IKEA’s Southampton superstore may not be opening for another four weeks but the Swedish home furnishing giant is already ruffling a few feathers among the competition.

The new boys have launched a cheeky in-your-face bid to pinch customers from a rival – by tickling their tastebuds with the promise of its meatballs.

Diners in John Lewis’ café cannot miss the massive banner mounted on the back of IKEA’s West Quay Road home trying to tempt them in when the store opens on February 12.

The café used to have an exclusive view of the docks and luxury cruise ships that visit Southampton Water.

Now people tucking into John Lewis’ speciality omelettes, stir frys and cakes look out at a huge advert for its new competitor.

Daily Echo: Ikea’s cheeky new campaign to tempt rival’s diners

Showing off its famous dish, Ikea is directly targeting it’s rivals customers with the slogan: “Bet they don’t have meatballs in there.”

Customers enjoying a morning coffee break and cooked breakfast inside the John Lewis restaurant yesterday greeted the sign with amusement and some even took out their cameras to take a picture of the banner which is rumoured to be part of a series of guerrilla marketing ploys by Ikea.

The Swedish firm is already planning to turn a Red Funnel ferry yellow as a giant floating advertisement for the new 32,000 sq m store.

“It is just a bit of fun really, we like to do things with a sparkle in our eye,” said marketing manager Rob Cooper.

“We knew a banner was going up there and that it had to be big, and we came up for the food idea after having lunches in WestQuay when the store was still being developed.

“Normally our stores are out of town so we don’t need to promote our restaurant but with Southampton, people have plenty of other choices and they might not think that our restaurant is great value for money.”

“We are famous for our meatballs but we will also be doing a 95p English breakfast, free tea and coffee refills and plenty of healthy food as well.

“We haven’t had any response from John Lewis or West Quay but we did hear they did do their own meatball special the day after the poster went up so it’s nice to them taking as a bit of fun which is what it is all about,” he added.

A spokeswoman for John Lewis said they did not like to comment on other company’s advertising techniques but added: “We are aware of the poster and it has raised a few laughs at the store. But we feel we have a loyal customer base and a different assortment of products to Ikea.”


A sneek preview of the store