I always thought Brexit was a marmite issue but never quite like this.

Today’s headlines about Unilever’s and Tesco’s fight over pricing highlight just how quickly Brexit may become a reputation threat as well as a business challenge.

It’s also an internal communications challenge too. The legal action reportedly being pursued by pro-Brexit staff in four companies over the way they have been treated since the referendum may be atypical, but it is a reminder that on this issue employers need to tread carefully in balancing their business needs and the views of their customers and staff.

This was reinforced whilst speaking to a senior comms chief of a FTSE 100 company this week. He remarked how directly his business was affected by Brexit and how little he knew about what his customers, let alone his employees, felt was the right way forward.

To anyone facing internal or external comms challenges over Brexit, I’d offer the same advice as I did to my friend. Get some proper insights. Focus groups are easy to organise with customers or employees and alongside messaging studies, they could prove invaluable in shining a light on the best way forward. If you want to know more about how these tools could help, please do drop me an email.

Theresa May and the Government certainly have their hands full in the months before March. Today shows that as the battle for Brexit starts to bite, companies and brands have an awful lot at stake too.