By Fiona Acheson, head of food, beverage, and consumer goods at NZTE
Building brand awareness is one of the biggest challenges New Zealand food and beverage exporters grapple with, according to research released by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) earlier this year – a challenge that has been heightened by travel restrictions. As part of the Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy, NZTE developed the Made with Care campaign to tell New Zealand’s food and beverage story. Launched in October 2020, the campaign is designed to grow awareness, preference and demand for our products in key markets offshore, and share New Zealand’s commitment to being a trusted, sustainable global food source.
Why Made with Care?
The campaign’s proposition of care is underpinned by global insights research commissioned by NZTE and carried out in six key markets (Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States), which reinforced that consumers are seeking safe, nutritious, healthy, premium quality, tasty and sustainably produced food and beverages. This aligns with New Zealand’s reputation as a trusted, ethical and sustainable producer. Whether it’s the care we show for our people and planet or the care we show for those who consume our food and beverage, care is what drives us to produce amazing food and beverage products loved by consumers around the world.
In each of the key export markets, care has also been taken to ensure the proposition resonates with local consumers. For example in China, the word selected to convey the concept of care was 倾心, which literally means “heart poured out onto”. It’s a word used when people put all their energy and hope for something that they really care about, as a priority in life.
More than 2000 New Zealand food and beverage companies have been involved with the campaign to date, either by using the campaign’s free marketing assets to support their brand-building activities offshore or through involvement with NZTE’s global activations. Recent campaign evaluation data shows that the propensity to purchase New Zealand food and beverage products is 30% higher amongst those who recognise the campaign.
How can your business get involved in the campaign?
- Use the free marketing toolkit which includes the MadewithCare campaign stamp, to help drive greater consideration and propensity to purchase via campaign recognition
- Use the hashtag #NZMadewithCare as a way to extend your reach and have your content shared on the MWC channels
- Use the campaign messaging and social templates to help shape your own brand story
Follow MWC @discovernew.nz and reshare the content to support a bigger movement
Fiona leads NZTE’s Food and Beverage Customers team. She has held roles as NZTE regional director for Greater China, NZTE investment director on the government’s cross-agency investment taskforce, and has also been trade commissioner in Guangzhou and for Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. She has also supported leveraging activities around New Zealand – China free trade agreement and led leveraging programmes around the ASEAN–Australia–New Zealand and Malaysia–New Zealand FTAs.
The information and opinions within this column are not necessarily the views or opinions of Hot Source, NZ Food Technology, or the parent company, Hayley Media.
