Bangkok--25 Jul--Aziam Burson-Marsteller
IKEA's Life at Home Report 2016, which the home furnishing retailer has conducted for a third consecutive year to explore the lives at home of people all over the world, reveals interesting key insights into how the home now extends beyond the physical space. Almost half of all respondents say they think of home as where they have their most important relationships. People who are satisfied with their relationships at home are also happier with their living situation and feel better overall.
Finding the definition of "home"
Understanding the meaning of life at home is one key to IKEA's business. Our aim is to make this a part of our long-term business development. We hope that our exploration will enable us to be even better at making people's homes, and not just the physical objects within them, more meaningful.
1. Space: Space includes more than just a physical structure – it also allows us to enjoy the sensory experiences of touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste. Our new study shows that smell is the sense that people associate the most with home. In the cities included in the survey, as many as 40% of respondents say their homes have a particular smell.
2. Things: The things we keep at home reflect our identity. They also have an effect on us in a functional sense. In our study, 53% say that things they have in their home reflect who they are, while 43% think the things that enable them to do what they love are the most important.
Keeping things well organized affects their feelings, too. Even though people have low expectations regarding the appearance of other people's homes when they come to visit, tidiness is still important. Residents of Stockholm don't seem to mind visiting untidy homes – 28% of Stockholmers expect to visit a tidy home, compared to the survey average of 45%. Most sensitive to tidy homes are Shanghainese; 63% expect other people's homes to be tidy when they visit. The study also identifies that people do not have the same expectations of their own home when it comes to tidiness: while 45% expect other people's homes to be tidy, only 27% describe their own ideal home as tidy.
3. Relationships: The research shows that most people see their home as a place for relationships. Relationships are a very important part of what makes a home. Spending time at home with friends and family is, more than anything, what people do to foster a feeling of home. The survey reveals that 48% say home is the place where they have their most important relationships, while almost 1 in 4 think Wi-Fi is more important than social spaces to nurture relationships at home.
4. Place: Our home is extending beyond four walls – not least among the younger generation. 37% believe the concept of home includes more than the four walls and 38% consider their neighborhood to be a part of their home. We also found that many people go outside to get the feeling of home, due in part to housing shortages in urban areas.
FIVE KEY INSIGHTS OF THE LIFE AT HOME REPORT 2016:
1. Our homes must foster both privacy and relationships.
2. Our home is extending beyond the four walls – not least among the younger generation.
3. Almost 1 in 4 think Wi-Fi is more important than social spaces to nurture relationships at home.
4. The things that mean the most to us support us in our lives.
5. Our senses can make us feel better at home.
For us at IKEA, this report is only the beginning of our journey. To truly understand what makes a home, we must view the home as a never-ending, constantly changing idea. We will continue to explore what makes a home in order to be able to create a better life at home for many people.