Towns line up for identity parade

By DITA DE BONI

As the brain-drain and urban migration sweep New Zealand, many small towns are having a tough time holding on to their ratepayers.

But the death watch for small towns may need to be put on hold for now. In towns and regions throughout the country, residents and councils are banding together with businesses to make themselves more attractive to locals, enterprise and tourists alike.

And they are doing it professionally, using market researchers, branding experts and community endorsement.

Branding small-town New Zealand is hardly new - think Taihape "the gumboot capital," Ohakune "the carrot capital" or Gore "the country music capital."

But the scope of th new campaigns and their genesis in focus groups and emotional profiles is almost entirely newfangled.

The towns are not just cobbling together scenic postcards and cheap real estate - although those things may also be involved - but are studying and promoting their points of difference, just as a company might do for any of its products.

Emphasis on marketing towns has also become more important as city slickers decide a long commute is a worthy price to pay for a few hectares and quiet weekends. Often, ex-city dwellers have a choice of outlying areas in which to invest their livelihoods.

One bigger town - or smaller city, perhaps - is aiming to offer Auckland workers the "best of town and country" in South Auckland.

Papakura, 30 minutes south of the big city, is one of only four areas with population growth exceeding the national average of 0.5 per cent (the others are Waipa, Marlborough and Christchurch City), and is not far from the growing metropolis of Manukau. It is also situated just outside Franklin district, which is pegged to grow 70 per cent in the next 15 years.

But Papakura township seemed to be the forgotten middle child in the region, impoverished, and plagued by council infighting, which "stopped it going forward," according to one local source.

"Retail leakage" to nearby Manukau City Centre was occurring. The town had no brand, no logo and little investment interest.

To preserve and expand the city, local business decided Papakura needed to create a brand. In May, three focus groups representing the community met to discuss what the Papakura experience means to them, says District Enterprise Board chief executive Richard Lumsden.

"Before we just had a coat of arms and a byline," he says. "But we wanted a marketing brand that [everyone] here could use and would be consistent - and that was also representative of the community's character."

The groups decided Papakura's point of difference was "lifestyle and opportunity." A 50-page "brand statement" was sent to graphic designers in Britain (ex-Papakura-ites themselves) and a distinctive red, green, blue and white logo was drawn up to represent the town's essential elements.

Aqua blue stands for the waters of the Manukau Harbour - an optimistic colour choice, some would say - and green stands for the surrounding countryside and inner-city gardens. Red comes from Papakura's literal translation ("red earth") and the fishhook design represents the town's Maori population, who make up almost a quarter of Papakura's 42,000 inhabitants.

With the help of volunteers, the entire campaign cost Papakura only $20,000. The logo will be licensed out free to businesses and other entities for use, with licensing necessary only for quality control, says Mr Lumsden.

De Beer marketing and communications director Jillian de Beer oversaw the Papakura focus group and brand development exercise.

Ms de Beer has been involved in 30 small town branding exercises, and says she has more demand for work than she can keep pace with.

"The trend in small towns, as with all things, is the experience. The experience a consumer has with a brand is all-important - even in retail, where each shop has to also make [itself] a destination."

Ms de Beer says she has never encountered two towns that came up with the same "emotional footprint."

And she has seen a number, including Cambridge (excellence and success), Remuera (elegance), Hokitika (wild) and Onehunga (old and new).

It is hard to quantify the exact economic value to a town of a branding exercise, as the benefits can come in a number of both tangible and intangible ways.

Ms de Beer says investment is but just one positive byproduct of the process - just as sales follow successful branding of consumer goods - with one caveat: retailers must be onside.

"Often it is the retailers that don't understand the brand.

"But it is vital to the success of the small-town brand that each retailer is on board, or else it will be hard to present a unified experience."

One town that feels it has reaped the rewards of branding is Nelson, which employs two marketing campaigns.

"The centre-stage of New Zealand" is the in-bound tourism trade label for Nelson, Wellington, Marlborough and the Wairarapa, while all domestic product, including locally pitched tourism products promoting Nelson, use "live the day" to describe the heartbeat of the town.

The town's tagline and associated branding are up for review shortly. Authorities will use research to discover how ingrained the catchline is for trade and townsfolk, says Latitude Nelson chief executive Paul Davis.

Not all Nelson industries embrace the brands, and its administrators admit companies are often hard pressed to include country of origin, company name, the brands of bigger marketing cooperatives, the actual brand name and then the town's sunny moniker on top of all that.

But Mr Davis is adamant about the benefits of Nelson's branded identity to the town and visitors alike. "Live the day ... sums up Nelson entirely, it's something other parts of New Zealand do not have."