Nov 17, 2022
New Zealand deer products are taking a leap to a new dimension with the roll out of a new way of telling the deer farming story. Nature’s Superpower™ has been developed by DINZ to help the sector tell a consistent story about New Zealand’s venison and velvet products.
Deer industry storytelling shifts to Nature’s Superpower ‘Naturally farmed in New Zealand”.
Canterbury deer farmer Graham Peck, who attended the DFA Branch Chairs conference where the story was introduced, has welcomed the “very professional” initiative, which he thinks is a “great concept.”
“It will be a great promotional tool to support the marketing of our products, especially abroad, and anything that promotes venison and velvet is great for the industry and, therefore, for my business,” he says.
It’s a shift in the storytelling to “own our own language,” explains DINZ chief executive Innes Moffat, who 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.
Graham Peck: “It will be a great promotional tool.”
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, he said when introducing the new initiative to deer farming leaders at the DFA branch chairs meeting in mid-October.
The aim is to “move beyond the comparative approach we’ve taken previously,” says Moffat. “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.”
While the sector’s story has been told in export markets, “we haven’t recently told the story about raising deer to produce good products here in New Zealand, to our stakeholders and our policy makers,” he explains
“We need to also explain why producing deer products is a great use of New Zealand’s natural resources.”
An aspirational shift in storytelling.
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 New Zealand’s deer systems; and the luxury and quality of the products.
“These will be used to underpin stories around New Zealand deer farming and New Zealand 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 New Zealand and other key markets.
“We’ve got two exceptional products coming together under a single, memorable and ownable proposition,” says Moffat. “We’re going to begin telling our story more regularly, both here in New Zealand and, as appropriate in some markets around the world.”
The deer industry has a great story to tell and a new suite of cards to tell it.
The Nature’s Superpower stories can be shared via videos and a new micro-site.
