Herman Miller’s new Setu chair, introduced in June and shipping in September, is called . . . SET-too? SEET-too? SEET-yoo? Set-TOO?
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| The Setu: Could it be Fahrvergnügen all over again? Capsule says the emphasis is on the first syllable—"SET-too." |
Your guess is as good as any, according to Aaron Keller, managing partner of Minneapolis design firm Capsule. Herman Miller, the Michigan-based maker of such iconic chairs as the Eames and the Aeron, tapped Keller’s firm to name its new office chair. Of the 39 possibilities that Capsule presented, Herman Miller settled on setu, a Hindi word meaning “bridge.”
An easily mispronounced marketing faux pas? Keller says no, for two reasons. First, correct pronunciation isn’t “absolutely necessary,” because in product naming, how a word looks can be just as important as how it sounds. “Setu,” visually echoing the word “seat,” sticks in the mind.
Also, a mysterious word can make people feel like insiders, Keller says: “If you get something that’s hard to pronounce, and you now know how to pronounce it, you’ve entered a bit of a club.”
