For many New Zealand companies, leveraging their New Zealand provenance is an obvious approach to take when promoting themselves offshore. This particularly rings true when it comes to F&B – where the default physical attributes of clean, green and pristine are a logical way in, as are the characteristics that underpin who we are as New Zealanders.
So what is our story when it comes to selling tech? Do the same rules apply or do we need to make new ones?
To better-understand the role provenance plays, or could play, when it comes to selling tech from NZ, we spoke to sellers/buyers of NZ tech products and services in NZ and Australia to see if we could glean any gems. Here are five things we discovered.
1. There’s no such thing as a technology company
When we asked tech businesses what industry they considered themselves to be in, they almost exclusively described the industry they serve rather than the way they deliver their offering. Think: Serato is in music, Weirdly is in recruitment and so on. Businesses talked of technology being the ‘engine to the car’ – what enables them to deliver their product or service, but not their actual industry. So, if tech companies are competing in the industries they serve, then many of the same rules should apply when it comes to leveraging our New Zealandness – who we are, how we behave and what we offer – to help set us apart from other places with a similar reputation to us in the tech sector.
2. Innovation is the expectation not the USP
Innovation is what the ‘industry’ is all about. It’s not seen as claimable by any one place or region and being innovative is not necessarily indicative of a good idea, just a novel one. The other challenge is that innovation in this category isn’t tangible – it’s often about finding a new tech-led way to do something that’s already there. So let’s ditch the idea of positioning New Zealand as the Innovation Nation. Because we’re not. And innovation isn’t a USP. We can talk to ‘the spirit in which we innovate’ but not to innovation itself.
3. NZ still represents F&B and nature and that hurts our tech credentials
When we ask businesses and consumers overseas what they associate and think of when it comes to NZ, F&B and tourism dominate that conversation. This association has a halo effect over the offshore perspective of our technology credentials. We have no real reputation, no area of specialisation or expertise, we’re seen as expensive, with low salaries compared to many other countries. Whilst our clean, green and pristine reputation is a logical way in due to its familiarity, we need to move very quickly to sharing what else we have to offer in order to make the less-known but valued, well-known over time.
As someone said “Propellorheads don’t move for a lifestyle, they move for their dreams. It’s not defined what tech dream you can live out here in NZ.”
4. We can be our own worst enemy
We don’t always put our best foot forward when it comes to talking about ourselves and need to reframe the way we position New Zealand. Rather than opening our pitch with ‘we are a small nation on the edge of the South Pacific’ which is factually-correct but has no obvious benefit for anyone buying tech from NZ, we can instead talk about small = agile which makes New Zealand a great environment for testing concepts and ideas. We can leverage existing associations to build our reputation in other areas but need to work to ‘reclaim’ some of our negatives as positives and think about whether what we say has any real benefit to our audience. If it doesn’t, let’s ditch it or say it in a different way.
5. Coming from New Zealand doesn’t give us a free pass
What New Zealand is already known for helps to open doors when it comes to doing business offshore – whether it be our number one ranking for ease of doing business or being known as friendly, open, genuine people who focus less on formality and more on getting things done. But this doesn’t give us a free pass. These positive associations can help put NZ businesses ahead of those from countries with similar reputations to us in the tech sector but they are only one part of the story and don’t trump having a pedigree from a place that is strongly associated with tech. So we really need to find our place at the tech table, start telling people what we’re good at now, and grow our reputation over time.
“New Zealanders are good at seeing a problem and wanting to find a solution – they’re inherently good and kind and nice, they genuinely want to make the world better.” said a CEO of a NZ business selling a tech-driven solution offshore.
‘Making a major contribution to innovation in Science and Technology’ is one of the key drivers of favourability when it comes to how a country is perceived, according to the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, which measures such things. And it’s clear that there is tangible headroom here for New Zealand. There are a bunch of great stories from New Zealand companies that are using tech as the ‘engine to their car’ but the majority of these go untold. We need to collaborate across the industry to define what we’re good at and build our tech reputation with intent and purpose – if we’re not telling anybody what we’re good at, how could they be expected to know?
I liken the tech job-to-be-done to producing the elusive second album. Our 100% Pure album has gone great guns. We have some loyal fans who like what they’ve heard but there are a bunch of people who haven’t experienced us yet. We need to get cracking and make a follow up album that is credible, authentic and appeals to more people. The second album is always harder to crack but generally worth it if you do.