For your 'awww-shucks-IP-feel-good-story-of-the-week', this Kat brings you news that a letter from an English toddler and a FaceBook campaign has resulted in major English supermarket chain Sainsbury's changing the name of one of its home brand breads.
For those new to the intricacies of the world of bread, 'Tiger Bread' (also known as 'Dutch Crunch' in the US and 'tijgerbrood' in the Netherlands) refers to a loaf of bread with a unique crust which was first made in the 1970s. Usually, Tiger Bread is made as a white bread bloomer loaf or bread roll and rice paste is brushed on to the surface before baking so that a distinctive patterns is formed as the paste dries and cracks during the baking stage. Once baked, Tiger Bread has a crusty exterior but is soft inside and has a particular flavour due to the rice paste crust.In May 2011, Lily Robinson wrote to Sainsbury's:
'Why is tiger bread c\alled tiger bread? It should be c\alled giraffe bread. Love from Lily Robinson age 3 1/2'.
'I think that renaming tiger bread as giraffe bread is a brilliant idea - it looks more like the blotches of a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn't it?'
He went on to explain that:
'It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong (sic) time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly'.
He included a £3 gift card for Lily and signed the letter 'Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)'.
Lily's mother Lucy posted the letters on her blog and they soon became a hot topic of conversation on social media networks. A FaceBook Group was started 'Campaign to change Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread at Sainsbury's' which was liked over 150,000 times and shared over 48,000 times.
Last week, in a Press Release Sainsbury's stated:'In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our Tiger Bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread and seeing how that goes ... We think that naming tiger bread to giraffe bread is a great idea and want to thank Lily for helping us see the spots for what they are'.
The IPKat remembers that old saying 'the customer is always right'. Is this excellent customer service by Sainsbury's or just clever marketing?
Merpel cheekily suggests that Merpel Bread could be even more appropriate than Giraffe Bread. She also cheekily wonders whether bakeries and supermarkets who continue to label the bread as Tiger Bread instead of Giraffe Bread or Merpel Bread are now mislabelling their products?