Western Force drives through pack to head emerging brands

A rugby club and a brewery may have some obvious synergies from a social viewpoint, but what do they both have in common with an energy utility?

The connection is simple, according to those who responded to the WA Business News branding survey for 2006 – the Western Force, Synergy and Little Creatures are Western Australia’s top emerging brands.

The Western Force, while not making a significant impact on the field last season, certainly appears to have grabbed the attention of those responding to this year’s survey, with the club topping the field as this year’s top emerging brand.

The Force has the largest membership base of an Australian Super 14 franchise, and last season attracted an average crowd of 28,424 spectators, only 1,500 behind the Waratahs from NSW.

Western Force marketing services manager Sean Lee told WA Business News the branding strategy had a significant part to play in the club’s successful off-ground performance in its first year.

“The branding played a monumental role in providing our members and supporters with a banner under which they could unite,” he said. “If your heart isn’t behind a brand, loyalty will be even further behind.”

Mr Lee said members’ brand loyalty was demonstrated by the ‘sea of blue’ on game days, where spectators came to the games kitted out in various pieces of team merchandise.

“While sales of merchandise far outstripped anything the organisation hoped for, it was the decision [as part of the brand strategy] to provide every member with a team cap, which ensured 20,000 heads in the crowd were covered in blue,” he said. 

Ensuring the Western Force brand was representative of WA, the club incorporated the native black swan, an iconic symbol of the state, into the logo, which was designed by 303.

With the spectre of the failed Western Reds rugby league enterprise lingering in the minds of the WA rugby union faithful, Mr Lee said it was fundamental from the outset that there was a distinction between the two brands.

“It was important that our brand be seen as one that was in it for the long haul and here to stay, not a transient, short-term prospect,” he said.

However, one survey participant, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that, as with all sporting codes the success of the brand and the organisation was always strongly linked to on-field performance.

“The members will endure poor results for the first year or two at most before re-evaluating their involvement with the team,” the respondent said.

Mr Lee said it was also imperative for an emerging brand to be built on the solid foundation of an organisation’s values.

“If a brand doesn’t stem from these, delivery of the brand will always suffer,” he said.

This view was echoed Synergy head of marketing Russell Mitchell, who said the first step in developing the Synergy brand was making sure it mirrored the company’s core values.

Synergy, the new retail business arm to emerge out of the disaggregation of Western Power earlier this year, made its debut in second position in the emerging brands list.

In developing the Synergy brand, the company and 303, the agency involved, worked through a structured approach to create a brand and an identity that represented the business.

“We are dependent on the customer, so really it was about trying to position the business to cater for their needs,” Mr Mitchell said.

“This led us to begin researching and talking to our customers and finding out what they want from their ideal energy retailer, such as quality of service.”  

Synergy brand and communications manager Roslyn Toth told WA Business News the next step was to draw on the core values and the customer research to incorporate personality into the brand.

“When we looked at what people wanted we came up with a personality that was one that was progressive, interactive and competitive,” she said.

Mrs Toth said other key personality traits included expertise and customer advocacy.

“We introduced the office of customer advocator recently,” she said. “We have an in-house person who focuses on our processes on being customer friendly so that brings actions to our words.”

Mr Mitchell said the timeline was very tight, with only nine months in which to develop and launch the brand to the public on an advertising budget of $300,000.

“There was no radio or television advertising,” he said. “It was done by direct mail and through outdoor advertising such as bus shelters.

“Our challenge was to get maximum effectiveness out of a small spend through aspects such as introducing ourselves – ‘Hello we are your new energy company’ – on the direct mail.” 

Synergy is still developing its brand awareness and is moving towards the comprehension stage of what the brand stands for.

“We have made a start,” Mr Mitchell told WA Business News. “But we still have a long way to go.”

Fremantle-based brewing company Little Creatures Brewing Pty Ltd dropped back one spot to third position this year, followed by survey regular Jesters Jaffle Pie Co, which has dropped three spots from last year’s first place result.

The state’s largest craft brewer, Gage Roads Brewing Company, this year made its debut on the list of emerging brands in fifth position.

According to Gage Roads director of marketing Peter Nolin, the company’s placing in the top 10 was due to its adoption of different marketing styles with only a limited amount to spend on marketing.

“We went through promotion, sponsorship, print advertising, outdoor advertising,” he said. “We had a presence in bottle shops with tastings.

“We had an innovative package, a three pack was released a year ago where you can try three of our products at once, which has been very popular.”

Mr Nolin said the company was now looking to sell into eastern states markets.

The Gage Roads advertising model will be similar in the eastern states with tastings in stores and print advertising covering Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and NSW.

“Our product is what differentiates us, the market is designed around our product,” Mr Nolin said.

“Hopefully the flavour and the quality will make people come back.”