Giraffes and tigers and bread, oh my!


 

It’s the oldest story in the world. Girl meets bread, girl writes to maker of bread and gets lovely letter in response, girl’s mum blogs about it, maker of bread renames product in response to blog going viral and gets massive amount of publicity for free.

Er… what?

In case you’ve missed it, this is the story of little Lily Robinson (aged 3½), who wrote to Sainsbury’s (with a little help from mum) and asked why their tiger bread was named as such when the patterns on the distinctive product more accurately resemble the markings of a giraffe.

Sainsbury’s Chris King wrote a charming reply with the reasoning behind the name and included a £3 gift card for Lily to get some tiger bread of her own. Between the cost of the gift card, postage and Chris’s time, this probably all cost Sainsbury’s no more than £20.

Lily’s mum was so impressed that Sainsbury’s took the time to respond that she shared the story with friends, with pictures of Lily’s letter and Sainsbury’s response side-by-side. Twelve months on, the story of Sainsbury’s excellent customer service has finally gone viral and thousands of voices have been added to Lily’s argument. Today, Sainsbury’s has announced the 75p product had been renamed and was on sale as 'Giraffe Bread'.

The news has already swept the social space much in the same way as the original story, and has been picked up by BBC News, The Sun and many other media outlets. Sainsbury’s PR team have played a blinder: the public are falling over themselves with praise for the decision.

This just goes to show the massive - and deliciously cheap - publicity a consumer brand can get from giving outstanding customer service, and the amount customers seem to appreciate those companies which do. So, next time you’re responding to a customer query, use your loaf.

 


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