Saturday, March 30, 2024

How covid changed the face of NZ

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Consumers in New Zealand’s main markets have slowed down, got closer to nature, become more resilient and finally realised NZ and Australia are indeed two different countries.
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Results from the latest New Zealand Global Perceptions survey run by The New Zealand Story and Export NZ have provided some insights to distinct changes in consumer behaviour over the pandemic.

They are likely to influence how NZ markets its food and beverage products in coming months, and possibly years.

The survey was conducted in June last year as the pandemic bedded into most of NZ’s major markets, with survey data coming from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Australia.

“This pandemic has really changed global consumers’ perceptions of the world and what is important to them,” consumer insights company One Picture’s consumer strategy director Alex Jones said.

“We have the opportunity to shift and highlight the changes that line up with our perceptions and their perceptions of NZ, especially when it comes to our care for our place and our people.”

One overall shift in attitude is for consumers to seek out enriching experiences and products over entertaining products and experiences. This is underpinned by a general sense of hope that other global challenges like climate change can also be dealt with.

But a level of anxiousness has also driven a greater move towards national protectionism than global teamwork, making it a greater challenge to market NZ goods to be more familiar and closer to the rest of the world.

“We found everyone was like this with the exception of Germany, which was looking at that European bubble,” he said.

In this environment, our approach to covid has boosted global awareness of NZ. Most consumers surveyed knew about this country’s lead on covid, even recalling unprompted national slogans like “team of 5 million” and “going hard and going early”.

“We are no longer just epic landscapes and Lord of the Rings,” he said.

In addition, the earlier and perennial difficulty of NZ distinguishing itself from Australia in our key markets has also diminished, with a far greater awareness that the two countries are not one and the same. 

Consumers have also folded Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, seen as a compassionate person and a mother, into a NZ brand image of being young, positive and human.

“Consumers used to really focus on what we had, our nature, our landscape, our agriculture. The focus has really changed to how we live, the fact we are respectful, inclusive, forward-looking and we really have a high quality of life,” he said.

Rebecca Smith | March 01, 2021 from GlobalHQ on Vimeo.

Jones says introducing what we are ourselves as a people provides an angle to help tell better, deeper stories about everything we grow, make and create.

But many consumers were also aware NZ has had a relatively easier journey with covid, thanks to an absence of shared borders, being far from the rest of the world, having a small population and being behind other countries in contracting the disease.

“We also heard covid bought our ‘shadows’ more clearly into focus for a number of consumers we spoke to,” he said.

“We went from small to smaller. We went from expensive to unobtainable. Their wallets may have shrunk, or supply chain challenges had taken away the option to buy from NZ. Thirdly, we went from remote to isolated. Covid 19 has made it harder to engage with us.”

Being seen as a ‘closed’ country was now one of the biggest battles for NZ as it opens up again. But our decisive action to care for people has stood out as a big positive in this country’s story.

“We have almost showed the way – there is a different way of dealing with covid 19 and what that could mean for citizens down the track,” he said.

Distributors and suppliers of NZ food and beverage in the survey revealed there was no better time to tell the NZ story.

“We have the world’s eyes upon us,” he said.

But consumer decision-making has been disrupted, and there has been a shift towards local producers, making finding the ‘local’ in what NZ produces, whether it be family owned or ingredients, vital.

Meantime price sensitivity is increasing, and NZ producers need to show we are doing more for consumers per dollar spent.

NZ Story director Rebecca Smith says there was always a risk NZ could be seen to be arrogant, given our covid status.

“Getting the tone right is absolutely critical. We are in a unique situation. It is challenging just for people to see us posting holiday snaps, when customers or suppliers have had children home for a year.”

She did not believe NZ was viewed as a global leader based solely with our PM’s popular approach.

“We have a very close alignment, not accidental, between our country’s values and the government-Prime Minister of the day. New Zealanders vote based on values.

“If it were just our PM or government, it would have been obvious it was not deeper. NZ has demonstrated we are cohesive in how we operate.”

The full results of the survey can be viewed online.

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