Brand Foundations
Brand FoundationsLast month we invited you to complete a survey to help inform Wine Marlborough's messaging direction to both celebrate Marlborough wine’s 50-year milestone and to assist with a review of our branding to ensure we can successfully champion our industry and region.
Thank you again to everyone who lent their voice and time to this project.
On the back of our gained understanding around the alignment Wine Marlborough has with the New Zealand Wine and the Marlborough NZ brand we gained a deeper understanding about our place within the wider industry and our region.
Today, we are excited to share with you the foundations for the Marlborough Wine identity which forms the important base of our identity.
Our purpose – the reason behind this work.
The purpose of developing these foundations we share with you today is to define the brand for our wine industry – the Marlborough wine industry. And to in turn, allow us to establish an overarching visual identity that highlights the uniqueness and story of the Marlborough wine region and our brand – Marlborough Wine.
We want to create something that growers and winemakers can own and be proud of. A way to have a larger voice and footprint as a collective group of brands. We will make these brand elements available to all stakeholders in the Marlborough wine community.
The following mission, vision and values, created as the brand foundations work together to build a solid foundation for our identity. They are deeply intertwined in who we are, what we do and how we do it and serve as a compass for the direction of our identity.
MISSION
With energy we (the industry) cultivate, connect and aspire to elevate the quality and reputation of Marlborough’s premium wine industry, its people and its place.
VISION
Forever earn our (the industry’s) place in the hearts of our people, through our shared commitment to excellence, our care for our place and its people, our drive to be experiential and do better, and our respect for the stories that make us who we are.
We earn this place through our commitment to quality, our energy for our place and its people, our drive for sustainability and innovation and our respect for the stories that define who we are today. This speaks to a hardworking, passionate, and connected industry. An emotional connection that is not taken for granted. It’s brave, like the many that came before us. It recognises the place Marlborough wine has in people's hearts but does not take it for granted. It speaks to longevity and quality, Marlborough’s place on the world stage.
Embrace INNOVATION
We know innovation is found in the spaces between the people that came before us and the people yet to come, uncertainty and clarity, relaxation and sophistication, premium and value, surprise and reliability…and we thrive here, in our embrace of who we really are. Nothing stands still, we are transient in our discovery and centered in our place. We aren't afraid to lead the way, to embrace firsts and set the tone for quality, sustainability and innovation - we recognise innovation comes in many shapes and forms.
Share in CONNECTIVITY
The nuances and relationships between our people and place bring our brand to life. Working with multiple truths means that we acknowledge all of the perspectives in the space, but that we have clarity on what we stand for within it. We go beyond simple connections and encourage connection and conversation between contradictions – recognising the existence of different perspectives and priorities, but trusting in core shared values that define who we are and what we stand for, to develop quality, innovative and future-looking solutions. We act with courage, welcome new ideas, challenge the status quo and hero our diversity, in our people, in our wine and in our place. We lift one another up by building connected communities that offer genuine support and not shying away from difficult conversations that help us thrive.
Embody EXCELLENCE
We believe in living up to the true value in our name. We have a history and reputation for quality underpinning who we are and what we do. Every action strives to live up to, if not raise, those standards. Quality is connected to everything we touch, whether that be the wine we produce and our approach to how we care for and treat the land, to how we develop relationships, acknowledge our history and grow our people. We share this quality with the world.
Be EXPERIENTIAL
We believe that the dedication, energy and movement of the industry is grounded in provenance - it is palpable. A feeling of a tangible pure and raw place - full of untapped potential. With one sip, people can tell a variety of wine is from Marlborough because there is something special and unique about the place we call home and it is tangible in our wine.
Enveloped in ENERGY
We show up with a drive and a sense of energy pushing us forward, allowing us to innovate and sustain our place and people – we are excited for the future and love what we do, thankful for our pioneering start and where we are today. It is energy that drives us towards our future. We are present, active, full of life and invested in our communities, for innovation, for quality and for our place - Marlborough.
HOW WE BEHAVE
Marlborough wine is dynamic, gregarious, lively, approachable, and aspirational - but we are not overbearing.
We are sophisticated, contemporary, and fresh with a vivacious magnetism to us. We exude a casual yet energetic elegance.
We are confident and intelligent, but not overconfident, nor do we show off.
We know who we are and why we are here - and we want to share our love of wine, food and place with our people – at home, next door and across the world.
We evoke excitement and innovate - we are not bound by tradition, yet it grounds us. We are young at heart but wise beyond our years. We have stories to tell, and people want to listen to them, they are stories that will flow through generations and evolve.
We are generous with our time and our spirit and build lasting relationships. People want to ‘meet’ us over and again.
And they will, because we are progressive pioneers and it is this that allows our stories to keep being created - to transcend time, evolve and grow and be shared for generations and centuries to come.
With this brand there is a feeling of balance - a harmony between contradictions / multiple truths. Of scale and artisanal production, where clarity and complexity collide. Where sophistication meets a relaxed essence, local meets global, where energy and life meet fresh clarity, where fun meets tranquillity and sustainability meets growth.
We have diverse audiences that will see messages sway to meet the information needs of consumers and businesses. While these complexities in brand are in play, our tone of voice remains constant.
Thank you for taking your time to read through our brand foundations. We look forward to sharing the identity that comes from this with you soon.
Ngā Mihi
For more summative detail of the survey and engagement findings, click here.
For a full report which includes other key research considerations, and more detail about the findings, click here.