This document proposes a concept to increase customer engagement with IKEA's furniture buy-back/recycling program called "Gensalg" by using marketing tactics. The concept involves offering incentives like access to limited product runs, events, and collectible redesigned classic IKEA furniture pieces exclusively to customers who participate in Gensalg. This aims to turn the environmental act of recycling into a rewarding experience and "currency" to drive more participation in the buy-back program using people's interest in exclusivity rather than relying solely on goodwill.

1. HI! MY NAME IS ELIAS
The current “buy back” service that IKEA offers rely
solely on the customers' good will to participate in the
project.
There is not a problem with expecting that the
customer is willing to drag their piece of furniture all
over town in the name of sustainability. However, there
are more things one can do to attain engagement. My
concept combines nudging, with IKEA's existing
design traditions of innovating, with a step off in
historical IKEA design classics.
In this case we have IKEA, a large corporation with
immense resources, who wants to gain more interaction
with their Gensalg service in order to give old furniture a
prolonged life. To do so I have conceived a campaign of
sorts to solve the task of increasing the popular awareness
of this sustainable service, as well as the number of
participants engaged in it.
In order to nudge Ikea customers
to interact with this buy back
service, why not use the oldest
marketing trick in the book:
scarcity tactics.
By building a sort of false sense of
limitation on a certain attraction,
product or “product-variation” we
boost conversion. Personally, I am
hyper-allergic to this sort of
marketing, using limited stock and
product drops, but in this case I
introduce this “tactic” not to trick
consumers into buying stuff as most
limited offers intend. Rather, this
promotion has its purpose in
reinforcing a positive behavior, in
this particular case a habit of
recycling.
As we say in Sweden, we can get the horse to do what
we want either with a whip or a carrot. Everyone who
owns Ikea-furniture is a horse and my concept is the
carrot.
“TARGET”
Young adults with an already
pre existing environmental
consciousness. Perhaps moving
out of their first apartment
(filled with Ikea furniture).

2. Offering IKEA customers that partake in Gensalg
benefits that nobody else has access to.
These benefits include:
Limited product runs, invites to art/design shows,
events and even collectible redesigns of old
discontinued design classics.
By returning my old furniture
to IKEA I get something more
than just a feeling of
contribution and a clear
consciousness. Furthermore, I
get invited to the Gensalg
club[RE-KEA], and achieve a
sense of exclusivity and
actualized benefits. Because
in reality us humans are
egocentric and sometimes in
need of a little carrot to get
us off our asses.
1. It starts with young Preben
bringing his shelf down to the
Gensalg area at his local IKEA
department store.
2. After inspection the Gensalg
administrator offers Preben a trade
with a [RE-KEA]-ticket.
3. Preben can then use this ticket as
special currency that allows him to
access a hidden assortment of
products and special offers.
The KONTIKI chair
1970
The VILBERT chair
1970
The IMPALA chair
1970
DESIGN VARIATIONS OF IKEA STANDARDS
Ikea make lots of products and owe its success in
part to the store's extremely competitive prices.
Despite this low price reputation certain products
have circulated in the elite design collector's scene.
These people have invited ikea into their haute
room because of old discontinued cult classics
have been revamped as collectibles. Over the
years IKEA have created limited runs of iconic
pieces of furniture and these have become
extremely desirable at auctions where we would
otherwise never expect to see an IKEA Item.
SO HOW WILL THIS IDEA BE
CONCRETIZED AND APPLIED?

3. EKTORP
IKEA
x
ELIAS
B
IKEA x Virgil Abloh
2019
IKEA x Teenage Engineering
2020
IKEA also has a history of producing very limited runs
of design collaborations which have been very sought
after and hard to get your hands on.
As a furniture designer myself I could not resist
sketching some idéas myself…
Here are some rendered examples of how these
limited design variations could look like. Mutated
renditions of some of IKEAʼs best selling
articles:
EXAMPLES OF THE [RE-KEA]-KLUBB CAMPAIGN
POÄNG
IKEA x ELIAS B
Why not take advantage
of the hype and
attractiveness of exclusive
IKEA collaborations or
even limited re-runs of old
classics to increase the
reciprocal engagement of
the Gensalg service?
DOCKSTA
IKEA x ELIAS B

4. My proposition turns the environmental act of
recycling into a currency. This currency being
access to different kinds of special offers and
limited design alterations. The amount of effort
on IKEAʼs part here is minimal, they already
conduct design collaborations and small batch
product series. They already have personnel
working at the Gensalg department. In this
concept I have simply connected different
operations that IKEA already handles, and
with them I try to synchronize them in the most
symbiotic way possible. I believe there are
many ways to get more people engaged in
this service. In this case I chose to present a
simple and fun way of attracting the eye of the
public, on theme with IKEAʼs affairs.
Sincerely,
Elias Berg
[RE-KEA]-KLUBB
The classics rise from the dead!
You no longer have to have to
go to the snobby auctions and
pay $$$ to buy these gems! Introducing the
Verner Panton Revamp in new fresh colors!
We reintroduce the classic
gems of IKEAʼs most sought
after designs in new
colorways:
For the [RE-KEA]-KLUBB
members who are not
interested in consuming any
more products the tickets
can be used as entry for art
and design exhibitions
hosted by IKEA.