First steps and close strategies
Besides IKEA, JYSK is also a globally famous furniture brand originating from the Scandinavian peninsula, Europe.
1979 marked the birth of the brand when founder Lars Larsen opened the first JYSK store in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city.
Just five years after its founding, JYSK opened its first franchise store in the capital Nuuk, Greenland. This event marked the first milestone in the Danish furniture brand's journey to penetrate the international market.
Today, the company has grown beyond its Scandinavian roots and into an international corporation with thousands of stores around the world.
JYSK’s operating philosophy is greatly influenced by the valuable qualities of trustworthiness and honesty of the culture, striving to build trust and ensure the best experience for customers. The company also prides itself on its skilled engineers creating quality products that are worthy of the money spent by consumers. With this motto, JYSK believes that they will build a large loyal customer base.
On its journey to penetrate the international market, JYSK strongly favors the form of franchise contracts to easily develop and get closer to consumers.
Being close to customers to bring convenience and the best shopping experience has always been the strategic vision of JYSK leaders. This is concretized by the company through many campaigns. Notably, the "Customers First" campaign was implemented in 2014.
The first JYSK franchise stores are still operating today (Photo: GoJYSK).
However, recently, JYSK has developed "Customers First" into the "Seamless and Closer to the customer" campaign and started implementing it from 2019.
According to Mr. Jan Bggh, CEO and President of JYSK, the campaign will give customers a perfect shopping experience, without any bottlenecks at JYSK, whether in physical stores or online platforms.
Meanwhile, the message of "Closer to customers" also means that JYSK will continue to open more physical stores in the future. This is to help customers conveniently visit and shop with many incentives and optimize the delivery process.
Currently, with more than 3,000 stores in 48 countries and a growing online shopping platform, JYSK continues to strive to open 5,000 more stores worldwide.
At the same time, one of the five pillars of the "Seamless and Closer to the Customer" campaign is to accelerate the expansion process beyond Europe. This increases the company's presence in the international market and is a driving force for sustainable development for the brand.
Notably, of the 48 markets in which JYSK is present, 20 countries operate within the brand's franchise system.
This form means that the franchisee will be allowed to do business under the franchisor's brand, apply standards, policies, management and marketing processes, etc., and use the franchisor's business secrets.
The franchisor will be responsible for technical support, training and have control over the franchisee's business operations to ensure system consistency.
Not only that, franchising also helps the company develop a consistent brand, creating a unified image across stores, so that customers entering any facility or store in the system feel equally comfortable and satisfied.
Thus, JYSK's operating methods and quality of goods and services will be "imported in original packaging" in the countries of the franchisees.
The franchisee has no right to renovate or change any elements related to the company's business processes. This helps ensure product quality, price, and effective access to consumers for the business.
Weapons to compete with IKEA
Both originating from Scandinavia and both starting their international business journey in 1984, IKEA and JYSK can be considered direct competitors.
Due to the common cultural values of Europe, the designs of these two brands have many surprising similarities. Customers who have visited JYSK stores will surely experience the phenomenon of "déjavu", the phenomenon of a person feeling that an event or object in front of them is very familiar even though they have only just encountered it for the first time. Because users can easily feel the "IKEA touch" in many products of the JYSK brand.
However, JYSK products are often cheaper than IKEA designs. From the consumer's perspective, many people think that the quality of the two brands' products is not different.
Meanwhile, others say JYSK's products are less sturdy, even though the two designers' input materials mostly come from China.
It's hard to tell the difference between IKEA's Billy bookshelf (left) and JYSK's Danny bookshelf (right), but the fact that Danny is 15% cheaper than Billy seems more appealing to consumers (Photo: IKEA and GoJYSK).
Mr. Kristjansson, representative of JYSK, affirmed that as long as the companies can guarantee quality at their prices, JYSK and IKEA can absolutely be "companions for progress".
IKEA also expressed its joy in competing with JYSK. In fact, competition is also a driving force for businesses to create their own advantages. For IKEA, Ms. Madeleine Lowenborg Frick, a representative of the company, said that this brand will stand firm in the market thanks to the diversity of more than 8,500 products.
Meanwhile, for JYSK, the company aims to compete with its Swedish rivals on price. Franchising is a key to achieving this goal.
By franchising, JYSK can both save on system operating costs compared to other forms such as direct investment, and collect fees from the franchise contract such as initial franchise fee, monthly fee...
In addition, JYSK also designed smaller stores to save on operating costs. The Danish brand's stores are about 10 times smaller than its Swedish competitor and do not have additional services such as food service for customers.
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