Brands reinvent themselves all the time, but not always for the same reasons. In the case of Planteray Rum – the new identity for Plantation Rum as of last month – the change is the culmination of a four-year process that brought the company face-to-face with painful, negative historical connotations, and ultimately towards what it hopes is a brighter future.
The brand makeover began in 2020, when calls for CPG companies to change racist branding or iconography earned wider attention in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. Plantation Rum was one of them, with criticism heightening around the link between plantations and slavery.
The company’s owner and master blender Alexandre Gabriel responded in June 2020 via a public announcement that said, “we understand the hurtful connotation the word ‘plantation’ can evoke to some people, especially in its association with much graver images and dark realities of the past.”
The new label, the end result of a four-year “journey of trademarking a name that reflects our brand ethos in 120 countries,” per the company, now pays homage to sugarcane, the plant that gives birth to the rum, and the sun’s rays that are essential for growing crops. The rum, which has been produced by the West Indies Rum Distillery (WIRD) for more than 25 years, remains exactly the same.
To celebrate the relaunch, the company debuted the Planteray Cut & Dry Coconut Rum, a 100% Barbadian rum infused with coconut from local farmers, available for the first time outside of the Caribbean. In its press release, there was a short mention of the original reason for the new name.
Confronting Rum’s History
Rum’s connection to slavery has come under the spotlight in recent years. The sugar cane industry in the Americas and the development of rum was made possible by slaves.
Planteray is not the first brand to change its name because of that dark past: Ron Esclavo rum rebranded two years ago to Patridom after criticism of the original name, which means slave rum. Other rum brands have also been called out for their links to slavery, meanwhile bourbon brands have also recently confronted the contributions of African-Americans and slaves to the development of the industry.
To Gabriel, the name was in reference to a farm, which he grew up on in France.
“If a name and our name create hurt, it is not part of our mission, and we came to realize this through friends who shared that with us,” he said.
The four year gap was due to the rum’s global reach and a laborious trademark process.
“We needed to find a name that would work in 121 countries where Plantation was being sold,” said Gabriel. “As you can imagine, registration must be done on each and we came across some roadblocks and needed to negotiate with people who felt the name was too close and do a lot of paperwork.”
Going Beyond a Name
Meanwhile social media posts in between the announcements doubted the progress and intention of the brand– a marketing ploy to defer criticism or a brand taking on a conversation about a spirit’s historical legacy? It seems, with no continued conversation about what plantations mean or the people who are part of rum’s history, Planteray has landed somewhere in between.
That may have broken trust with some consumers, according to Rai-mon Barnes, CEO of Consciously, a brand and content agency that aims to help companies connect with their audiences more authentically by connecting “value to values.”
“In today’s world you can deal with people not liking you, but people not trusting you is a totally different thing,” he said. “All you have to do is follow through on who you are saying you are.”
Barnes said he likely wouldn’t have advised the company to change its name, especially considering the cost— and because it only seemed like a priority after external pressure mounted. People may have not liked that decision, but it would’ve been more true to who the company is, he said.
“It would’ve been a lot easier to say, frankly we’re not from the U.S. and while we might have some crazy blind spots and we didn’t see it as this huge deal, we do see it now,” he said. “And what we’re going to do instead of changing our name — because we now get the name was offensive— is buy 15 different plantation plots and make them into memorials or try to do something to get at the core of the conversation.”
In a section of the shelf where emerging owners are reframing the category through the lens of their own cultural heritage or as a sustainable spirit, those brands may attract consumers who are looking to feel “good about what they buy,” he added. The company can’t change the history, but could’ve done something that was a little more genuine, he said.
Instead, the rename focused on other factors of the brand.
“Even in how they described the meaning of the new name it really still connects back to this sense of place, which is connected to the concept of where things grow,” said Candace MacDonald, co-founder and managing director of Carbonate, a creative strategy and brand communications firm in San Francisco.
The brand was likely balancing the responsibility of ceasing to put painful symbolism into the world with retaining the equity of their visual assets, which have not changed, and still appealing to their audience. As the brand slowly replaces inventory, how that plays out at the bar or on the shelf remains to be seen, she added.
To push the conversation beyond the symbolic brings up similar quandaries for companies wading into conversations about sustainability, LGBTQ+ rights or other social justice issues.
“If that’s actually important to you and authentic to who you are, and you have real initiatives in place, then yes, be a part of the conversation,” she said. “If it’s not actually important to you, then don’t enter the conversation. I think the worst thing to do is to position yourself as commenting on social justice when it’s not deeply rooted in who you are.”