KEY POINTS:
When the team at Made From New Zealand (MFNZ) lead by Steve Adams started their journey with the creation of a giant silver fern on Bethells (Te Henga) Beach in 2001, little did they know just how long it would take to really develop their global brand, and the online community around it.
To clarify - this is not the "Buy New Zealand Made" campaign featuring the kiwi in a triangle. That's a separate private business that licenses their icon to be used on products "substantially transformed" in New Zealand. The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) also runs a "Buy Kiwi Made" campaign designed to boost home grown support of NZ manufacturers in partnership with Buy New Zealand Made Limited, so you can see it's a bit of a confusing space to inhabit.
The essential idea for MFNZ was to build an online community that showcased New Zealand's talents to the world. But first, they needed to create a buzz around the project and generate some cashflow. Thus the Made From New Zealand t-shirt was born. 10,517 tees were produced for sale, each containing a length of 'magic thread' stitched into the neck, spun from a kilometre of New Zealand merino blended with a genuine woolen sock donated by the late Sir Ed Hillary. "The thread represents the Kiwi DNA" says Adams, "the common gene that New Zealanders have wherever they are in the world".
And why 10, 517 t-shirts? That's the distance between the Bethells and Santa Monica beaches where the next leg of the journey was headed. They decided the only way to get a global brand launched was to create an international buzz, and where better than California? Home of movie stars, swimming pools and the Beverly Hillbillies it's the ultimate hype factory.
Fast forward to the 6th of February 2007, and seven camera crews, a couple of big diggers, one thousand New Zealanders and the Made From New Zealand team created a huge buzz by building a giant silver fern on Santa Monica beach. Not only was the event covered by US networks and both major New Zealand television networks, there was a live cross to Maori Television throughout Waitangi Day and an onsite documentary crew.
But how did they get there? It wasn't just through t-shirt sales. In order to really pump life into the project, they needed corporate sponsors. The campaign caught the attention of Air New Zealand, who embraced the concept and provided airline tickets for the fern-builders in exchange for Made From New Zealand tee shirts for their staff and customers: when the Waitangi Day flight touched down in LA, every passenger had a surprise tee hidden under their seats.
The next corporate to sign a cheque was Telecom, and they've been an enthusiastic partner ever since. "Telecom is a Made From New Zealand telco," said Adams, "and as one of the biggest companies on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, it's a fantastic partnership." In fact, as we went to press, Telecom had just signed an agreement to enable the Made From New Zealand community in a variety of ways, including marketing, provision of resources and ongoing support.
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) also helped support MFNZ get to Santa Monica, and bought MFNZ tees as well. Since 2003, NZTE's own export-led website www.marketnewzealand.com has been profiling New Zealand exporters and connecting them with international opportunities. According to Julian Moore, Group General Manager Marketing, Corporate Services: "Market New Zealand has an average of 43,352 unique visitors per month, and 68,000 emails have been sent directly to exporters via their profiles on the MNZ website over the past 5 years: 9800 so far this year (to the end of August 2008). There are about 3100 exporters profiled on the Market NZ website."
But what value was MFNZ bringing to these corporate sponsors, and what value was it trying to create as an online community? Steve Adams explains the incremental stages of the project so far: "in order to set about building the community, we had to have some market research done. We knew the first cut was to establish an online site, so we started by selling the t-shirts to generate some cashflow. Then we had to establish partnerships with corporates and the media, with the idea of creating essentially open source visual content they could use."
With the global media now aware of the brand and corporate partnerships in place, the next step was to work out what the online community would look like. Here NZTE's efforts also played a part, because Adams met the next generation of MFNZ owners/contributors: Patrick MacFie, Tim Norton and John Clegg at an NZTE Escalator event.
"We'd started to build a brand," said Adams, "and now we had to create a product. It's not traditionally how a business should be built but neither is our business model. Just for a change, it's not revenue focused. It's about creating New Zealand's largest international consumer-facing online community." Adams sees MFNZ's online community as something best created by the private sector, because they can take risks being creative and tapping into resources from other New Zealand businesses.
Finding other passionate entrepreneurs who were willing to help Adams create an organic, effective online community helped MFNZ focus on what they were delivering: "we now understand the value proposition, and how it will look."
Central to creating the MFNZ online community will be minimal barriers to joining and participating. "We want to help businesses get more exposure and help content providers by giving them easy access to content," said Adams. "Take an organics business as an example. They grow and create products that have a global demand. They also need access to a portal where they can share ideas with other organics businesses. We also want to help promote these businesses online, and act as a recruiter for them to generate global leads they can use to build their business."
Being an online business is not for the faint-hearted. The 2006 Central Online Management and Export Trade Accelerator (COMET) Project focused on 30 participants from around New Zealand looking to set up their own online businesses. The idea was to document the process they went through, and the hurdles they faced along the way, and identify market failures and barriers that government policy might be able to redress.
According to Rachel Dillon, Policy Analyst, Firm Capability, I & RD from the MED, they surveyed the participants a year later to see how the companies had succeeded in generating international sales. "The results were fairly marginal at best and served to underscore the main findings of the project, which were that the owners needed to be self-driven; that clear channels to market needed to be identified; that search engine optimisation is key and that an aggregated marketplace may be one mechanism to help address the latter two," said Dillon.
Adams understands the pitfalls other online communities have faced and is passionate about making the Made From New Zealand brand one that effectively generates global cut-through. "New Zealand is currently in a bit of a dark zone on Google.com - not so much with Google.co.nz." said Adams. "We've got the software development capabilities to build smart online links and a use-friendly interface. Ideally MFNZ could also be used as a channel for New Zealand-based SaaS (software as a service) providers."
As an additional resource, NZTE's Moore says the development of their e-business guide has so far helped 2,400 businesses work their way through the global online business minefield.
The guide features checklists, background information and good practice examples on a range of e-business subjects. The information is presented in a "learn as you go" format so that businesses can progressively develop their e-business capabilities.
"Once businesses have registered they are able to work through a series of activities to develop their online presence, at their own pace," said Moore. If required, an adviser is also available to talk them through the various stages and help them resolve any problems they may encounter.
Moore said the guide was revamped in February, and user feedback on both the guide's content and the step-by-step format has been very positive.
So will the MFNZ online community have legs? The team have already shown they can make a noise and generate global excitement when it counts. They've also shown that they're willing to sit down with others who have been successful in the global market, and learn from them. Above all, they're happy to admit it's still a work in progress, but with the help and input of interested and experienced people, they're confident the community will thrive.
Made From New Zealand could be a global identity to be reckoned with. It's up to New Zealanders to stand up and support our own. So is your business willing and ready to step up? Visit the website here
TOP TIPS
The top 3 tips for building an online community
1. Have a purpose
2. Be flexible and user-friendly with your online space
3. Listen to your community
- START-UP
