Does Matching Your Sofa Suit You?

Have You Heard?

Furniture retailer Ikea’s new brand extension is designed to bolster sales in an usual way.

Ikea, the world’s favourite flat-pack furniture store, recently announced that it has turned its hand to sartorial style and is now selling suits. The suits, made by Savile Row tailor William Hunt, have been made to match the bed, sofa, and tea towel patterns Ikea is known for.

This may sound like PR puff from Ikea (the suits are, after all, limited edition) but the rationale was built on a premise that people have been playing it too safe with colours used in the house — such as whites and beiges — for too long.

Ikea is suggesting that if we are happy to express our personalities through our clothing why not apply that confidence to our homes?

Making clothes from some of Ikea’s most recognisable fabric aligns the brand in a whole new space in consumers’ lives.

So, the proof is not how many suits they sell but how many pink, green, orange, and yellow rugs, lamps, and mugs fly off the shelf in the coming months. A limited number of the suits will be available via an online competition, which requires entrants to answer a question about the way they express their personality in their home to be eligible for the drawing.

Will this noteworthy brand extension work? The initiative itself may serve as inspiration for other organizations to consider how they can spin their established offering into a completely different arena.