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

030305

0605

05

0810

08

15151516

19

21

1313131414

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

07

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

08

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

10

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?”

12

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

16

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.

17Concept Document

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.

18

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

Chapter

21

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. solve.ation@gmail.comBlog. medialab.hva.nl/ikea