5 NZ Made Alternatives

What to consider before decided your provenance strategy.

You don’t have to label your product with the ‘New Zealand Made’ Kiwi trademark. There are many alternatives and in this article we look at 6 alternative approaches that might work just as well for you.

1. Write ‘New Zealand Made’ On Your Product

You don’t need to show a logo. You could simply write the words ‘New Zealand Made’. As long as the country of origin claim you are making is not misleading, then you are within the Fair Trading Act.

If you’re a new business your customers may ask for more validation of your claim. Having another third party vouch for your claim can be valuable. You could talk about the origins of your supply chain or could talk about the suppliers you rely upon to help substantiate your claims in the minds of your customer. Three options:

New Zealand Made

Made in New Zealand

Made in NZ

2. Integrate Country Associations Into Your Own Brand

Integrating country associations into your brand isn’t a new idea, in fact one of New Zealand’s earliest brands, Kiwi shoe polish has done this for the best part of a century. You can protect your brand by making an application to IPONZ like SC Johnson & Son have done with help from AJ Park.

Another example is Fletcher Buildings have trademarked their Golden Bay Cement logo with ‘NZ Made’ associated in the wording tie up.

Lewis Road Creamery incorporate the words ‘New Zealand’ into their artisan butter product in the shape of a circular stamp.

Again, you’ll need to make sure you’re within the Fair Trading Act.

3. Create Your Own Provenance Logo

Creating your own Country of Origin logo means you own it and you don’t have to pay a licence fee to use the ‘New Zealand Made’ Kiwi trademark.

Bostik New Zealand have a registered trademark of the fern in a circle with ‘NZ Made’ written below it.

Croxley Stationery have a registered trademark for their ‘Made In New Zealand’ logo in the shape of the New Zealand landmass.

Some of the considerations when deciding whether to create your own country of origin logo include:

• How well established is your business? New businesses should focus on growing the trusted recognition of your business brand and leverage existing well known country of origin brand to assist with trusted recognition.
• What is the purpose of the logo? If you want to tap into existing consumer recognition of country of origin, you may be better using a well recognised logo that has been in-market for some time.
• Where will the logo be used? If you are intending on using the logo digitally, you may want to consider that you will need to also manage the protection of your logo by applying for a trademark.

4. Make A Generic Claim

Generic claims are considered of lower provenance quality, however may be more suitable for you if you need more lattitude in the sourcing of your ingredients or components. Two options:

Ingredients Claim

Made in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients.

Branding Claim

Made For Adventurers

Both provide a degree of gray and are open to intepretation and can be confusing to some consumers. If you can make a more substantial claim it will increase your provenance quality.

5. Get The Fernmark Country Of Origin Logo

The Fernmark logo is used by New Zealand businesses who have been exporting for over 12 months and is administered by the New Zealand Government. If your market has a high degree of respect for government authorised products such as China, this logo can be a powerful endorsement of the product you’re making.

The Fernmark is also quite permissive in it’s use. The Fernmark is available to overseas manufacturers as long as the product was designed in New Zealand, allowing you to shift manufacturing overseas without losing your Fernmark status.

Some of the considerations when deciding whether to the apply to the government run scheme:

• What is the investment over a five year period? For businesses $2m+gst expect to pay $7,500+gst
• Does having a government related connection to your business potentially create a negative association depending on which government is in power?
• Is your primary market domestic New Zealand? If so, you may be better with the ‘New Zealand Made’ Kiwi trademark given it’s broad consumer awareness after five decades of use within the New Zealand marketplace.
• Do you need to provide a country of origin claim? The Fernmark is a ‘country brand’ not a ‘country of origin’ brand. If you need to make a country of origin claim, you must include the word ‘made’ either by writing ‘New Zealand Made’ or adopting a logo with the words ‘New Zealand Made’ included.
• Do you need to label existing product inventory? Fernmark doesn’t provide stickers or labels for existing product inventory.

6. Join The New Zealand Made Business Group

The ‘New Zealand Made’ Kiwi trademark is the visual shorthand used by businesses to tell domestic and international customers that their product or service made in New Zealand. The trademark is administered by the Buy New Zealand Made Campaign.

If you have a domestic customer audience for your product, the ‘New Zealand Made’ Kiwi trademark is the most popular particularly in food and beverage, construction, beauty and software services.

Some of the considerations when deciding whether to the apply to the privately run scheme:

• You will be joining a group of over 1,500 New Zealand businesses are actively using the logo on millions of products sold domestically and internationally. Watch the Making It New Zealand series to see some examples:

It’s the largest and fasting growing country of origin licensing organisation so you’re tapping into that broad market awareness that includes markets like China.

However if you want something that’s different or new, you may be better with option 2 or 3 above.

• Do you want personalised marketing campaigns featuring your business? The Buy New Zealand Made Campaign provides personalised marketing campaigns and features like appearing on the A Kiwi Original podcast.
• Do you have some products that are not NZ Made? You are able to use the logo on selected products as the licence is granted to your organisation for use across a selected number of licensed products.
• Do you need to adapt the logo to fit in with your branding look and feel? You are able to change the background colour of the ‘New Zealand Made’ Kiwi trademark or make it transparent with the background of your choice. Get The Kiwi Branding Edge book to see how it’s been adopted by 70+ iconic brands.