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How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

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

#111

Post by throw-the-towel »

nine_k wrote: post #35
fy20 wrote: post #13

For a Swede it must seem kind of strange to understand the product names. You see an ACORN toy, a NIGEL bookshelf, and the CROYDON sofa... which sounds like it belongs in a council estate flat. Definately more fun would be the Polish version. How many people can pronounce the BYDGOSZCZ sofa, the PRZEMYSŁAW bookcase and the PSZCZOŁA soft toy?

If the goal is something that reads weird for most Europeans, then try picking names from Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, or Welsh.

Now I want a HÉTFŐ desk, and a SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR... something.

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

#112

Post by Isolus »

tverbeure wrote: post #15

> 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.

Yes, they also sold a toilet brush named "VIREN". In Germany this is the plural of virus. And some year ago Danes complained IKEA named carpets and runner after danish towns but never something "better".

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

#113

Post by vidarh »

bonoboTP wrote: post #54
Snild wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are the letters we have that are distinct from English. Not exotic to us, but yeah, "weird letters" is probably considered part of the international brand now. By the way, we consider them unique letters, not A and O with diacritics. The Swedish alphabet goes …XYZÅÄÖ. Oh, and I just learned that we only officially added W in 2006. Before that, it was considered a variant of V. We still pronounce them the same,…

Huh, interesting that they are collated at the end. These differences also makes sorting language dependent. In Hungarian it's A, Á, B, C, Cs, D, Dz, Dzs, E, É, F... So Cu--- comes before Cs---

Just to make things worse, the Scandinavian languages use different versions of what have historically been the same letters, and collate them differently. E.g. Norwegian has æ (Ä), ø (Ö), å, collated in that order. Technically the Swedish variants are not part of the Norwegian alphabet, but they're typically collated with their modern Norwegian equivalents.

At least in Norwegian, ae, oe, and aa is also traditionally collated as if they were using these letters, so a word starting "aa" comes at the end of the alphabet, after z, oe and ae....

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

#114

Post by MajorBee »

fy20 wrote: post #13

For a Swede it must seem kind of strange to understand the product names. You see an ACORN toy, a NIGEL bookshelf, and the CROYDON sofa... which sounds like it belongs in a council estate flat. Definately more fun would be the Polish version. How many people can pronounce the BYDGOSZCZ sofa, the PRZEMYSŁAW bookcase and the PSZCZOŁA soft toy?

> BYDGOSZCZ sofa

This may not even be that far off from reality, looking at the sort of names rando brands on Amazon often have...

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

#115

Post by neom »

te0006 wrote: post #109
samdbmg wrote: post #81

If 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) ex…

For future person who also thinks...wait...IKEA has a hotel...?? Indeed:

https://www.ikeahotell.com/en/about-us/

https://www.fastcompany.com/91529069/what-its-like-to-stay-i...

British lad giving a review/tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trcUc9ILYqI

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

#116

Post by qurren »

decimalenough wrote: post #106
qurren wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not rename to IKEÅ ?

Because it would then be pronounced IKE-Oh. Also, the A is short for Agunnaryd, the founder's hometown. (IK is his initials, Ingvar Kamprad, and E is for Elmtaryd, his family farm.)

The A can still stand for Agunnaryd and the circle at the top can be the midnight sun, which embodies the sprit of Sweden

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

#117

Post by DonaldFisk »

decimalenough wrote: post #102
ErikCorry wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could also be Vietnamese, they are big on diacritics.

Thanks to French, who came up with the current writing system.

A Portuguese Jesuit, actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_Pina

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

#118

Post by vidarh »

devsda wrote: post #51
joshdavham wrote: post #9

> 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.

Häagen-Dazs is American, but was apparently meant to sound Danish. To a Scandinavian it absolutely doesn't.
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