As someone named after an IKEA chair, I can testify I took no offense while assembling myself. https://manuall.co.uk/ikea-bertil-chair/
How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
101–110 of 342 posts
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure why, but when I see certain diacritics with latin alphabet, my brain tries to place the language somewhere in Europe. I don't know if I can call that an exotic feeling but it certainly feels foreign.
Could also be Vietnamese, they are big on diacritics.
Thanks to French, who came up with the current writing system.
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#103> preferably contain the letters Å, Ä or Ö Yes, but why prefer these letters? I don’t know Swedish. Is it because these diacritics make the names seem more exotic?
Not sure why, but when I see certain diacritics with latin alphabet, my brain tries to place the language somewhere in Europe. I don't know if I can call that an exotic feeling but it certainly feels foreign.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_branding (especially the Foreign Orthography section)
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
My missus is Hungarian, I'm sure it's a lovely language but it just sounds like Klingon to me. Which makes it hilarious when she's annoyed at the boy.
The fact that Sz in Hungarian reads as s and other way around, S becomes sh - is mind-boggling especially for Poles, where Sz is pronounced as sh . and S remains s .
In Spanish "z" always sounds [s] (except in Spain where it sounds [θ]), but "s" can often sound [z].
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#105> 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
Article is missing the urban legend about "Bite the wax tadpole"
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#106Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#107I figured they just let a Dala horse walk around on top of a bunch of keyboards and whatever string comes out is the new name?
I always just thought Swedish had a lot of words for "crap". Ikea used to make somewhat reasonable and affordable products, that, in total were much higher quality than their price point suggested. Now they are just cheap, on almost every metric.
The thing is that recent products are crappy. I got so many decades old secondhand things. They looked like regular old furniture and it was fine. Then I continued buying same things, but new. While the old furniture didn’t change at all the new pieces became yellow/brown after couple tears. We don’t smoke!!! It was a nightmare and I don’t buy IKEA products anymore.
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps even the source of that rule.
Pax is another one that violates the rule that someone pointed out lower. Also Malm is a surname which is another violation of the rule (one of the characters in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was named, if I recall correctly, Stefan Malm). I remember reading the books with my then-wife and she said it was like reading an IKEA catalog. I thought she was referring to the character/place names, but it turned out that…
Malm was released in the 1980s:
https://techvibeblog.com/what-is-ikea-malm-made-of/
Girl with the dragon tattoo was released in 2005
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#109If you ever find yourself in southern Sweden (or Copenhagen and fancy a train ride across a cool bridge) the IKEA museum at Älmhult is well worth a visit: https://ikeamuseum.com/en/
I was there three days ago, can comfirm. And if you want to stay overnight, you _of course_ sleep in the neighbouring IKEA Hotel! And if you check-in to the hotel first, you‘ll get a voucher for free entrance to the museum. Did I mention that an absolutely excellent breakfast is included in the very reasonable room rate?
And in case you visit the museum in the near future, they currently have a special (temporary) exhibition about IKEA's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, who was a very creative but also exceptionally socially and environmentally responsible entrepreneur. Nice contrast to today's appalling tech billionaires.
Re: How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
#110This comic used to be viral in Russia in the 2010s: https://m.vk.ru/wall-28208003_16956.
(The dialogue goes, "Somewhere deep inside Ikea HQ: How shall we name the lamp?" "GNVÖERK.")