Problem: Wrike sounds like "Reich"

Sarah, I completely agree with the issue you brought up. My team recently adopted this tool and I can't tell you how many times I've been using text-to-speech functions only to have Siri transcribe "Reich." Luckily I've caught all instances when this has happened (I think), but I always have to be hypervigilant, which is not what you want from a very expensive tool you've just purchased. It also seems like a situation that could've been avoided through comprehensive and diverse user research prior to launching the brand. 

Thank you, Alicia! I completely agree with your last statement especially -- how did this name pass through all of their testing as they were rolling out the brand? smh.

I'd like to add my voice here as well. This concern has clearly been around for some time, with customer inquiries recorded as early as 2017 (and that's what's publicly available).

Frankly, I imagine that no amount of brand storytelling will every override the immediate and potentially visceral response some people may feel when they hear the name said out loud. To even introduce the company to our colleagues (which is unavoidable since if they are using the system, they will see and hear the brand name), we immediately have to offer an explanation and apology. It's a tough position to be in as someone who would like to advocate for all that this powerful tool has to offer. 

As a marketer, I understand what a big lift a name change can be and how important it is to have brand recognition, but I would also add that this is an instance where the impact far outweighs the original intent of the name (as shared in that earlier post).

Hi Sarah Hansen, Alicia Parker, Meredith Purvis! First of all, welcome to the Community, and thank you for letting us know your feedback on Wrike's name. I'm hoping that you've found this space useful, and please rest assured that all the feedback that we receive on this forum is passed on to our Product team.

I am really sorry to hear that the name of our company brings up negative reactions. As my colleague Stephanie says in the post that Meredith mentions here, such associations are not our intention. The word "Wrike" is a combination of "Work" and "Write". At the same time, I understand where your concern comes from, and although there no immediate plans for changing the company name, our team has received this feedback, and it's definitely on their radar. 

Thank you again for letting us know your thoughts and concerns! 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Please rename this company and product. It has such a horrible association that it is difficult to believe that it was selected in the first place. Every coworker that I discuss the product with has the same response when they learn of the name, which is a mixture of incredulity and discomfort/disgust that a company would choose such a name. 

Welcome to the Community, Chris Anderson! 👋

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feedback here, I'll be passing it to our team.

Please let me know if there's anything else that I can help you with. 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Echoing what has been said here, the name is terrible. I onboarded a new employee this week with a particularly sensitive background around "Reich" it was a very uncomfortable situation. We will not be referring to this product by name in our company, which as a marketer myself, is a pretty big fail for you. My company is new to this software and we look forward to using it but change the name or debrand the UX! In this positive era of increased DE&I, be more sensitive.

Hi Tim Boot, welcome to the Community! 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Wrike's name. As I mentioned above, the word "Wrike" is a combination of "Work", ''Like'' and "Write", and nothing more. I'm really sorry to hear that you have concerns about this name, and I will pass on your feedback to our team about this. 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa What you all seem to fail to understand (or worse, not care about) is that it really doesn't matter what the intent of the name was if it's landing poorly on its users and purchasers. The way the name is said aloud is a homophone with a word associated with one of the greatest atrocities of the past century and your organization's unwillingness to acknowledge that speaks poorly of you. And from a business perspective, if the mere name of your product is a factor is sales and renewal discussions, you're doing yourselves and your users a disservice. 

I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way Glen Turpin. I think it's important to note that there is absolutely no ill intent here. Please rest assured that we continue to pass this feedback on to our team. If we have any updates on this in the future, we'll make sure to let you know. 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa, clearly you missed the part of Glen Turpin's comment where he said, "What you all seem to fail to understand (or worse, not care about) is that it really doesn't matter what the intent of the name was if it's landing poorly on its users and purchasers." I couldn't agree more with him. It's nice to know that you didn't have ill intent, but that is not the point in this situation. The IMPACT of your company's choice of name, and how it is affecting users--regardless of its original intent--should be of concern to your company. The fact that at this point you are willfully ignoring that is even more upsetting. Very disappointed.  

Elaine Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Erfahren Sie mehr über Wrikes leistungsstarke Funktionen und lernen Sie Anwendungsbeispiele kennen

Elaine Wrike Team member Erfahren Sie mehr über Wrikes leistungsstarke Funktionen und lernen Sie Anwendungsbeispiele kennen

"But our Founder (note the caps) has such skill and grace with a portmanteau! Clearly that is more important, when considered with the sales numbers, than the 'negative impact' it may have on people who have suffered from past and present experiences of Anti-Semitism and intergenerational trauma." 

I wonder you've done the market research to determine if you have more clients who would be *angry* if you changed the name based on feedback such as this, than you have potential clients who would appreciate not having to have difficult conversations (or worse, avoid having difficult conversations) with employees who are naturally triggered by the inadvertent (I pray) associations this 'better way for teams to work (while alienating many of their Jewish, Queer, Indigenous, and disabled members)' invokes.

I say this as someone who encouraged my team to "try it, I think this software is valuable, and I know the name sounds like R*ich, but if it works, maybe wee can call it "Ree-kay" or something."  I'm embarrassed I did that and it reflects my deep privilege that I felt comfortable asking my colleagues to take that feeling lightly.  I moved to another platform recently and I apologized.

I don't expect an apology like that from this company, but I would "share the feedback internally" that I suggest you consider a name rebranding if you develop sufficient content changes to allow for it.

Hi Adam Reynolds, thank you for taking the time to post here and share your feedback. We do appreciate your insight and perspective in relation to this.

Elaine Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Erfahren Sie mehr über Wrikes leistungsstarke Funktionen und lernen Sie Anwendungsbeispiele kennen

Elaine Wrike Team member Erfahren Sie mehr über Wrikes leistungsstarke Funktionen und lernen Sie Anwendungsbeispiele kennen

Dear people at Wrike,

Reading the conversation above (dating back to 2020!) and having had the same instant association with the word "Reich" upon hearing the name of your tool, I find the response "As mentioned previously, there are currently no plans to change our name" nothing short of insulting to people who could be affected hearing this word every single day at work. I don't think this is an issue that can go on a backlog. This lack of research and insight on the part of Wrike's marketing team, or whoever came up with the name, is honestly baffling. I'd urge you to make changing your name a no. 1 priority. People in this thread have indicated they are struggling to introduce the tool because of its name. People have felt hurt because of the name. Change the damn name.
I'll continue to use the tool (because I have to, for work), but I try to avoid using the name whenever I talk about it. Because I can't be sure people won't feel their gut wrench when they hear it.

I'm very sorry to hear you feel this way Jacky Dado. Please know that evoking this association was not and is not our intent at all. As we said before, our founder created this name when he combined the words work, right, and like. There is no other meaning for the platform's name, and we are indeed sorry to hear that some customers find it difficult to use it. 

We have a process for working with the feedback from the Community, sending it to various teams internally, and reporting on it. Please rest assured that your feedback follows the process and is passed on to the respective team.

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts in detail, we really appreciate it. 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Hi. I've read back through this thread and am disappointed that Wrike not only holds on to this problematic name (what will happen when the third iteration comes out?) but doubles down by using a licensing level named COLLABORATOR. What in the actual. We see you.

Welcome to the Community Judy Le! I'm really sorry to hear you are disappointed, and I'll share your feedback with our team. I understand my reply may seem repetitive, but please rest assured that all feedback from this thread is being sent to the respective teams. It is not an easy thing to consider to change a name of an established company as you understand, but we are currently launching our newly updated platform, Wrike Lightspeed, and it's possible to use this updated name. 

In relation to the term "Collaborator", it signifies a type of user available in our collaborative work management solution.

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Judy Le
Not sure if this is helpful, but:

In our organization, everyone pronounces the name as "rick-ee" ( /rɪki/ ) only. Practicing this has brought some relief and when new employees onboard and ask about the name, I just say it's like the name "Ricky." And that's been working quite well. 

Honestly, we'd rather pronounce it incorrectly and be happy. 

It is not an easy thing to consider to change a name of an established company as you understand...

It has been over six years since this was brought to your organization's attention: https://help.wrike.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115002093705-Wrike-name-change-request

Lisa It is concerning that you are still giving canned responses about taking feedback to internal teams.

Thank you Angela Rountree!

Dan Welcome to the forums! 

We do share all new feedback with our team internally and we mention it a lot to make sure Community members know their voice is heard even when it's not possible to make a change at the moment. 

Our team has recently launched Wrike Lightspeed, an evolution of our solution. Would it be possible for your team to use that name? 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

My first comment within minutes of hearing the name - which iteration of the software is this?  the third??.  Same joke reused several times since!!  Anyone who's really objecting to the name, use something else, these online project tools are two a penny and tend to go to the wall or get bought out before long anyway.  

Just wondering where we are in this. Just said "Wrike" in conversation and people definitely made the association and commented. This name is bad (thats saying it nicely)  and is embarrassing to say in mixed company. 

Hi folks! I want to thank you for your candid feedback and for voicing your concerns about the name of our product. It's crucial for us to maintain an open dialogue with our users, and we take your comments seriously.

I understand that for some, the phonetic similarity can lead to unintended associations. I want to assure you that the name of our product was chosen many years ago, and has a completely different meaning that we explained in this thread before.

We're committed to providing a work management solution that is inclusive and respectful for everyone. We also understand that we work in a global context with teams from diverse backgrounds and cultures. We respect and value this diversity and do not want the name of our product to cause discomfort or misunderstanding. 

While changing a product name isn't a simple process and isn't currently planned, we're listening to your feedback. We will continue to monitor this conversation and take your comments into consideration as we move forward. In the meantime, we suggest you to consider the "Wrikey" pronunciation of Wrike (think Nike). 

Once again, thank you for your feedback. 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

When you say many years ago, was it pre or post WWII?

Justin, literally my first thought. Also does anyone remember when there was a AYDS weight-loss pill that changed its name overnight in the early '80s? Nothing is written in stone but we see you, Reich.

there was a chocolate bar called ISIS which rebranded too

The response to this issue is one of the most tone-deaf things I have seen from a company that wasn't trying to come across as the best product for white supremacists and antisemites.

I don't have a choice, I have to use your product, it would be nice if it didn't remind me of one of the worst events in modern history while I mark my tasks complete.