For a company that specialises in communication and design, we’ve been a bit tardy in showcasing our work to compatriots and Hawke’s Bay businesses.

Did you know Tank work with four telecommunication companies in New Zealand? Well, the good folk at snap! got word of our marketing prowess. They’re a Christchurch based broadband, mobile and calling company and are ‘all’ about customer service. What’s more their 12,000 (and growing) customers love them. Tank were commissioned to re-invigorate what was a pretty boring techo brand. We have also been working on developing new propositions and running sales and branding programmes. The sales of recent months speak for themselves in term of the success.

To coincide with the network infrastructural changes that they are undertaking, Airnet has initiated a number of marketing workstreams. Among these, Airnet has commissioned Tank to evolve and strengthen their brand into something that would offer the company a meaningful point of difference.

Right from the outset, the team at Tank advocated that Airnet should shift from a ‘me-too’ telecommunications brand into one that felt like a genuine challenger brand – a brand with energy and a willingness to take on the incumbents.

The cornerstone to the brand is a new value proposition that taps into the need of businesses and consumers – the need to remove the complexity that can exist in getting a fit-for-purpose telecommunications solution. Add to this their capability for easily-accessible, skilled support, their local sales and service team, and an established reputation for addressing customers issues, and the solution was obvious – Airnet. It’s Sorted!

A proposition of this magnitude hasn’t been entered into lightly, requiring a strong resolve within the company to deliver against this on every front. The company are scaling their customer service capability and introducing some exciting new products and pricing constructs – the first of these being FREE local calling for businesses on their ADSL2+ network. They are also introducing the Airnet Price Promise, offering customers total peace-of-mind concerning pricing competitiveness.

Airnet’s promotional activity will initially be focussed on existing customers and those that are in the vicinity of the telephone exchanges that Airnet are furnishing with their own equipment. As their capability becomes more widely accessible, so too will the scale of their marketing and sales efforts.

Having worked alongside the talented team at Airnet for close to a year, I can talk with some degree of authority that this is one company to watch as an emerging success story on the Hawke’s Bay landscape. These guys are ambitious and very passionate about what they do.

Check out their new visual identity below, and be sure to support a locally-owned and -operated company, one that will be the driving force in a faster and cheaper broadband service for Hawke’s Bay businesses and consumers.

Airnet – It’s Sorted!

When Steve in the office here became the proud father of a baby boy several weeks ago, the obligatory questions were asked and all but one answered. Baby was a healthy 8 pounds 11, mum was in good health etc. Yet, baby was to remain nameless for several days – not uncommon in itself.  Then it struck me.  The decision making process new sleep-deprived-emotional-wrecks of parents go through in naming a baby strongly parallel that of brand development. In fact, naming a baby is arguably the biggest branding exercise most will ever undertake.

Our entire decision making process is guided by association – the merits of each name are either quickly dismissed or considered to greater depth based on pre-existing associations. In consumer psychology we refer to this as Classical Conditioning which is well used by fragrance, alcoholic beverage and vehicle manufacturers. Names that are known to us we attribute personality and character traits without too much cognitive engagement, and so the process goes on until mum and dad finally agree on a name that neither parent can associate with a serial murderer, social retard or school bully.

Putting aside physical characteristics and personality traits that are a function of genetics, we as parents embark on building and managing perceptions to match the reality, and if the reality doesn’t stack up many proud parents will do their utmost to create a perception in the hope that it becomes reality.

We as brand builders and marketing professionals do essentially the same thing; apply a certain amount of science and pulling all manner of levers to sculpt desired identities and, like parents, manage perceptions.

Brand managers however, have the upper hand.  An immature brand can be manipulated at the whim of it’s creators, a hormone driven immature adult, not so much.

I’m not one to remain quiet about local success stories, as I think they should be celebrated. Local woodfire manufacturer, Firenzo, is no exception.

Tackling challenges head on has been the key to their success – not only have they had to battle it with the advent of heat pumps, but there has been the central government drive to reduce carbon emissions, requiring a whole new level of compliance.

Despite attempts by the industry, no one had been successful in developing an insert wetback fire that was emission compliant, whilst still meeting the energy efficiency and heat-output standards.

For the team at Firenzo, this was red rag to a bull. These guys take design and innovation seriously, and having an in-house testing laboratory meant they were able to embark on a quest of cracking this challenge. The upshot is that they now boast New Zealand’s only emission-compliant insert wetback fire.

Proud of this achievement, Firenzo engaged Tank to develop a campaign that tapped into the demand that existed among those faced with having to give up their wetbacks in order to comply. The billboard creative is currently appearing in prominent sites throughout central Christchurch – one of the first areas in New Zealand to be subject to the new regulations.