Navigation of sister sites

We've been given an idea by a company who wish to increase sales over the suite of sites they have - the main idea is that they have a series of tabbed links in a header across all of their sites. Each of the websites are within the same industry and have a very slight product overlap.

Initially these tabs were just going to contain names

Now we're not a fan of this idea (see image 1)

we don't feel it gives context as to what these websites are about (I won't include the real names but they are quite vague) and we feel that it will possibly be ignored by the user.

A second suggestion (see image 2)

Was that we change some of the company names for the category of product they sell (for example cups, kettles, chairs etc.) and for where they aren't selling a product that we name the service (for example catering, table service etc.) and any remaining websites which don't sell product or have a service would just show the name. Which would look like so.

Now.. to me at least this confuses things possibly even further - while we've given them context it's a mix of products, services and names.

What I'd like your opinion on (see image 3 & 4)

if our suggestion detailed below is a better solution that would potentially see more conversions across the suite of sites?

We'd give sister sites some screen time, further down the home page and include their company logo, name, a bit about what they do and a cta to visit.

Then - using our bespoke CMS we'd allow site admins to decide (depending on the product) to show a targeted cta on the product page, encouraging users to also check out sister sites, placed out of immediate view so they aren't taken away from the site immediately but far enough down the page that if this product isn't for them then they have the opportunity to view the sister site.

As I say - feedback and any suggestions as to what we can do that hasn't already been suggested would be fantastic.

Thanks!