#E176 – How IKEA Rebuilt Brand Tracking for Growth

In this episode of Inside the Creator Economy, we sit down with Alexander Shmelkov, Director of Global Brand Tracking at IKEA, to explore how the brand is transforming measurement from a reporting tool into a driver of strategic decision-making across 64 markets. 
Alexander Shmelkov
PODCAST36 min | Season 11 | Episode 176
Play on Spotify

Most brand trackers are built to tell you what happened. Alexander has spent the last few years rebuilding one to help the business decide what to do next in an environment where the rules of growth are changing fast.

In this conversation we get into why data on its own has no value, what it actually takes to turn insights into decisions, and how IKEA is transforming a 20-year-old measurement system into a genuine strategic tool. We also talk about what relevance really means for a global brand today, and why the bottleneck in most organisations isn't data, it's interpretation.

We cover:
36 min | Season 11 | Episode 176
The shift from reporting to predicting: insights as a forward-looking function, not a rearview mirror
Why the aha moment, not the data, is the real deliverable of insights work
What it takes to run a global brand tracker across 64 markets without losing local relevance
Insights as a people business: why human capability, not technology, is the real constraint
Ready to make your
NEW WEBSITE - Featured images
brand relevant?
let's talk
let's talk