Maybe you knew that Ikea’s largest franchisee, Ingka Group, annually conducts a comprehensive, global lifestyle and home survey, but this came as news to me.
I stumbled upon this trove of Life at Home survey data doing some basic googling on Ingka Group’s recently announced partnership with photographer Annie Leibovitz, notable for, among so many other images, her iconic photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono for Rolling Stone magazine in 1980. I use her work in one of my college courses.
Leibovitz is the franchisee’s 2023 artist-in-residence. To even have an artist-in-residence is fairly progressive for any furniture company. Respect.
As Ingka Group puts it in a news release, Leibovitz is renowned for “her ability to capture the inner life of her subjects” through her photographic portraiture, subjects she “engages in intimate spaces or moments.”
“I’ve been photographing people in their homes since I began,” Leibovitz said. “It’s a way to understand who a person is. The advice I give to young photographers is to photograph their families.”
Putting another log on the fire
Ah, family. This is the centering concept for this year’s Life at Home report, a compendium of trend lines and sentiments aggregated from a survey of more than 37,000 regular folks from 37 countries throughout the world.
Among the report’s takeaways is the survey respondents’ ranking of concerns: The economy is first and household finances are second, leaving climate change a distant third.
Also intriguing — and for home furnishings companies that advertise — rather important is that nearly half of the survey’s respondents say their lives at home are not reflected in media. This is an opportunity for advertisers to better connect visually with the ways people are actually living rather than continuing to present idealized and, ultimately, disaffecting depictions of families at home.
Ikea’s decisions to initiate buy-back programs and to offer warranties between 10 and 25 years look pretty good.
After reading through the report, a few key words spring to mind: security, comfort, belonging, ownership and privacy. The pandemic reminded us that enjoyment and accomplishment are emotional needs we want our homes to meet. More than half of respondents said that they believe the most important aspect in an ideal home is the ability to unwind and relax.
Homeownership
People sharing their living spaces report the biggest at-home deficits in enjoyment, accomplishment and belonging, which is counterintuitive. Those living in halls of residences, flat shares, rented rooms or parental homes “struggle to get a sense of accomplishment at home,” according to the report. This has implications for those of us who study or work from home.
Whether people own their homes not surprisingly impacts how well they believe their emotional needs are being met by their homes. Nine of 10 people say it’s important to feel enjoyment at home, but only half report getting it. For homeowners, the number jumps to 80%.
Finally, let’s take a look at reported sources of home inspiration. People are most inspired by:
- TV home renovation shows (24%)
- Physical home furnishing stores (22%)
- Friends’ homes (19%)
However, when shown a list of common sources of home inspiration, including social media and TV shows, more than one in four reported “none of these.” So, when people are inspired, it’s most likely what “real people” are doing. Age matters, though. Older respondents were more likely to report feeling inspired by TV home makeover shows, physical stores and magazines. Younger respondents report being most inspired by neighbors’ and friends’ homes, and, not surprisingly, were more likely to report finding inspiration in social media and podcasts.
Roll the credits
The quantitative research was conducted by YouGov, an international research and data analytics group. The study was conducted as an online survey among a national representative sample of people ages 18 and older in 37 countries. A total of 37,405 interviews were collected, according to the report.
The following countries were included: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Data was collected July-August 2022.
To return to the concept of an artist-in-residence, what will Leibovitz be doing? Traveling the world, photographing people in their homes. Where can I get a gig like this? She’ll be visiting people in the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, India, Sweden and England creating a series of 25 portraits that seek to present the nuances of “life at home.” Hmm, I think I know what the centerpiece of next year’s Life at Home report will be.
