In 2017 IKEA brought “IKEA. It’s that affordable.” campaign to the next level by creating and actually applying an entirely new currency to its price tags: The IKEA Affordable currency.” This massive in-store activation brought to the brand’s stores nationwide a new set of values that displays to its customers how much an item costs using the least expensive things in their lives as a monetary measurement. A table costs 3 coffees; a nightstand, 5 tubes of toothpaste; a bed, 31 stamps. The price tag change was used as simple visual tool that would appeal to everyone from our broad target audience interested in knowing exactly how much they can save by shopping at IKEA.

To show how affordable Ikea products were we took the price and turned it into a new currency. A stool equals 3 coffees. A table five packs of toothpaste. A cupboard equals 5 pizzas. This way our customers understood that you get a whole lot for the price of everyday things. So we changed the prices for graphic symbols of everyday things. The customers could now easily work out how little Ikea products were. And when they looked at how much they were getting. They loved the new currency.

By setting a new way of looking at affordability IKEA reached some impressive results: In-store sales grew 11,4% year-on-year; we sold nightstands worth the equivalent of 1000 tubes of toothpaste; 300 coffees worth of tables. A record of 200 pizzas worth of wardrobes; 1200 sodas worth of lamps; all of that with the investment of 3 bananas.