Why the Rebrand?

Quite simply the product outgrew the last branding. The original brand had its place but it was difficult to make the preserves stand out against competitors. Therefore a radical decision was taken to rebrand.

I asked my closest friends to do a psychological profile on the jars. Needless to say the results greatly annoyed me. Being told that they expected someone who had retired and liked the finer things in life was not something I wanted to portray, so it was back to the drawing board!

A meeting with Helen Tarver freelance copywriter and content writer for food and drink got the ball rolling in January. During the meeting it became clear that the current brand had no meaning to why I started the business. I thought that people wanted to hear the traditional story of how my mum cooked chutneys and jams when I was younger. This couldn’t have been further from the truth, which is why the ‘About Us’ got changed to be brutally honest.

The COVID Months

The idea of a rebrand started in January and was well underway by mid March. Various graphic designers had been consulted, quotes obtained and everything moving in the right direction. Then everything ground to a massive halt. Shops and markets were closed, website sales stopped and money simply dried up. The rebrand was put firmly on hold until the good times started to roll again.

This didn’t stop the business though, I had enough resilience and dogged determination to keep it going no matter how hard or tough it got.

I was approached by a friends friend who wanted additional work for her portfolio and the stars aligned. It was easy to work directly with someone who had so many amazing ideas and the brand concept began to grow.

Work started in earnest, and the launch date was first set for the end of January 2021. This unexpectedly was then brought forward to the beginning of December 2020. What a time to launch a rebrand!

Why?

Quite simply, stock was running low due to the media coverage the business was getting. Matthew’s Preserves sales had picked up considerably in the autumn months and it was desperately running out of stock.

Winning another Three-star  Great Taste Award and being mentioned in The Times Top 50 Products in September started it.

Then winning The Great British Award Savoury Preserves Category for our Spicy Pineapple Chutney in October. Coupled with being mentioned in The BBC Good Food Magazines Christmas Edition Top Three Preserves. It was all going off!

The business was in dreamland, the stocks were depleted and if the date wasn’t brought forward sooner, Christmas would have been a much quieter affair. Launching in December is not advisable though, especially trying to juggle the new branded jars with the trying to get rid of the older stock. One for the memory bank, not to do it again!

Added to this website sales going through the roof, a new website to be commissioned but the old one not being good for purpose equals a very hectic couple of days. I had to quickly go about changing everything to work with the new brand.