New Zealand

meetthe
new
you

68 www.idealog.co.nz
 What does New Zealand mean to them, up there?
Sheep? Scenery? New thinking from the UK suggests
that New Zealand has a rare opportunity to mean
something very special in the northern hemisphere.
Are we up to it? Jake Pearce lays down his own 2011
challenge for selling Brand New Zealand

In
the late 1980s I was working in London as a marketing
executive for the world’s biggest brands in the fastest-
growing markets in Europe. I was young and on the up,
the economy was hot, hot, hot and I can honestly say that
I thought about New Zealand, well … never. But I remember seeing
a billboard that made me giggle: ‘What do you call a sophisticated
Australian? A New Zealander.’
Now that I live here, I realise the billboard was for Steinlager, and
it turns out to be more prescient than I first thought. A powerful piece
of trend analysis by world-leading semioticians Malcolm Evans and
Stephen Seth confirms that Brand New Zealand is potentially much
more interesting than the usual list of green fields and happy sheep. The
work, conducted for a multinational with a Kiwi liquor brand, suggests
New Zealand could occupy an enviable space. I think this identity is
best described by two words: ‘raw sophistication’. Which is not to say
those words must be plastered on all things Kiwi; but there’s an essence
of New Zealand that’s both raw and sophisticated and it’s a story we’re
failing to tell.
Malcolm’s speciality is foresight semiotics—the study of signs
Mountains, lakes, rivers ...
and symbols to understand cultural trends, which in turn provide
is that it?
opportunities for new categories and products. He pioneered its
application in business; his company, Space Doctors, provides trend
and brand analysis on categories to Procter & Gamble, Wrigleys and
SAB Miller. The work not only helps predict new categories, it also
assists companies to get their communication imagery right ahead of
cultural change.

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 I worked with Malcolm for many years in Europe and was
responsible for the ‘in-country’ component of this New Zealand study.
The client wanted to know what Brand New Zealand means in the UK
and Europe. Is it still the Little England of the South Pacific? Australia’s
colder cousin? The clean, green, ovine capital of the world? Home of …
I’m yawning already … Jonah Lomu and the fearsome All Blacks?
The results threw up the usual clichés, for sure. But our study of
symbols and icons shows that an emerging identity is bursting through
which owes as much to Fat Freddy’s Drop and Peter Jackson as it does
to Sir Edmund Hillary and Colin Meads. The new identity is refreshing,
unique and provides a powerful set of ideas for any marketer trying to
communicate to an export market. The work also suggests that much
of what we see in the likes of the ‘100% pure’ campaign and Air New
Zealand advertising is a damaging, inaccurate cliché that squanders
a wonderful opportunity. ‘100% pure’ is 100% wrong.
You can deduce a lot from icons and symbols. Space
Doctors takes imagery from advertising, packaging,
films, music, books, news reports and magazine
articles—pretty much anything that has a sensory
expression—to identify three facets of a brand’s life
cycle: the residual, the dominant and the emergent.
Malcolm calls them codes, because they suggest an ‘essence’.
Brand New Zealand’s residual code, for example, is a neo-colonial
outpost of Britishness that exists in an uneasy alliance with Maori. That
belongs to our history. What most people think about New Zealand
is described by the dominant code, which is the clichés that we groan
about: the clean, green, sheepy pragmatists who punch above their
weight in a lovable but harmless sort of way. It’s the image of the
straight-jawed Hillary and the crispest Hawke’s Bay apple. Jolly good
chaps, those Kiwis. Shame we abandoned them for the Europeans and
so on.
The ‘100% pure’ campaign plays to this stereotype. Its
panoramic spreads of white mountains and whiter beaches
reinforce the perception that we do little more than
raise cattle and run up mountains for kicks.
Athletes like Hamish Carter and Dan Carter are
the natural products of this 100% pure New
Zealand.
Trouble is it’s not true, nor is it that helpful. I’m
wildly proud of the Carter boys, don’t get me wrong.
But there’s more to New Zealand than sport, and there’s a
world that wants to hear about it. Bursting through the clichés is
an emergent code of creativity, flair, professionalism, sustainability
(maybe) and successful multiculturalism.
There’s no better expression of this new identity than the arresting
shape of a David Trubridge chair. It’s organically Pacific, reminiscent of
driftwood and dune grasses. Yet it’s also a fine example of engineering
and design sophistication. It’s at once Polynesian and European.
Artificial and natural. Functional and aesthetic. Flash yet earthy. It’s
uniquely New Zealand (although Trubridge wasn’t born in Enzed—and
that’s part of the point). It’s raw sophistication at work.
Other symbols come to mind: our America’s Cup challenge (mixing

Who’s the raw sophisticate?

malcolm evans on ...
Ireland
They’ve had their moment. Ireland
is now the Celtic tiger economy,
overrun by sophisticated European
travellers and overseas investment
but overplayed on the raw side—
Riverdance (please), Guinness
advertising imagery, diddly dee jigs
and images of smoky country pubs.
In the real Ireland, they’ve banned
smoking in pubs.
Australia
People would laugh at any
Australian claim to sophistication.
That would be pure Dame Edna.
Even the intellectuals are perceived
as brash, boorish ball-scratchers:
Clive James, Robert Hughes,
Germaine Greer. They’ve been
Pom-bashing and willy-waving for
too long.
Jamaica
Blue Mountains, reggae—its
moment has passed. Whenever I
hear the word ‘culture’, I reach for
Bob Marley’s Greatest Hits.
Canada
This is the other best contender
but it’s not visible enough. The new
conservative government, which
plans to extract oil in the Arctic,
hasn’t helped the idea of ‘raw’. It
does have an amazing number of
creative illuminati going back to
the 1960s, but they slide too easily
into an American identity. Canada
needs something like a Lord of the
Rings to give ‘raw sophistication’ a
chance.

70 www.idealog.co.nz
pragmatism and professionalism), Peter Gordon (simple yet complex
cuisine), Peter Jackson and Wellywood (commercial creativity), Fat
Freddy’s Drop (happy melancholy) and dance troupe Black Grace (a
Pacific appropriation of European art).
The work with Space Doctors makes me think that no other country
can claim this brand essence with as much credibility as New Zealand.
Sure, other new-world nations have it in spades: Brazil, South Africa,
Canada and Australia are strong contenders. Australia in particular
has a great deal to boast about. Its arts and scientific industries are
world-class and growing in importance. But remember we’re talking
perceptions here. The overriding image of Australia is an outback
larrikin like Steve Irwin. The new ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’
tourism campaign is abrasive and uncultured—a perfect fit for the
stereotype (the ‘100% pure’ campaign is the equivalent for NZ). By
contrast, New Zealand can be portrayed as the sophisticated alternative
down under. The Steinlager billboard was right.
The opportunity is also our challenge. For one thing, we aren’t
altogether pure, neither in an environmental nor a social sense. How
long before we are exposed as a polluting country with a strong history
of family violence? Also, the task of moving beyond the clichés requires
a united and consistent effort not just from Tourism New Zealand and
NZTE—and currently both organisations are singing out of tune with
this. It relies on us all agreeing to buy into one big idea, especially those
in the export sector. It’s estimated that 40 percent of all buying decisions
are based on country of origin. The more premium the product, the
higher this percentage.
So what do I mean in practice? Well, if ‘raw sophistication’ is the
brand essence, then you will see the expression in:
Premium agricultural products: fresh and packaged with a back story
about sustainability, including carbon-neutral production and humane
animal practices.
World-beating agricultural technology: the IP and innovation
that we’ve derived from a millennium of farming will be respected
worldwide.
Greenest industry: New Zealand as the world leader in renewable
energy generation and sustainable management.
Neutral politics: we’re sought after for international diplomacy, peace
keeping and pragmatic problem-solving.
Left-field pursuits: from the home of bungy jumping and the All
Blacks comes the next big thing in adventure sport.
I’m sure you can continue the list, because we’re already doing these
things and more. The best brands express what is already happening.
Good branding should be obvious in hindsight.
It’s time the world came to know about this incredible place called
Aotearoa, the world’s most raw, yet sophisticated country. It’s time
we pioneered a new breed of national brand, true to our name, New
Zealand. Welcome to the new New Zealand.

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