New Zealand, 100% Pure. The creation of a powerful niche destination brand

Abstract

Building a destination brand presents many challenges, and this paper critically explores Tourism New Zealand's (TNZ) creation of the ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ brand. Launched market by market between July 1999 and February 2000, the brand is intended to provide the platform for a doubling of the country's tourism foreign exchange receipts by 2005. The paper opens by briefly reviewing some of the key barriers facing would-be destination branders. It focuses particularly on the processes involved in successful brand building, and identifies as key the achievement of celebrity status and conversational value. Critical to the creation of a durable destination brand is the identification of the brand's values, the translation of those into a suitably emotionally appealing brand personality and the targeted and efficient delivery of that message. In the case study of New Zealand, the paper examines this process by reviewing the UK phase of the research that underpinned the brand creation; the positioning strategy; and TNZ's implementation of the brand. ‘100% Pure’ is the tagline for the country's first ever global branding initiative and showcases New Zealand's diverse landscapes, people, culture and tourism activities. It is, however, a very targeted initiative and the key markets for media activity are Australia, Japan, the USA, the UK, Germany and Singapore. The paper concludes that through the harnessing of effective marketing research and partnerships, and by targeting its approach, TNZ has created a powerful travel destination brand, positioned as an appealing niche player in today's global tourism industry.