Boost your business in China with strategic branding

Since 2013, China has overtaken Australia as New Zealand’s largest export market. China is a market with a distinctive culture, and many New Zealand businesses need to refocus their branding to target the market.

With increasing competition, it’s vital to build your strategic brand and brand experiences.

Ocean is a New Zealand-based creative company with international branding experience. We look forward to partnering with you to boost your business in China.

Boost your business in China with strategic branding

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• About us

• Our approach

• Our work

What’s in the following pages

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About us

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Ocean is an independent, New Zealand-owned creative company based in Wellington.

We have a strong focus on partnering with our clients wanting to do business in China. Our insights and inspiration come from our indepth research and experience of Chinese culture.

For over 25 years, we’ve helped businesses thrive in a changing world by achieving more meaningful connections with their customers. We partner with established and emerging businesses to design and transform their brands and brand experiences.

Who is Ocean?

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ConsultingWe partner with you to develop strategies that capture opportunities in the China market for your brand, communications and culture.

BrandingWe help you to define your brand strategy and brand identity to create clarity and cohesion in fast-changing overseas markets.

Experience designWe enable people with different cultural backgrounds to connect with your brand through physical and interactive environments, and digital products and services.

Storytelling

Working with you, we write the stories at the heart of your brand that connect you to the audiences in China you need to reach.

Brand managementWe continually generate updated insights on the China market and help you to implement and monitor your brand perception and performance.

Our expertise

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Our clients

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Meet the team

Ocean has a team with a wealth of international branding experience.

We work closely with our clients to deliver world-class branding programmes to inspire growth and achieve business goals.

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Fay NieBRAND STRATEGIST

Fay’s experience in Asia, especially China, gives her a unique perspective to help clients grow in the international market. She has a rare ability to align brand strategy to business strategy.

Her clients include FlyBuys, ANZCO, Fisher & Paykel, Volkswagen, Audi, Financial Times, Bottega Veneta, Sinopec, Air China, and OPPO.

Our China experts

Blair Mainwaring MANAGING DIRECTOR

Blair is design-trained, with 25 years industry experience – 23 of these as a Director of Ocean.

Blair has sharpened Ocean’s focus on the business strategies of clients, enabling Ocean to play a more fundamental role in their commercial development and growth. These clients include export-focused brands like Pipfruit NZ, Cervena, and Woolyarns.

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Shayne Priddle STRATEGY DIRECTOR

Shayne brings over 25 years experience in sales, marketing and project management.

Shayne is currently helping export-focused clients ANZCO and Synlait Milk with their brand strategy projects. He played a key role in redesigning the brand experience of Loyalty New Zealand (Fly Buys), Tru-Test and Lincoln University.

Peter Montgomery CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Peter joined Ocean as Creative Director of the Design team after 12 years at Clemenger BBDO Wellington. He designed the new New Zealand passport.

In his projects with NZTE, KiwiRail and Education NZ, Pete helped to successfully target Chinese audiences.

Dr Richard Janes DIRECTOR

Richard has an extensive background in management. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors. His current directorships include Deputy Chair of Lotto NZ and director of Gallagher Group and Centreport.

His first business visit to China was in 1976 and he has travelled extensively in Asia as part of his international responsibilities.

Our China experts

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Our brand development process1. Discover

We work closely with you to understand what success looks like. Our all-of-business approach enables us to develop a brand solution that aligns with your vision and strategic objectives.

2. Define

We define the strategic brand blueprint for your business – the brand strategy. We define a single thought or brand idea that provides the fuel and direction for the brand’s creative development.

3. Create

We develop concepts and refine our creative for a brand/visual identity for you to approve. We present you with a choice of concepts, and each concept includes a concept rationale and an overall strategic rationale.

4. Realise

Once you’ve approved the brand’s creative concept and direction, we map out our approach to implementing the brand communications. We take care to engage the right person for each job.

5. Manage

We create a plan for you to manage your brand because brand development continues long after the final sign is hung or the website is launched.

Manage 5Discover

Define

CreateRealise

steps to perfection

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Our China branding workshop

This workshop on how to build your brand in China will give you an understanding of how to:

• conduct customer research on a low budget

• target customers with different needs

• reposition your brand for the China market

• give your brand a Chinese name

• build your brand experience around the strategy

We can tailor the workshop to your specific needs.

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Our research We’ve conducted research on local consumers to provide indepth insights:

Lifestyle and brand choices of Beijing women

Note: We can share this research on request.

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We’ve conducted research on local consumers to provide indepth insights:

What New Zealand origin means for different customer segments

Our research

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Our work

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The following case studies represent a small cross-section of the branding projects we’ve delivered for our clients doing business overseas.

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Wine labels

Website

In 2010 Murdoch James Estate Wines received significant investment from a Chinese Wellingtonian who opened up a market in Xi’an, mainland China. The opportunity arose for Ocean to create two separate brands so that Murdoch James Estate could continue its commitment to the China market.

The brand needed a strong retail presence to stand out on the shelf. We built a brand that clearly conveyed its New Zealand heritage but created a desire within the China marketplace.

Brand launchMurdoch James Estate

iPad presentation Prospectus

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Brand

Website

Chinese international students are a significant target group of New Zealand universities. In collaboration with the University of Auckland Business School, Ocean designed a new brand identity system and developed brand collateral for each programme using insights from a diverse range of international students.

As a result, course registrations grew by more than 13%, with significant spikes in engagement on the new website.

Brand RefreshUniversity of Auckland Business School

iPad presentation Prospectus iPad presentation

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Product Brochures

Website

Over seven years Ocean worked alongside Merino New Zealand, and with their individual brand partners, to create compelling, customised brands. In particular we worked to brand and market their 100% New Zealand Merino wool into overseas markets.

A brand strategy and identity for New Zealand Merino was developed, comprising brand stories and identities for each of their brand partners. The New Zealand Merino brand was first to market with its own distinctive merino story. To support the brand, we designed tailored, multi-lingual, and multi-market promotional literature.

Brand StrategyMerino New Zealand

iPad presentation Prospectus

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Would you like to know more?

Please contact:

enquiries@oceandesign.co.nz

Level 1, 143 Vivian Street, Wellington

+64 4 801 5700