Aotearoa New Zealand, known for its breathtaking landscapes and warm hospitality, can boost its economic value by sharing more than its beauty with the world. A strong country brand can benefit businesses by showcasing the nation's products, services, and experiences.
When New Zealand tells a story grounded in its core values, it enhances the country's reputation and drives international engagement. This strategic approach can help New Zealand stand out and compete in an ever-changing global market.
In a competitive global economy, reputation matters. It's important for a country like New Zealand, with an economy that relies on the strengths of its exports, to continue to grow and diversify.
A strong country narrative creates a positive image, attracting foreign investment, tourists, and international talent. It also provides New Zealand's exporting sector with a competitive edge, making its products more appealing and valuable in the global marketplace. This in turn helps strengthen relationships with other countries.
For country branding to be effective, government, businesses, expats, and allies should all share a cohesive story about New Zealand. This unified approach can drive greater international success and enhance the nation's global reputation.
From women's suffrage to pioneering energy from fission, New Zealand's innovation is driven by care for people, place, and the planet.
We know that the New Zealand brand is the sum of many parts, but we also know that our history has shaped our people and behaviour.
For New Zealand innovators, care is at the heart of their work. Their ingenuity serves a purpose, aligning with New Zealand's brand proposition, which represents the essence of the nation.
Care for people, and connection to place, drives our ingenuity
Searching for a better life for their people, our earliest settlers undertook one of the greatest feats of navigation. They voyaged across the vast Pacific Ocean to become the Māori settlers of Aotearoa New Zealand.
To ensure his fellow workers had adequate time for rest and family, Samuel Parnell, one of the first European settlers in New Zealand, created the world's first 40-hour working week in October 1840.
New Zealand was the first country in the world where women won the right to vote on September 19, 1893. The movement led by suffragettes Kate Sheppard and Meri Te Tai-Mangakāhia paved the way for liberal reforms that earned New Zealand the reputation as the 'social laboratory of the world'.
In March 2017, in a groundbreaking legal declaration, the Whanganui River was made a legal person - an indivisible being with rights, just like us. It was an embodiment of law in indigenous values and an illustration of the interconnection of humanity and the natural world.
Our core values, ngā mātāpono, collectively underpin New Zealand's offering to the world.
Understanding and embodying these values affirms who we are and who we aspire to be. This video is designed to help bring the values to life. It explains the values and how you can leverage them in your international storytelling.
Our curious, ingenious and adventurous spirit.
We warmly welcome others and build relationships based on respect, care and reciprocity.
Our drive to care for people, place and planet for our future.
Acting with integrity, honesty, and transparency.
These values were tested with B2C and B2B audiences across nine international markets.
These markets told us that our values are seen as timely, powerful and what every country should aspire to uphold. And that we are just one of a few countries in the world that can hold these up as being 'us'.
"If the world lived by these values we would all be so much happier, and it would be a world with less fighting. We would all get along."
This explainer video has been developed to give you further detail on the values. It is designed to be educational, so that you understand the meaning of the values and have them front of mind when promoting New Zealand offshore.