Difficult birth process

Eating a meat pie and washing it down with a chilled brew while watching a game of rugby may sounds like a typical weekend for many Aussie blokes, but it’s also the order of recognition for products of the top three emerging brands of 2005.

Jesters Jaffle Pie Co dominated survey results for the third year in a row and returned to position one after falling to second place last year.

Little Creatures Brewing Pty Ltd produced the most significant result, jumping 11 places to finish second, ahead of the state’s new sporting team, the Western Force.

And making a debut appearance in fourth place was Bethany Cosmetics, created by 2004 WA Business News 40under40 winner, Bethany James.

An obvious push for profile by The Mead Group and Warren Mead (both advertising and the Mead Living magazine) in the past 12 months was also reflected in a jump from position 15 to five.

StateWest Credit Society and Rick Hart made their first appearances for emerging brands, which was an interesting result considering both have appeared on the most recognised brands survey results in past years.

JMG managing director Jim Murphy, who looks after the StateWest Credit Society account, said there was a number of reasons for this ranking.

Among these was the recent introduction of innovative products such as “green choice” car and home loans, where trees are planted for con-servation when these loans are taken up.

Mr Murphy said the project had added strength to the company’s brand because of the good corporate citizenship it implied.

Repeat appearances were also made from last year’s list of emerging brands by Scoop Magazine, Curtin University, Scott Park Homes, Fremantle Football Club and iiNet.

Baynham Ross partner Dick Baynham left this section of the WA Business News brand survey blank, as he said emerging brands were a rarity and he could not think of any true examples to list.

Mr Baynham said the term ‘emerging brand’ needed to be better defined.

“An emerging brand is a consistently identifiable product or service that is recognised as having the capacity to become a preferred choice within its category,” he said.

“To become a preferred choice you need to be known and in order to become known you need sufficient resources. It takes time, money and effort to become the next Boost Juice, which I see as an emerging brand in Australia.”

Mr Baynham said the majority of supposed overnight successes were usually based on a decade of hard work and a ton of money.

“Dewsons, for instance, is a local brand I developed 10 years ago but I doubt that most people have ever thought of it as an emerging brand, despite the fact that it has achieved a substantial market share. The reason being that it operates in the established category of super-markets and is up against Coles and Woolworths,” he said.

When exploring emerging brands Mr Baynham said there was numerous “false birth notices” put out for publi-city purposes, but few of these survived outside their creator’s imagination.

Most new brands started as an idea, he said, and ideas needed testing in the marketplace before they could attract the level of investment required to effectively achieve sustainable growth.

“Unless you are developing an emerging brand in an emerging category it can also be difficult to achieve brand recognition. To quote Jack Trout in the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: ‘It is much easier to get into the mind first than it is to try to convince someone you have a better product than that brand that got there first’.”

Mr Baynham said even a lengthy preparation period was no guarantee of a long and successful life, but every wannabe brand manager who had ever attempted the job deserved respect.

“There aren’t too many national brands that are based out of WA, but if you want to be number one in the category in which it operates, as Bunnings does in hardware, it will pay you to remember that even number one has a long conception and development period.”