Strategy

Let’s Brand Together

Let’s Brand Together

Australian agriculture’s branding needs to reflect the values of its customers

Why is it that the worlds largest taxi company Uber, owns no vehicles? The most popular media owner Facebook, creates no content? And why the largest accommodation provider Airbnb, owns no real estate? The way businesses are being structured, brands established and revenue streams created has changed. Their value lies not in their physical assets; but in their utility, their understanding of changing needs and values of consumers, and importantly, their branding.

If you were investing in a business in this disruptive age, knowing consumers care as much about what your brand stands for as your product, would you first invest in your factory, or your brand? Right now, this is an immensely important question for Australian Agriculture, with a supply chain in an absolute flux, primarily due to the all-persuasive power of digital, enabling consumer power.

Structural transformation is also having a major impact in the form of significant foreign investment in farmland and food, the opening up of trade barriers in China and beyond, and the demise of statutory marketing bodies. Manufacturers once ruled what consumers would buy – today consumers are in control. Traditional food processors, traders and retail channels are left wondering about their next move.

McDonalds Senior Executive Gary Johnson spoke recently at Beef 2015, and reinforced the importance of quality and how its definition has shifted.

“Our decades old definition of quality no longer has merit. In a world awash with competition, people don’t buy from brands that don’t align with their values”. 

Speaking about the Australian industry’s neglect on ‘sustainable beef’ positioning, Mr Johnson noted the trend on values being reinforced by the digital revolution, allowing consumers to quickly spread stories, positive or negative.“McDonald’s wants to tell a good story – but it needs Australian Beef to tell it first. The more stories about the good we’re doing, the more customers want to align with our brand”.

For monolithic brands like McDonalds, who’ve built their brand on convenience and consistency, it’s a tough ask. They’re being overrun by agile brands like the U.S’s Chipotle – with less focus on mass marketing, and more on well-researched insights matching their consumer’s animal welfare and sustainability values.
So what is Australia’s Agricultural brand story? Are we a monolithic mega brand like McDonalds, or an agile consumer focused brand like Chipotle? Can we be both?

The NFF recently joined Meat and Livestock Australia’s ‘True Aussie’ brand, to help farmers capitalise on our strong reputation overseas. Undoubtedly, big scale, low cost farming, processing and retailing has its place and will continue to expand. ‘True Aussie’ appears a strong trading brand to support beef and lamb industries. Whether it has the elasticity to advantage other commodities such as horticulture, dairy, wool and pork may be more of a challenge – as it will be for emerging smaller, consumer orientated brands – fresh paddock eggs, heirloom tomatoes, craft beers and rare breed pork, for example.

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How far will the Meat and Livestock Australia’s True Aussie brand stretch?

Executive Chairman of the Lempriere Group, Will Lempriere believes in leveraging the AUSTRADE platform as a more cohesive strategy to align interests and opportunities, rather than investing in new industry trustmarks. The company has co-investments in agricultural related entities, and recently presented at a New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) Bootcamp at Stanford University.

“Attended by almost 50 New Zealand industry heavyweights from private enterprise, family and corporate farming, government, environment, indigenous communities, treasury, academia and finance, the Trade and Industry Bootcamp effectively established a strategy and cohesive approach to trading opportunities and brand development,” said Mr Lempriere. “Having leaders of the industry in the same room for a week required significant commitment. To then have interests and opportunities facilitated by one of the world’s pre-eminent Business Schools was a very effective approach to a complex issue.” Mr Lempriere suggested AUSTRADE could provide a similar platform for the Australian industry.

Globally and domestically, there has been a power transfer from producers to consumers. Like any good marketeer, Australia needs to adapt. A clear vision for our industry; a clear brand architecture and an inclusive platform to harness the joint interests of a fragmented industry is critical to a successful brand to meet the desires and needs of tomorrow’s consumers.

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Check out Jim Gall’s final word in the ‘Decision Ag’ Magazine, published every month in The Weekly Times.

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