IKEA’s use of Instagram in Finland and Italy

Abstract

Social media has become a very important tool for companies of all sizes to communicate and market their products and services. Through social media, any company can easily reach an enormous number of consumers, potentially all over the world. Instagram is one of the social media platforms that companies use every day to spread their messages, raise their reputation and do advertising. While other social media platforms have a feature that lets multinational companies communicate in different countries in a coherent way, Instagram does not provide this feature at the moment of writing. This makes it an interesting tool to analyze differences between communication styles in different countries. Finland and Italy present very diverse consumption cultures, as well as a different perception of the spaces inside a home, from the furnishing to the way of living the everyday life. This thesis aims to find out whether the communication styles of the multinational company IKEA on the Instagram accounts of IKEA Italia and IKEA Suomi show these differences. The analysis takes into consideration six posts, three from each of the accounts, and brings up the diversity of contents and styles, which is an indicator of the fact that IKEA may present different communication styles depending on the culture of the population. Therefore, the brand is perceived in different ways in the two countries. The differences between Finland and Italy affect the posts and the messages that the images and descriptions convey to the respective consumers. In the Italian feed, the colors are stronger, brighter and the call to action is to change and try new and different things. In the Finnish posts, the colors are soothing and relaxing. The description has a positive vibe and it reminds the consumers of how nice it is to be and feel at home.