IKEA Explains Why Its Products Have Such Quirky Names
The more “å,” ‘ä” and “ö” used the better.
Trying to pronounce product names at IKEA is no doubt part of why trips to the gigantic furniture store are always so much fun, but if you’ve ever wondered where they get those quirky titles from, the company has now created a video explaining just exactly that.
Released as part of its expanding digital museum, the latest clip — aptly titled Why it is called that? — gives IKEA lovers a glimpse into the origins of why each piece of furniture in the store has a unique name and what goes behind the process of coming up with them.
According to the video, just a small team of people are responsible for naming anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 products a year, and all the names have to go through a checklist to meet IKEA’s standards. For a start, they have to be between four to 12 letters long, and it’s a bonus if it features the Swedish letters “å,” ‘ä” and “ö,” says the company’s product management leader Christina Berg-Overgard. They also can’t be a trademarked term or a family name, and of course, it has to be a “nice word.”
Check out the video above to see why IKEA names its products this way, and to learn more about the company and its heritage, you can head over to the company’s digital museum.
Elsewhere in the world of design, Brain Dead has unveiled its latest home goods collection.
