A few months ago this article appeared in The Guardian. Tyrells, the independent crisp maker, had succeeding in getting its products out of (yes out of) Tesco stores. Tesco had apparently sourced the crisps indirectly, against the wishes of Tyrells. Will Chase, the founder of Tyrells, expressed his desire to support the independent outlets that had supported him. Allowing his product into Tesco would have run counter to this principle.
It was this rare adherence to principles (presumably at the expense of additional profit) that made me want to find out more. This and my memories of working on Phileas Fogg in a previous life and having seen the merry dance that they were led by the multiple grocers.
So I had a look at the Tyrells website.
Gratifyingly the website supports the image I'd gained from the Guardian article. It's personal, unpretentious and easy to navigate. It's not quite homemade but there's definitely no fancy flash stuff. On the other hand there is plenty of interesting back story stuff, like the fact that they grow all their own potatoes. The whole site speaks of cottage industry, principles and a close-knit team.
Indeed, there's a section on the site that features the Tyrells Team. There's a photo of everyone from Wayne the potato foreman to Will Chase himself. And there's a link by each picture that allows you to e-mail each of them direct. This small, cottage, principled thing is accessible too.
Or so I thought.
I sent Will an e-mail basically saying that I'd seen a whole load of marketing veneer in my time and that it was nice to see some genuine brand integrity for once. He's obviously a busy man with a business to run but, to me, the direct e-mail link carried with it the implicit promise of some kind of response. Is that fair? Anyway, we're three months on with no reply and the feeling that Tyrells is not as small as it's cracked down to be.
This web accessibility thing represents an interesting challenge for brands. There's a general desire to get behind the scenes of things these days, whether it's via Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares or Google. And offering direct access to the people behind the brand is, in some cases, a valid strategy. But it comes at a price. For a while I had my e-mail address published on our website and received dozens of messages every week. This gave me some valuable insights into who was visiting our site and why, the occasional useful contact, and lots of job applications. It also gave me the burden of replying, which I conscientiously tried to do. In the end I gave up and had my e-mail address taken off the site. But, having removed it, I was left with the distinct feeling of an opportunity missed. That's sort of how I feel about Tyrells too.