The deer (tia) industry is rolling out a unique suite of cards under the title Nature’s Superpower to better tell its deer-farming story.
Developed by Deer Industry NZ (DINZ), the promotional tool will support the marketing of venison (i hopukia) and velvet (papamōnehu) products domestically and internationally.
“It’s a shift in the storytelling to own our own language,” DINZ chief executive Innes Moffat said.
Moffat has been working with DINZ markets manager Rhys Griffiths, venison marketing manager Nick Taylor and former Designworks head Sven Baker on the new unified brand story.
It puts together the components of a story that can be applied in different markets and for different audiences with components that may add to companies’ own brands.
“The aim is to move beyond the comparative approach we’ve taken previously to create our own stories instead of saying venison is like this, or not like that, to elevate our products so they are valued as nature’s finest, naturally farmed,” Moffat said.
While the sector’s story has been told in export markets, the industry has not recently told the story about raising deer to produce products in NZ to local stakeholders and policy makers.
“We need to also explain why producing deer products is a great use of NZ’s natural resources,” Moffat said.
The narrative includes five building blocks – the ingenuity of the sector’s pioneers; farming in harmony with nature; the superior health and nutritional benefits of venison and therapeutic potency of velvet; the integrity of NZ’s deer systems; and the luxury and quality of the products.
These will be used to underpin stories around NZ deer farming and NZ deer products.
They can be applied in a way where they will be beneficial in individual markets and to different audiences.
The new Nature’s Superpower trademark and straplines “Nature’s Superpower protein” for venison and “Nature’s Superpower supplement” for velvet, have been registered in NZ and other key markets.
“We’ve got two exceptional products coming together under a single, memorable and ownable proposition,” Moffat said.
“We’re going to begin telling our story more regularly, both here in NZ and as appropriate in some markets around the world.”
