Some brands are not as Kiwi as you might think
Kiwi mum Kerstin Myers thought she was being patriotic supporting a Kiwi company when she bought educational and creative play toys for her children from KiwiCo.
But despite the name, KiwiCo is a Californian company. Its sole link to New Zealand seems to be that the founder and chief executive had a holiday here and liked it.
Myers discovered the lack of Kiwiness of KiwiCo when its parcel arrived at her home in Melbourne, Australia, showing labelling from California, not her muchmissed homeland.
‘‘Would love to know how KiwiCo came up with its name. It’s so misleading. There seems to be no New Zealand roots within the company,’’ she inquired of the company over Instagram.
And sure enough, KiwiCo admitted its lack of New Zealand credentials.
‘‘Our company is based in the USA, and we’re named KiwiCo because our CEO really appreciated the fun, adventurous spirit, the innovation, and the natural beauty of the country when she visited,’’ the company messaged back.
That chief executive was Sandra Oh Lin, and her KiwiCo social media marketer said she was also impressed with New Zealand’s national bird.
‘‘The kiwi, which is known to be super alert, stands for the ‘ability to give birth to large ideas’, which is what we hope to embody as well.’’
In an article in the LA Times, Oh Lin explained how she came to adopt the kiwi as the logo for her company.
‘‘I was brainstorming, and in my house one of the stuffed animals that caught my eye was a stuffed kiwi bird from New Zealand.
‘‘We loved New Zealand and how much that country is about nature and discovery and exploration. We thought it was a great tie-in with what we were trying to do with the company.’’
In its response to Myers, KiwiCo did not accept, however, that it was being deceptive in its branding.
‘‘We’ve never claimed to be from New Zealand and we’re so sorry you feel this way! Thanks again for reaching out.’’ Myers isn’t buying that.
‘‘It’s so misleading,’’ she told the company.
‘‘Riding on the back of quality and trustworthiness of the antipodes?’’
New Zealand does tend to score more highly than the US in country trust indexes.
And Myers has sworn the company will not see another dollar of her money.
‘‘So unhappy. Never buying from KiwiCo again, which is sad as your product is exceptional,’’ she told the company.
Over the years, many overseas companies have considered the kiwi fair game for branding.
Kiwi boot polish was developed in the early 1900s in Australia by a Scotsman, though he did have the Kiwi link of being married to a New Zealander, Annie Elizabeth Meek Ramsay.
But modern US companies are still adopting the kiwi.
The Kiwi company, which operates out of the ‘‘Kiwi Campus’’ in Berkeley, California, has developed a tiny delivery robot, which it named after our national bird.
It boasts: ‘‘We have successfully delivered more than 20,000 orders in the city using Kiwibots.’’
Its founder is from Colombia.
It’s not only in the US – there’s a Kiwi Thai Knives company, and there’s the Taiwanese Kiwi-Tec company.
But scratch the surface, and sometimes, there’s a real New Zealand story behind an overseas business which is using kiwibranding.
Orange Kiwi, a US consultancy, was set up by New Zealander Andrew Taylor, and American Allie Taylor from Orange County.