in small spaces and maybe with not enough money. So really how can we create a better everyday or a brighter everyday together? So we see our role entering India is to become the enabler of a brighter tomorrow. But what we also say, that could be of course at home, but also at work, where you spend most of your time. But we also say don't wait till tomorrow, you can actually start today. So that is our promise. Thanks to the solutions from IKEA, you can change your life today. So that is our slogan, the background and the positioning. Make your nights, your mornings. Make your living room, your playground. Make your passion proud. Make every step count. Make your peace. Make your alone time. Make your friends. That's what makes your home brighter. Dash of togetherness, a pinch of fun and a whole lot of love. IKEA, make everyday brighter. So this little film we have already shown on social media, on our web and in the movies, just to establish who we are, what we stand for. You can say we opened already the IKEA brand in Hyderabad last November with a small exhibition center in Forum Mall. And that is to give the opportunity for future customers to try and test what IKEA is about. And I will show you that in a second as well. But otherwise, how do we connect a very established retailer with a new digital age? And we are not very technical company, I would say, but we are getting there. So what we see, especially in Asia, very much India and China, as I talked about, it's really about putting the mobile first and then integrate all communication. So now we are next week, we will show our TV commercial. That is very much also linked to behind the scenes and how we created that on the web. So it's integrated totally. So we will create engagement and interest through digital connection. And then of course, we believe very much in social media, it's a way forward. And I will show you some examples. And again, we believe that the best IKEA ambassadors are our own coworkers and our future customers. So you can say, this is the reality we all are facing. A brand is no longer what we tell consumer it is, it is what consumers tell each other. Then again, linking that to social media and how people talk about the brand. You can try to influence as much as you can, but in the end, it's out of your hands. So one example is, have you seen this campaign? We really tried to be agile when very exclusive Spanish brand. This is called Balenciaga. When they introduced a new leather bag, we thought it looked exactly like our plastic bag that we have in the stores. The difference is this bag cost $2,500. We couldn't stop talking about our values, what we stand for with a little bit of a twinkle in the eye. So at the same time, when they launched this new bag, we talked about our plastic bag that you can do a lot. You can carry laundry in it, you can put it in the dirt. It's easy to clean, and it costs only 0.99 euro. So of course, we talked about the affordability, but also a bit with a twinkle in the eye, that they actually copied IKEA instead. And that created a huge impact in all the countries around the globe through social media. And you can see a lot of comments in favor of IKEA. And this is a way to be a little bit, what we say, rebellious, but still being very true what we believe in. Oh, sorry, can we stop that? I just became a father. I feel that my life has entirely changed. Getting him to speak is the most difficult thing to do, because he cries a lot. Usually holding the hand, keep on rocking my hands and make some humming noise. It's super important for a father to be taking care of a kid in the beginning, because this is the time when you bond with your kid the most. It's great to be a part of a company that allows me to spend an equal time with my kid as my wife. The instructions that my wife gives me before she leaves the baby with me would be, feed him in time, don't take him out on a motorcycle ride, because he's too young for that, and most importantly, keep him alive. Now it's time for changing time. So, I should have introduced this. So we introduced this one year ago, equal paternity leave or maternity leave for six months, paid leave. And instead of talking about justice as a very corporate message, we used one of our colleagues in marketing department, Shirish, who's actually home now for six months with his baby, and he was then talking about the benefits through social media. And this is one example how we use co-workers' use, or we take advantage of co-workers spreading IKEA values what we stand for, because we are very, very determined that we would like to have equal split. Men and women working for IKEA should be reflected in the society, also working in our stores, also on the management level. So we are there today. I'm very proud to say that so far we are 50-50 men and women working for IKEA with equal rights. And this is, of course, something that we love to spread, because that's part of who we are. So co-workers as ambassadors, we believe, is very important. And you will see the next movie soon. First, when it comes to recruitment campaign for Hyderabad store, same thing, we decided to only work with our own colleagues, co-workers. No professional models. So here you see on the bench our store manager, John, sitting with Anisha and talking about equality, great balance. And the rest of the campaign also on digital, our co-workers talking about IKEA and being then, you can say, our ambassadors. There's no difference between how we say it, where we say it, how we talk. It's easy, informal, friendly culture. We grew and danced and showed that, yes, the culture of togetherness breathes in completely. And we're super happy about it. We did a little bit of a dance-off and the office started to dance today. So we had a lot of fun to celebrate the evening. Initially it was a surprise, but later we also joined for encouraging the co-workers. My name is Peter. There was a fantastic surprise what we had here, because we have the International Dancing Day. This is something very close to our culture because we are hardworking together, but we also celebrate our togetherness in our friendship. So this is again an example where we use social media to spread in our website, to spread the IKEA culture, how we work together. And it's not staged. This is actually true from everyday life at work. Then, of course, it's also important to reach the money. It will take time before we cover India with all the stores and shops. So, of course, digital and VR is an important tool to give the feeling and understanding what does it mean to visit later on the store. So we are now, this week, we are filming in the new store in Hyderabad so you can follow at home, digitally, store, walk, and you can stare at yourself. You can stop at different departments. You can even enter the restaurant. Together feeling, what does it mean to visit the store? We did the same principle when we opened this smaller that we called Hey Home in Hyderabad, and I will show you one second, a 10-second film. But again, you can stare at yourself and walk through the different locations from IKEA. So you can push play. Otherwise, you just click on the dots and then you can move around and you can walk around and you can visit the homes. I don't know why it's not working, but you understand the principle. Then, a very important part of building the brand is the range. And maybe you know that all the 9,500 products have Swedish names. And some of them have been existing more than 50 years and they have created their own personality. And in order to engage with our future customers, we introduced a game where they can look at what kind of personality are you. Are you the same as this clip-on sofa, this table? It's very much to introduce the range and the brand, but also to engage people to interact. And it was a huge success. And also talked about, not just in social media, it was picked up by some newspapers as well. And a very simple way, of course, but also introducing who we are. We have Swedish names. It's part of this being different and unique. Another thing was this connection between Swedish and Swedish, between the language Swedish and Hindi. And then you could scroll over here and see very similar words, like in this case, sugar, which is called in Hindi. Exactly. Or socker in Swedish. There are many words that are quite similar, and this was just to create this also understanding of the IKEA brand but also introducing Sweden, because Sweden is not so known in India. And we think it's important part of the IKEA brand is also to talk about Swedishness. But the core of our communication is, of course, around home furnishing tips and ideas. And we will bring a lot of inspiration. And we are now introducing, I will tell you, it's not done yet because we are starting the preparation. Makeover TV, where we actually will invite consumers, customers, to send in their, maybe a living room or a picture of their bedroom and tell us why they would like to change. And then we will select some winners and we'll go to their homes and film before and after, not telling people that they need to change everything, but give them some tips and ideas how you can improve your life at home. And this is very much first starting to get the interest up is to engage people to participate in this show that will start in October, in Mumbai actually. So it's a lot about sharing their home furnishing competence, what we stand for, especially when you live in small space. How can you create smart storage solutions without changing or spending all your money? So we are really promoting here that we have everything for your home. And on the internet, all the, we have decided not to have a printed catalogue in India. We will have a digital catalogue, first in the world, where you can see 360 solutions in your mobile, a living catalogue, where we actually will then introduce this about you can be part of creating the solutions. Best thing is, it feels like home. And we are all sitting here since, like, we came to the K Store and bought all the products. Thank you very, very much. We are waiting for the opening of this. This is supposed to show again from this small exhibition center, Hay Home in Hyderabad, where we started to interact not just through the web and social media, but actually directly with customers. And we have so far half a million visitors and you cannot even buy. It's amazing to see the results. So big expectations, of course, for the new store opening in next month. The date we will reveal next week, or this next month. So, another important thing is how to continue to engage with future customers. Well, we have a club for, you can say, most loyal customers that we call IKEA Family Member Club. And this is not a normal membership club because we are not giving points, but we will get something in return. By being a member, we will invite customers, members to come to IKEA, and they will have a lot of what we share knowledge. So here are some images, what we did in Hyderabad, home furnishing classes, cooking classes, how to make Swedish food, bring your kids, how to play with kids at home, and also maybe most importantly, small, easy change with big impact. You don't need to redo everything. Smaller things could change your life at home. And so far we have recruited 100,000 members even before we opened the store. Then of course, when we have the store open, they will have special prices on service, delivery, on products, on food. But it's again, it's about engaging and let those more core customers spread IKEA word with their friends and through social media. Globally, we have 100 million members. So it's a huge club without giving any points. So that's again, to show that IKEA is working differently from other companies. I'm not so sure what's coming now. Let's see, might be a film again. Yes. Sandip. Website to introduce IKEA and that become from Sweden and try to make it a bit fun as well. Then we always would like to be connected to what's going on. So when Game of Thrones introduced a new series, we said, why sit on this very uncomfortable chair when you can buy a chair from IKEA? Again, with a twinkle in the eye, but connecting to be very much relevant but also creating this kind of little bit rebellious and wake people up. Or the other one, it was again talking about the maternity leave and connecting it with the sound from Swedish house mafia to also talk about who we are. So we tried to be more than contemporary yet relevant. We used some weeks ago when actually the word mark came up on the blue box in Hyderabad to start a countdown before the opening. And we really believe in connecting with people not just as I said through digital, but everywhere and to be relevant. So do you know about Charminar in Hyderabad? Yes. So next week, we will start to have close to the Charminar a big typical IKEA iconic product, a box. And then two days before the opening, we start countdown. And then inside, we will have a huge chair and of course we'll call this Charminar. And it will have a big price tag, so always everything should be connected to the low price. And then we would like to connect to be relevant. We will have 30 rickshaws in Hyderabad dressed up in IKEA colors and with textiles both outside and inside. Bringing people from the store opening day one week for free to the store. And again, it's also to connect with the many people. We are not just using fancy limousines or even Ola, sorry if you're here, but also rickshaws. So it's again to break that, you can say, maybe resistance entering this blue box if you think it will not be for me. This is a way to connect with the many people and also have a little bit of the Tollywood side. Of course it will be Bollywood obviously. Next week, we will start our first TV commercial in India. We are not allowed to share it yet because we will air it first. I will just show you three seconds. But it's about extended family, how they live together with solutions from IKEA. In a very, very, I would say, happy, inviting and different approach. You will see five seconds, but next week it goes on. You seen it? So and then social media, Facebook, Insta, Twitter is coming. And all the time, all the stories we share is of course around what we believe in, a better and brighter everyday life at home. And we talk about it from different angles, but we really would like to connect and engage. And I'm on time, exactly. So thank you very much.