Last week I had British Gas round to inspect my home’s old gas boiler, which happens every year as part of the home insurance package we have with them. It’s probably the last time it will happen, as we hope to have an air source heat pump in place by next winter. But it made me wonder: how long can British Gas continue with that brand?
In an age of climate change, being named after a fossil fuel isn’t a great look. It’s particularly awkward if your marketing leans heavily into family and home, as British Gas has done. Their adverts are often about protecting what you love, the value of home, and comfort and convenience. Climate change threatens all of those things, and the primary reason is the ongoing burning of fossil fuels such as gas.
It also doesn’t reflect the company’s sustainability efforts, and the role they could play in the transition to a new energy economy. They’re one of the few companies in the country capable of scaling up home technologies such as heat pumps or domestic storage batteries, and they’re a trusted voice at a time when there’s a lot of disinformation about green tech. It would be helpful if the brand served that future, rather the fossil fuels of the past. See Octopus for a brand that’s all in on the future, and which overtook British Gas in the electricity market this year.
Of course, you should think long and hard before you consignia an established brand to history – sorry, consign it to history, slip of the tongue there. Some examples of getting it wrong are notorious enough that I don’t need to name them.
However, British Gas has changed before. It started out in 1812 as the Gas, Light and Coke Company, the first company in the world to offer a commercial gas supply. For much of its life as a nationalised company it was widely known as The Gas Board, a term older relatives of mine continued to use long after it technically became the British Gas Corporation back in 1973, and then British Gas PLC in 1986.
If the company has evolved over time, perhaps it’s not surprising that British Gas briefly experimented with the word Evolve as a sub-brand. They marketed 100% renewable energy under the name Evolve, and then appeared to lose confidence in it almost as soon as it was launched. The Evolve brand lasted a year and closed in 2021, but it suggests that the company is aware of the need for change.
I suspect this is a conversation that has happened at British Gas and remains unresolved. It will come around again, and perhaps rebranding could be seen as a form of climate adaptation.
The Earthbound Report 