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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?

#281

Post by ErroneousBosh »

orthoxerox wrote: post #215
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar conversation I've had with my partner in the past few hours: Me: it's beside the piano Her: Which piano? Me: The Ensoniq upstairs

Are you the staring Brazilian piano player?

Vinheteiro? No, although when he was about two my son would sit at one of the synths and do that stare-intensely-jab-finger-in-the-air thing.

No, I just have a terrible psychological condition where I cannot say the word "no" when someone says "Hey EB I have this thing sitting in a cupboard, take it off my hands for 20 quid".

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

#282

Post by MrGilbert »

dspillett wrote: post #212

> Every possible product name is carefully checked to avoid undesirable meanings in other languages This procedure does not always work: https://adland.tv/whats-name-case-2351-ikeas-gutvik-bunk-bed

I'm German, and I'd pronounce "-vik" the same as the beginning of "Victor". With a soft "w".

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

#285

Post by amarant »

tecleandor wrote: post #230
markvdb wrote: post #223

> 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 present to you "Svalka" wine glasses. Dump", rubbish heap", or easy, promiscuous woman of ill repute in informal Baltic (and Slavic?) slang.

I have a "Särna" chair. "Sarna" in Spanish is "Scabies". Fun fact: Although "Sarna" comes from Latin, seems like it's only used in Romance languages present in the Iberian Peninsula (Galician, Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish...) and not for example in Italian, Romanian or French, as it's an Iberian loan word. Most other languages derive from another different Latin word, "scabiēs".

The source of the word is almost certainly the Swedish town Särna in this case. Note that ä is not an a, in sound it's more similar to e than a, although it is distinct from both.

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

#286

Post by hunter2_ »

markvdb wrote: post #223

> 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 present to you "Svalka" wine glasses. Dump", rubbish heap", or easy, promiscuous woman of ill repute in informal Baltic (and Slavic?) slang.

Does anyone else get tripped up by the word "avoid" being positioned to apply to each item in the series, but then logically it must only apply to some (the first and second out of 3) items?

{ avoid meanings, avoid affiliations, avoid fitting }

My solution is generally to repeat the word for each item that needs it, but I can see how the repetitiveness isn't great either.

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

#288

Post by thomashabets2 »

necovek wrote: post #238
thomashabets2 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can always go back to the basic international language of gesturing, Doesn't really work for the kind of products they sell. E.g. going to the spare parts place and asking for a replacement part for Mörbylånga or Nackanäs. And I don't know the international gesture for a table. Besides, they have many tables. I don't think saying "Bläddra", and signing that you're flipping through a book, helps at all either. >…

I think Netherlands is a bad example, because all locals I've met there speak perfect English, and a visitor learns that fast!

Yes, it's called a hypothetical.

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

#289

Post by bluebarbet »

whirlwin wrote: post #248

IKEA is the new "fast fashion", but for furniture. You buy something one day, and it starts to deteriorate and become janky after a year, and you'll have a buy a new one. All products have gone through spreadsheet cost optimizations. It wasn't always like that. If you're lucky to get your hands on an old IKEA bookshelf (Billy), it's sturdy and will last forever.

A lot of people want this to be true, but alas it isn't. The stuff lasts. Probably for a simple reason: Any given product line is bought by millions of customers, so design flaws are quickly found and remedied. I see it as a form of safety in numbers.

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

#290

Post by thih9 »

senko wrote: post #40

My favorite is `fejka` for the artificial plant/flower. I think "being as widely-understandable pun as possible" is definitely one of their naming priorities.

Unsurprisingly, "fejka" means "fake" (at least in Swedish, according to google translate).
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