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How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

ikea.com

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Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

#71
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its not all that strange tbh - im learning danish which is adjacent enough to swedish that I can understand most of the names - sometimes they aren't relevant to the product function, sometimes they are, but they're just names. Is it strange to you that the word "photoshop" uses english language? what about a Hamburger being named after a place?

Nitpicking but your examples all have a clear etymology that may even help you deduce the purpose of a thing. Hamburger means 'from Hamburg' and can be short for 'in the style of Hamburg', which sounds perfectly normal to a native. This is, would I say, less strange than if it was named 'Hamburg', which seems to be the case of IKEA furniture. Photoshop, in the same way, seems to refer to a photo workshop, which once…

How about eating a Sandwich with Turkey, Bologna and Cheddar, maybe with a Paris-Brest for dessert?

Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

#72
post #57

The Fräck mirror was named after the commonly used faux swear word on Battlestar Galactica, where one of the characters used a similar mirror: https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/fraeck-mirror-stainless-steel-3...

You may say that "There's too much confusion", ha!

Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

#74
post #57

The Fräck mirror was named after the commonly used faux swear word on Battlestar Galactica, where one of the characters used a similar mirror: https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/fraeck-mirror-stainless-steel-3...

And then, unbeknownst to what the Sci-Fi future might bring, an Italian home appliance manufacturer names themselves SMEG.

Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I introduce you to the UK chain Iceland and their stance on management consultants? https://about.iceland.co.uk/our-story/the-dark-ages/beware-m...

Brilliant. Submit it to Hacker News as its own post before I do. Seriously. You have one hour.

[deleted]

Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

#79
post #7

Amazing. A post asks a question in the title that I actually want answered, and then goes on to answer that question clearly and succinctly. Maybe the best corporate content I've seen this year.

But how can I find the answer to the question without reading punchy headers followed by paragraphs like > How We Leverage Naming > Our Naming Strategy, Explained > Why Swedish Is Important > The Bottom Line And unforgettable aphorisms like > It isn't just a name—it is the output of a scalable, globally coordinated, linguistically validated, Swedish-inspired naming framework designed to optimize brand consistency to…

How am I supposed to know what matters if they don't tell me, in an honest fashion?

Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

#80

> Every possible product name is carefully checked to avoid undesirable meanings in other languages, political or religious affiliations and fit into our global profile. I love the JERKER desk that I bought 26 years ago, so I assume this rule must be younger than that.

Chevy "no va" https://www.thoughtco.com/chevy-nova-that-wouldnt-go-3078090
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