His name was Ingvar Kamprad (the letters IK in IKEA is from his name). The E and A comes from Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, respectively the farm where he grow up, a

His name was Ingvar Kamprad (the letters IK in IKEA is from his name). The E and A comes from Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, respectively the farm where he grow up, and his home town. And it was indeed Ingvar that was the brains behind it back in 1956, i am not really sure they had "customer research teams" back then.