There is truth to this. For example Ikea, is actually a seller of extremely cheap furniture to poor people. They even make you pick your own products from their warehouse! However the marketing cleverly inverts that so that shopping at Ikea is portrayed as an aspirational goal.

I think Ikea has a quite different image in the US and in parts of Asia, where it's considered a hip, quite desirable brand.

It's not necessarily so that the poor shop in European Ikea. But throughout most of Europe it's not considered specifically hip, or upscale.

That's probably based on it's history. It's not that long ago that Ikea seriously started to work on design. Most of the fare they had like 20 years ago can charitably be described as "rustic".

It also got a lot easier to build the furniture as compared to a couple decades ago, where you always had either spare -, or not enough screws.

Ikea is a funny old goose though, they're aspirational products because the range is staggered. There's very much a cheap end and a high end, the whole pick and pack means they can keep costs low enough to get people in at the low end and upsell them progressively. So a student gets a £20 table, then moves up to a £60 one, and then a matching TV unit. It's clever, they've nailed product categorisation and buyer psychology.

Hey, I buy my furniture at Ikea, are you calling me cheap?

Seriously though, Ikea doesn't thrive because of their marketing, at least not where I live. You barely see Ikea advertisements.

Ikea is known for having a wide range of cheap and moderately reliable furniture. They're known for mostly minimalistic, generally attractive designs clearly aimed at young people setting out on their own (be it for dorms or their first own apartment or house).