IF Statement - 64 Levels of Nesting Breached

Hello,

I'm trying to categorize SKUs in my item list based on values defined in a table on Excel. I thought I had a solution until Excel gave me the error for maximum levels of IF nesting. The formula I was using goes along these lines:

IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Jack",$C4)),"JACK", IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Cutting",$C4)),"CUTT", IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Hammer",$C4)),"HMMR", IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Lighting",$C4)),"LIGH", ..............

I have a list of categories in column A and a list of 4-character values matching the category in column B.
Ex: Hammer in Column A, HAMM in column B. I need a formula that will find the word "Hammer" (Column A) within a product description "Industrial Hammer Drill" ($C4), and attribute the value "HAMM" (Column B) to the item. The same idea applies for the near 500 categories that are in my spreadsheet.

Thanks!!