On blogging & finding balance

Hey friends, 

You may have noticed that we've been a bit quiet on the old blogging front recently. This is because we're currently in the process of re-evaluating our whole Lovers'.TIF brand. We love what we do and we want to make sure that we always do it to the best of our ability. We've noticed recently that as we've been taking on more work in addition to the day jobs, our blogging output has been suffering - it needs some serious tlc people. 

I love our blog, and I don't think that it should suffer on account of anything else that we may take on. I also think that it should evolve and grow with us. With this in mind, we'll be taking another blogging break. Currently, we're not sure of a time frame but it won't be too long we can promise you that! In the meantime, you'll still be able to catch us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest where we'll be posting regularly. 

While we're real-talking, a word about what we've got planned for the future. We're working together to really figure out what we both want to get from this venture. When we set out, we were dipping our toes in the water, seeing how we worked together and whether this type of arrangement could really work for the two of us as professionals and as a couple. It was a great success! We've established that we work well together and that our skills compliment each others. What we're still working on is how we can turn this knowledge into a functioning business. We're taking the time to do this properly and to end up with something that we love and that we're proud of. I can put my hand on my heart and say that the blog hasn't always been my priority in times of stress, but I want to come back with something that I'm dying to work on all the time and that we can all get excited about.

So we hope you can forgive us, and that you'll keep in touch. If you sign up to our newsletter, I'll be sending out regular updates with our progress as well as what we're up to generally. We want you to know that this isn't an elaborate way of us saying that we're bowing out of the whole thing, we're going to come back stronger. 

We'll be seeing you for the grand re-opening soon!

Svea & James xo

One Year Today...

Today is a very special day at Lovers’. TIF, it was a year ago today that we started to get our blog up and running. We hope you have enjoyed what has been a fantastic journey for us so far, we couldn’t have done it without your continued support, plus all our great contributors and anyone else that has mentioned us to someone, you all deserve a hug from us.

We couldn’t have got this far without you, so we thank you and keep supporting us for another great year ahead!

Svea and James xoxo

List Love

Hey guys, I've got some awesome links to share with you this month!

1. This list of books to read in 2014 - I'm definitely going to try to squeeze some of these in between my books from ABM book club!
2. And speaking of ABM, this article from Elsie about working in a young industry
3. The 6 item challenge - this would definitely help towards clearing out my wardrobe!
4. This great post about Green Skincare from Elise of Elise Joy,
5. I'm dying to make this Croque Monsieur at home, I'm a sucker for them!
6. I love the sweet (pardon the pun) graphics for Laura's Little Bakery website
7. This article about living and working purposefully really caught my eye
8. I'm still sceptical about internships but this scheme sounds interesting

And finally…

I like this efficient delivery process! I like to have a good structure set in place when I'm working so this process is perfect for me.

Svea xo

Relaxation & Positivity

This month I've been trying really hard to see through all of the changes going on around me to get to the other end of it all. It's been difficult, but I have to say that the work I've been doing around my word for the year (challenge) has really helped. I think I'm finally seeing some light. 

This board reflects some of the sentiments that I want to incorporate more of into my life. I like the positive messages and the idea of getting back to nature to have a more relaxing time of things. And also pie, I love pie.  

Svea xo

1//Van Gogh Quote 2//Say Yes to Things 3//Child's Pose 4//Woodgrain Texture 5//Yay Flag 6//Honey & Buttermilk Pie

Brand Spotlight: IKEA

Things have changed around here - we're going to do things a little differently with Brand Spotlight from now on. We'll be looking into how brand communicates itself to its customers and how they do it so effectively, sound good?
So without further ado, for our first brand we'll be looking at those kings of home furnishing IKEA.

With 345 stores across the planet, IKEA was one of the first brands to embrace the digital age. Making maximum use of social media and also shifting people away from catalogues to it's digital version with ever increasing apps for both Android and iOS made people sit up and take note on how to market a worldwide business.

According to figures, the IKEA catalogue app has been downloaded over 10 million times making it current and fresh to modern shoppers. Especially when you bring augmented reality into the picture.

Social Media

Facebook: The USA page has the highest following measuring about 3,411,985. The retailer's social teams pose questions, links to photo albums, and post YouTube clips to increase engagement.

Twitter: IKEA has separate twitter feeds for all its country-specific twitter pages. The US page alone has 2, 22,000 followers while IKEA Canada page has 6, 66,000 followers. Ikea makes these pages engaging by tempting its followers to indulge in campaigns such as celebrating 'Bring your Own Friends Day (BYOF).

Pinterest: This is an obvious choice for a retailer which deals in home furnishings, as this claims to be the official 'visual discovery tool'. Making best use of Pinterest, IKEA visually presents its merchandise to local markets in the UK, USA, Canada and other countries.

Google +: IKEA's USA page entered Google + only recently (January, 2014) and has the lowest following out of all of its pages. The retailer has apparently not been able to make much use of this platform even though the main page was launched in December 2011.

Outdoor campaigns

While promotion of its catalogue through online mode constitutes almost 70 percent of its annual marketing spend, IKEA creates highly engaging outdoor campaigns.

Indoor Garden: IKEA took to the indoor environments of Waterloo and Liverpool rail stations in the London, to show to commuters that they could 'make more of their outdoor spaces' - a.k.a their gardens. A pop-up shop invited commuters to sit down and observe the wide range of outdoor solutions available in the IKEA store that could help them transform their outdoor space.

Billboard-fitted wardrobes, Vienna: IKEA advertised the advantages of its particular flexible wardrobe by "dressing" a billboard with a PAX door that passers-by could slide open in order to discover IKEA's solutions that help fit anything into a wardrobe.

IKEA has really pushed the boundaries in what a furniture retailer should be. It is more about just selling furniture, showing how it helps benefit your life is something IKEA strives towards and by using all these channels, it presents itself as current, cool and at the forefront of it's market. What IKEA will do next, I don't know but I'm excited to find out.

James xo