Misleading Product Names

On thing that really irritates the hell out of me is misleading or incorrect product names.

For example a work colleague produced a product today called pear cider. Surely i had misread the label and it really said Perry - Sadly not. This gave me the incentive to write to one of these companies, The content of the email is below:

Sirs

Let me first of all point you to this http://www.babycham.com/home.asp

I expect you are wondering what this has to do with you? Simply put, the name of the product NOT the brand name.

As you can see it states the product is a sparkling Perry. I don’t know why you insist on calling your new product PEAR CIDER actually does not exist. If you look at any online dictionary and search for pear cider, you will actually get a similar result to this

PERRY

alcoholic drink made of pears, similar in taste to cider
if however, you search just for cider you will get this result

CIDER

In Europe, fermented juice of apples; in the United States, unfermented apple juice, unless allowed to ferment, in which case it is known as hard cider. Selected apples are grated in a mill, and the juice is expressed and, for hard cider, fermented and filtered. The commercial product is usually pasteurized or treated with preservatives and is frequently blended to balance the chief constituents, sugar, malic acid, and tannin. In France cider is made principally in Normandy and Brittany. It is at its best after a year or two in cask. English cider from the southern and western counties is noted and rivals beer as a popular alcoholic beverage. Cider is popular also in Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. Perry is a similar beverage made from pears.

It seems sad to me that such a long established company such as yours cannot define the difference to what their product actually is. In fact in your case, I am sure Henry Percival is turning in his grave (founder of the Bulmer’s cider company just in case you have forgotten who he was)

Bottom line is your product description is misleading. I strongly suggest you re-think your branding methods, and not insult your customers intelligence by inventing a new name for an existing product.