Brief
Ooni is one of the world’s leading home pizza oven brands with a global reputation for quality. Its Finnish founders based the brand name on the Finnish word for oven – Uuni – with products named in a series of four-letter words also rooted in Finnish words – Karu, Koda and Fyra.
Over time, the product naming system had become complicated and confusing, mixing product names with fuel-types with pizza sizes. Nucleus was called in to help rationalise and simplify the system so it could scale intuitively in the future, and create a new product name for their top-end pizza oven (launching in 2025).
Solution
We considered all aspects of the product range – both existing and proposed products – as well as accessories, componentry (such as the cool grab handle and in-built thermometer or ‘digital temperature hub’) and other elements of the service offer.
We took a step back and decided the best way to simplify the product naming approach was to apply a ‘matrix’ naming system, which would provide a consistent structure for describing: product range names, versions, fuel types, and product features / sizes. The first range to apply this system is Karu, where a second generation product is now available alongside the first generation product for the moment, launched as Karu 2, Karu 2 Pro and Karu 2 Max, denoting 12, 16 and 22 inch sizes. The product names are also qualified by their fuel-type, such as Gas Powered, or Multi-Fuel. The Pro and Max suffixes create flexibility (should Ooni launch an 18 inch version to replace the 16 inch, etc), underline the quality and high performance of the market-leading ovens and will be applied to other product ranges over the next 12 months.
Results
All our proposals for rationalising and simplifying the naming system were accepted, with Karu 2 being the first product range to be launched. The system is being rolled out as new products reach the market with the new flagship product range with new name launched later in 2025.