NEW ZEALAND - With over 22 years of rich history at its back, the kiwifruit expert Zespri has announced a new identity through its recent rebrand. The new brand and logo are expected to provide a strong platform for the company to continue its recent growth. Zespri is well positioned to reach its goal of $4.5 billion in sales by 2025, driven by the commitment of its 2,800 New Zealand and 1,500 offshore growers.

“We see evidence that consumers today are making more considered purchasing decisions and looking for brands that have a purpose and set of values that they can personally identify with,” said Chief Growth Officer Jiunn Shih. “We’re proud of our purpose and our values, including our role as kaitiaki (guardians) for our future generations, and consumers can expect to see that increasingly brought through in our refreshed visual identity.”

Revealed at one of the world’s leading fresh produce exhibitions, Berlin Fruit Logistica, the new brand better reflects the company’s purpose, which is to help people, communities, and the environment thrive through the goodness of kiwifruit. According to a press release, the refresh includes a new brand vision, a new brand tagline, and a new visual identity that captures the burst of flavour consumers get from biting into a Zespri Kiwifruit.

“We’re confident that our new brand will resonate not only with our loyal fans but pique the interest of new ones, helping differentiate Zespri in the fresh produce market so that we can continue to grow our share of the global fruit bowl,” added Shih.

This refresh was designed to position the company for its next phase of growth. Shih continued, adding that the refresh had been an extensive process, including looking at how Zespri could better connect emotionally with consumers and build a stronger, more intuitive brand identity. Customers and consumers will see a refreshed Zespri logo featuring the use of a green fan, inspired by the vibrant cross-section of a kiwifruit with different shades of green bursts, and a red wordmark reflecting the energy and dynamism of the Zespri brand.

“Zespri Kiwifruit are not only among the world’s most nutritious fruits, but they also taste amazing, so consumers can make the better choice of reaching for a snack that is both healthy and delicious,” Shih explained. “And to celebrate the importance of being healthy, we’ve introduced a new tagline, empowering our people to ‘make your healthy irresistible’.”

Having worked extensively with some of the world’s leading market research agencies on the development and validation of the new brand direction, Zespri was delighted to see that in testing, the new logo was clearly recognised by regular Zespri users with higher predisposition to choose Zespri. The refreshed brand also recognises the fact that consumers are increasingly health conscious, looking for snacking options that are healthy, tasty, and natural.

“This is a really exciting time for Zespri and our industry on the back of the strong growth we’ve seen and the increasing global demand for nutritious products like our Zespri Kiwifruit,” Shih concluded. “We can't wait to share our new look with growers and consumers, and look forward to helping even more people, communities, and the environment around the world thrive through the goodness of kiwifruit in the years ahead.”

The new brand will be progressively rolled out across Zespri packaging and collateral and enter markets from May 2020, with Zespri set to make its biggest-ever investment in marketing in 2020 to ensure a strong brand impact and reach as many consumers as possible. It follows the company’s operating revenue hitting $3 billion for the first time, and its announcement in late 2019 that Zespri is commercializing a new red kiwifruit variety, which will play an important role in attracting even more consumers to the kiwifruit category. The company will also host its industry conference, Momentum 2020: Standing Up and Standing Out, next week in New Zealand, which will introduce how Zespri is transforming to a future proof organisation in a fast-changing environment.

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