Comms: The ‘Golden’ Rules for Communicating a Change in your Business
Karen Thatcher
Image: Lyle’s Golden Syrup
This week, Lyle’s Golden Syrup had a rebrand! If you haven’t seen it yet, they’ve found themselves in a bit of a ‘sticky’ situation… The reactions online have been mixed, with the media generally focussing on controversy over excitement.
When it comes to communicating a change in your business, charity or organisation, like a shiny new rebrand, there are a few ‘Golden’ rules you can follow to keep the comms positive and be prepared for any negative reactions.
The team at Bloom Creative have shared their take on the new look for Lyle’s Golden Syrup (spoiler alert: they like it, as do I!) and asked me to share my 3 top tips (Golden rules) for communicating your own rebrand to your audience
“The way you choose to communicate can either create unity or division, instil trust or break it...”
The thing with communicating well in almost all situations, is that the way you choose to do it: the words you use; the timing; the platform, they can all make or break the way the information is received. You can create unity or you can create division. You can instil trust or you can break it.
Tate and Lyle’s brand is huge and what comes with it is a lot of reminiscence…
…Seeing that deep green and majestic gold, tin of syrup in our kitchen larder even now in my 30’s, throws me back to childhood- using the end of a silver tablespoon to slip under the lid, lifting it off with the unmistakeable sound somewhere between a metallic pop and a liquid gurgle, followed by an inability to put the lid down without sampling a taste of the nectar (and usually dripping it along the counter in the process). All of that combined with the bonding moments of baking with my Mum or my great Aunt.
Image: Lyle’s Golden Syrup Tin
Whether Tate and Lyle know it or not, their product is not just physical goods, it is memories made and memories stored for many people of multiple generations. There is no business owner who wouldn’t DREAM of achieving that kind of power in their brand.
But as Voltaire said “With great power comes great responsibility.”
“It’s the perfect balance between a nod to the old and an invitation to the new. ”
I sit firmly on the middle of the fence with how I feel about the roll out of the new branding. From a visual point of view, much like Bloom Creative has said over on their blog post, I really like it. It’s the perfect balance between a nod to the old and an invitation to the new. Keeping the original branding on just the tin, whilst progressing the rest of the products was a bold and complicated call to make. And although usually I would scream “consistency, consistency, consistency!!”, in this case, I love the sentimentality that’s retained in the tin.
People are opposed to change, and usually that would define me entirely. I’m a sentimental soul and so change especially when it comes to things that are reminiscent of my childhood, hits me hard. BUT, they waited 150 years to rebrand, if that’s not enough time, I don’t know what is…
“People don’t buy into visuals alone, they buy in the heart and the soul of who is behind the product.”
With all of those positives of me cheerleading the visuals of their branding change decisions, my problem lies in how they have communicated it… With any comms I firmly believe that authenticity is key. People don’t buy into visuals alone, they buy in the heart and the soul of who is behind the product. They want to feel valued, they want to feel listened to, they want to feel like they are important and considered. It is basic human nature to want to feel all of those things, especially when you have been a loyal customer to a brand for the majority of your life.
But, do I feel like Tate and Lyle have achieved that in their comms around the rebrand?
I can’t say that I do.
“...authentically invite your customers into the story with you....”
There will always be a proportion of people who will create up ’roar’ around any change. Regardless of how well you communicate it, the trolls will out, especially with a brand that is so well known as this. It’s the reality of the world we live in. BUT, if you have structures in place of how you authentically invite your customers into the story with you, celebrate it with them, explain why you chose the change, and the positive impact it will have on them going forward, then the trolls shouldn’t matter.
I’m not entirely convinced that Tate and Lyle did this…
In comms my first piece of advice when communicating is always to consider:
WHO am I trying trying to communicate to?
WHAT am I trying to communicate?
WHY am I trying to communicate it?
And then WHERE do I need to communicate to meet the who, what and why?
I think this comms rule is a fundamental one that they forgot to follow.
The biggest example of this is that they have a great opportunity on their website to showcase and celebrate the change. I love the section on their website that timelines the development of the brand from 1881 up to now… But they go silent when it comes to the change, with the last update being about nothing more than their product reaching worldwide countries. As a consumer that feels disorganised, ill-thought through, and not at all transparent in bringing us into the story. I celebrated as I scrolled through the product development, and then felt thoroughly let down by not having a conclusion to the story. (Especially when it’s a big plot twist!)
Why doesn’t it feature there?!
Image: “Our History” section of Lyle & Tate Website
I could continue with a full dissection of whether I feel like they have fallen short in their comms. But in reality, it kind of doesn’t matter now, it was an opportunity missed. And I think that’s the most important takeaway for me and number 1 of my 3 golden rules you can follow for communicating your own rebrand to your audiences:
Don’t miss any opportunity to frame and celebrate a big milestone in your business or organisation like a rebrand. If you aren’t the one to lead on sharing the news, your vision and your values get lost, and others may share it for you- but when that happens, your intentions get lost in other people’s perspectives.
Have your story ready to go in different formats BEFORE launch, tailored for the correct audiences: on your website (your full brand story, you values and your vision), on you social media (the more colloquial, relational story, drip fed across a period of time), press releases (make sure you’ve written a thought through commentary to send to the press with all the accurate and relevant details, including photos) and a newsletter to your loyal customers, maybe even sent out a day before, as a loyalty perk!
Invite your followers into the process BEFORE you make a big change. Why not test your logo out with your target audience first? Give them some sneak previews of what’s to come (in a way that doesn’t compromise your brand launch, but gets people excited), and ask their opinions! “This or that?” Is a big trend at the moment, if you’re planning a rebrand and are deciding on colour schemes or other easily communicated details, use your social media to gain opinions from your brand followers
Although I don’t think Lyle & Tate got it completely right with their rebrand- more specifically the way they communicated it, I think it’s always important to say this:
Even the big brands are built and run by humans and humans aren’t perfect.
I can hold my hands up and say, I’ve not got it right 100% of the time either (not even close!).
Discussing opinions on current topics, learning and growing is an integral part of business, and utilising each other to do that is an integral part of community! So whilst I think they could have done better, I want to end on this: I really love the new look. Well done Tate and Lyle.
Head over to Bloom Creative’s blog to read more about their thoughts and insights into Lyle’s Golden Syrup’s rebrand!
This is me, Karen, the Thatch behind the Creative. I’m passionate about helping and equipping people to communicate the voice of their organisation in a creative and sustainable way, tailored to their specific resources and abilities. From design to comms strategy, I offer a wide variety of services. Get in touch today to talk about how we can work together!