IKEA India introduces a new brand position, It All Starts at Home, reflecting how Indian homes have evolved into multi-purpose spaces shaping daily life and aspirations. The campaign positions IKEA as a life companion, expanding access across formats while celebrating real stories like Kabita Singh’s journey from a modest kitchen to YouTube stardom.
In India, the meaning of home has been quietly, steadily rewritten. Kitchens have become studios. Dining tables double as classrooms. Living rooms transform into yoga zones by morning and beauty salons by evening. Bedrooms are now offices, tuition centres, and creative sanctuaries. For millions of Indian families, home is no longer simply where life happens; it is where life begins, grows, and constantly reshapes itself.
Recognising this shift, IKEA India has unveiled a new brand position titled It All Starts at Home, marking a significant evolution in how the Swedish home furnishing retailer sees its role in the lives of Indian consumers. More than a marketing line, the positioning reflects IKEA’s deeper understanding of how Indian households have changed in the years since the company entered the market in 2018, and signals how it plans to grow its presence in the country’s next chapter of domestic life.
“When we arrived in 2018, our focus was on welcoming people into IKEA and helping them experience our stores, our range, our prices, and life at home philosophy,” says Patrik Antoni, CEO, IKEA India. “Since then, the relationship has deepened. We have spent time in Indian homes, listened to how people live, and seen how expectations from home have expanded. This new brand position reflects our belief in India’s potential and sets the blueprint for our next chapter, where we want to reach twice as many consumers.”
The shift is rooted in observation rather than assumption. Over the past six years, IKEA’s teams have spent time understanding the realities of Indian living spaces: compact apartments in dense cities, multi-generational households, growing aspirations within limited square footage, and the increasing need for flexibility within the same four walls. Homes have had to accommodate work-from-home routines, children’s online learning, hobbies, small businesses, fitness ambitions, and social gatherings, often simultaneously.
What IKEA is responding to is not simply a design challenge, but a cultural one. Indian homes are becoming dynamic ecosystems that reflect ambition, resilience, and everyday improvisation. The brand’s new stance acknowledges that furniture and home solutions are no longer about aesthetics alone, but about enabling these multiple identities and daily transitions.
Antoni describes the positioning as an “emotional contract” with Indian households. “We see this as an emotional contract to be a humble life companion who removes physical, financial, and psychological barriers between people and their dream homes. This commitment will shape everything, from our products and solutions to the experiences in our stores, website, and app. Our goal is to grow accessibility, so we are present wherever life is taking shape, no matter the size of homes, wallets, or dreams.”
Accessibility, in this context, goes beyond price. It encompasses format, presence, and relevance. Since entering India, IKEA’s top-of-mind recall has grown from 4% to 43%, a sharp indicator of how quickly the brand has embedded itself into urban consciousness. But the next phase of growth depends on going beyond large-format stores and meeting consumers through a mix of smaller touchpoints, digital platforms, and services that cater to everyday needs across cities.
Small spaces and multi-functional living sit at the heart of this strategy. IKEA’s global expertise in space-saving design finds particular relevance in Indian homes where square footage is precious and adaptability is essential. The brand’s ambition is to offer solutions that feel less like imported ideas and more like intuitive responses to local living patterns.
The new positioning will come alive through films, digital and social content, creator collaborations, and in-store experiences. The first expression of this approach is a film featuring Kabita Singh, the popular YouTube chef behind Kabita’s Kitchen. Singh’s story mirrors the spirit of It All Starts at Home. She began filming recipes in a modest kitchen and has since built a community of 15 million subscribers, turning her home into the starting point of an entrepreneurial journey.
Her inclusion is symbolic. It demonstrates how ordinary domestic spaces can become launchpads for extraordinary aspirations. The kitchen, traditionally seen as a private family zone, becomes a studio, a stage, and a business hub. Through this narrative, IKEA highlights how home solutions can enable such journeys without making them feel out of reach.
This storytelling approach also signals a broader cultural shift in how brands engage with Indian consumers. Rather than projecting idealised homes, IKEA is choosing to celebrate lived-in, evolving spaces where life unfolds in imperfect, improvisational ways. The focus moves from showcasing products to recognising the human stories that those products quietly support.
For IKEA, this is also about humility. Antoni emphasises the brand’s desire to be seen not as an aspirational outsider but as a partner embedded in daily life. The language of “life companion” suggests a role that is supportive rather than directive, responsive rather than prescriptive.
The positioning acknowledges that for many Indians, dreams for their homes are often constrained by space, budgets, and inherited layouts. By addressing these barriers, IKEA hopes to make the idea of a dream home feel attainable, regardless of economic or spatial limitations.
As the brand expands through varied formats and online services, the challenge will be to maintain this emotional resonance while scaling operations. The ambition to reach twice as many consumers is not only a commercial target but also a test of how well the brand can adapt to diverse Indian contexts while retaining its core philosophy.
It All Starts at Home is, in many ways, a reflection of India itself: ambitious, adaptive, and deeply rooted in the everyday. By aligning its future with the evolving rhythms of Indian households, IKEA is not simply repositioning its brand. It is acknowledging that in India, the home is no longer a backdrop to life. It is the stage, the workshop, the classroom, the café, and the starting point of countless journeys yet to unfold.
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