Is IKEA Giving Danes the Doormat Treatment?

[reorg]

Is IKEA Giving Danes the Doormat Treatment?
By André Anwar in Stockholm

Emotions against IKEA are running high in Denmark, where researchers claim the wildly popular Swedish home furnishings company only names cheap doormats and wall-to-wall carpeting after Danish towns, reserving Swedish names for its more expensive furniture. The discovery has the proud Danes itching for revenge.

Danish researchers claim IKEA reserves Swedish and Norwegian names for its best products, while relegating Danish names to "lesser" products like carpets and runners.
Many people have tried to explain the success of the IKEA phenomenon. Unlike any other world-class corporation, the Swedish home furnishings business has managed to surround itself with an aura of lightness. The IKEA people cultivate the unconventional, be it in their advertising or in the design of their stores. They also devote more attention than most to naming their products. A curtain ring, instead of going by an ordinary order number, gets the name "Adele." A floor cushion is named "Amalia." And anyone looking for an asparagus pot in the company's lineup needs search no further than the name "Seriös." And any devoted IKEA aficionado worth his salt knows that a "Smaka," naturally, is a cheese grater.

But not everyone is as thrilled by IKEA's use of onomatopoeic product names. In Web forums, like www.supertopic.de, a blogger has analyzed the system behind IKEA's naming conventions. Upholstered furniture, bookcases and multimedia consoles, for example, are named after small Swedish cities, while Norwegian towns serve as the namesakes of beds, dressers and hallway furniture. Names of Finnish origin grace the company's chairs and dining tables. As it turns out, nothing is random at IKEA -- and certainly not light.

The Danes couldn't agree more -- and they are deeply offended. Two Danish academics, Klaus Kjöller of the University of Copenhagen and Tröls Mylenberg of the University of Southern Denmark, conducted a thorough analysis of the names used in the IKEA catalog. They concluded that the Swedish names are reserved for the "better" products, and that even Norwegian names manage to make it into the bed department. But the "lesser" products bear Danish names like "Roskilde" and "Köge."

"Doormats and runners, as well as inexpensive wall-to-wall carpeting are third-class, if not seventh-class, items when it comes to home furnishings," Kjöller is quoted as saying in Nyhedsavisen, a Danish free paper. The stuff that goes on the floor, Kjöller said, is about as low as it gets. He accused the home furnishings company of "Swedish imperialism."


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[aquart]

1. In the immortal words of comedian George Wallace:

(He was talking about Ireland, though.)

"It just goes to show. In a place without Jews, blacks, or indians, people will improvise."

[TransitJohn]

2. lol

you made me giggle.

[Demeter]

3. What a Fabulous, Pithy Saying! Thanks!

[Sam Ervin jret]

4. Kerplunk!!

the onomatopoetic word/sound to describe the sales of IKEA after the world comes to it's sense and stops paying extra money for things because they have silly pretentious names.