Tate Oil is a 50+ year old company based in Engage Comms' hometown of Otley, West Yorkshire. The sales team were looking for a trusted local partner to launch their new Solar PV proposition to their existing niche customer base.
Engage Comms devised a highly targeted launch campaign that focused on maximising return on investment from a ‘quality over quantity’ audience. Our key challenge was to differentiate Tate Solar from the plethora of other solar panel installers, many of which have a reputation for ‘hard selling’ to a highly sceptical audience who believe the ‘no upfront cost’ funding is ‘too good to be true’. We focused on the parent company Tate Oil’s history and trusted expertise with the energy needs of their existing ‘off grid’ rural customer base, along with its investment in commercial-grade, top-tier solar technology, to set it apart from its competitors.
The team had made a start on branding and a website and asked us to bring a professional edge to this, along with the development of a suite of digital and print materials to communicate their new proposition to Tate Oil customers, personalised for target sectors including farmers, engineering companies, and rural schools.
Following the successful launch and ongoing marketing support for Tate Solar, Engage Comms was asked to develop a group-wide marketing strategy that would bring together the different companies operating under the Tate Oil banner, reduce the group’s reliance on the oil brand in the future, and allow it to bring new and more diverse products and services to market. We created a unified parent brand, the Tate Family of Companies, under which the whole group’s offer could sit, and re-branded DriveCard Europe (the group’s fuel cards and telematics business) to Tate Fleet, incorporating a new fleet mobility and leasing offer.
Working with our trusted developers, we built new websites for both the Tate Family of Companies and Tate Fleet (which including some complex technical elements such as a garage locator) and launched both to market. We are now working closely with the Tate Solar team on developing a wider renewables offer.
This new group-wide approach to branding and marketing is allowing for much more streamlined operations and sales and has left space for future growth and diversification while retaining the original heritage and family roots of the business.
