From the Brand Historian’s timeline: 1837

Identity is one of the touchstones of great brands and choosing house colours is one of the most important strategic decisions founders have to make. Some brands like to own one colour – think of Cocoa Cola or Barclays Bank, Easy Jet or Cadbury’s chocolate, but other brands prefer a particular combination of colours and this is true of two famously British brands created in the year when Queen Victoria ascended the throne. Coincidentally, though in very different categories, both these brands chose the same highly distinctive colour palette.

In Britain, in 1837, Charles Dickens was just publishing Oliver Twist, but in Spain, there was a particularly pitiless civil war of succession being fought between the conservative Carlistas and more liberal forces led by the Regent, Maria Cristina, acting on behalf of Queen Isabella II. Los Christinos had the support of France, Great Britain and Portugal, which in this case also meant supplying arms. War is the mother of opportunity, and the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company originally set up by three Brits to serve various ports on the Iberian Peninsula received a contract from the British Admiralty to deliver mail, charter steamboats and almost certainly supply guns. The colours P&O ships sailed under reflected the flags of the two Iberian Peninsula kingdoms – blue and white for Portugal (at least at this time) and the red and yellow of los Liberales, the party of the legitimate Spanish government.

Over the next century, P&O opened up the world, and created with its cruise ships like Canberra and Oriana, great icons of Britishness, proudly flying its distinctive ensign. The Brand Historian remembers when he was working with P&O Cruises, learning that wherever in the world the Canberra docked, the first thing that went ashore in the tender was the tea urn for that familiar British cuppa.

Another great British comfort food that to have conquered the world is custard, also known – in a triumph of positioning- as la sauce Anglaise. Egg, sugar, milk, vanilla and careful cooking over a gentle heat creates what became a principal feature of British deserts. But Alfred Bird’s wife was allergic to eggs and so this enterprising Birmingham chemist set to work to create an egg-less custard using cornflour as a base. One evening his custard from powder was served, possibly by mistake, to other guests who much approved of it. Thus, the great custard and baking powder empire of Bird’s was born that would go on to serve another Empire.

The colour palette chosen for the tins was a patriotic red, white and blue and a wonderfully creamy vanilla yellow. In Criccieth, on the north coast of Wales where the Bird family had a holiday home, there is a house situated a short walk from the ancient castle. Appropriately, it is still painted in the colour of Bird’s Custard.

Music to stir your custard to:

Chopin Nocturne in C Minor