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What do you think about New Zealand?
A social media survey
The purpose of this study has been to quantitatively measure the brand image of New Zealand by means of a survey hosted in social media. This quantitative research is a good step in order to fully comprehend what people think and perceive about New Zealand.
Research question
The questions used to measure the brand image of New Zealand were formulated taking into consideration the brand messages presented by NZ’s official tourism website. Such messages are distributed along 11 major concepts such as: “friendly, scenic or adventure” for instance. These concepts have been used and distributed by the tourism board along major travel channels to convey the brand image of the country.
Although the Kiwis settled up a specific brand image, through this study we wanted to test what our readers actually perceive about the country. As such, the research question of this study has been the following: “To what extent the brand messages introduced and widespread by New Zealand’s official tourism board are perceived as being true by our readers?”
Formulating the questions for the survey
12 questions were asked to our readers via “instagram Stories”. This is a new format that allows researchers to ask questions to a specific segment of the market (composed by the most devoted users of the Instagram account. The responders are normally strongly attached to the corporate brand).
Initially, each reader had 15 seconds to answer each question. This is an ideal timing for them to provide an instinctive and spontaneous answer. Yet, they could go back to the previous question in order to read it again (if necessary) and provide a meaningful and trustworthy answer.
The first question was answered by 250 readers. However, question number eleven (the last multi choice question of this survey), was answered by 201 readers. Some of our readers did not provide an answer to all the questions, reducing the reliability of this study.
Results
The results presented along this study reflect the perceptions of our readers towards New Zealand’s country image. Yet, further studies need to be completed in order to understand in deep such feature.
Main highlights of New Zealand’s brand image
The word that best describes New Zealand according to our latest country brand image survey is “paradise”! And no wonder why! Consisting of incredible glaciers, rugged mountains, rolling hillsides, deep forest, volcanoes, fjords and sandy beaches, New Zealand is home to incredible flora and fauna. The 86% of our readers agreed with such statement and they also think that NZ is one of the best countries in the world for backpackers.
Interestingly, our responders think that NZ is a visitor’s paradise all year round. Actually, this is the highest point of agreement reached in the survey (95%). In addition, they also think that NZ is a safe country (89%) and this result is in line with the 2017 Best Countries Ranking, which scores 10 out of 10 the attribute “safe” in the case of New Zealand.
On the other hand, considering specially Asiatic or European countries, one may think that New Zealand does not have a rich history. According to data from the 2017 Best Countries Ranking, New Zealand does not appear in the top 100 when measuring such feature. Yet, the 87% of our responders think that New Zealand has a rich history.
It is also curious to know that the 43% of our readers don’t think that New Zealand is one of the most expensive destinations in the world. But, according to Numbeo’s cost of living survey, New Zealand is actually among the 20 most expensive countries in the world, situated concretely in the 14th place, just above Ireland and below Australia.
Finally, is New Zealand a bucket list destination for our responders? Absolutely yes! The 91% of them would love to visit NZ. This is the second highest point of agreement reached in the survey!
Brand message number 1: “New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world for backpackers.”
For many, New Zealand is home to some fo the most remarkable hikes and routes offering excellent conditions to backpackers. As the official tourism board of New Zealand mentions, “with experiences ranging from the ultra-chilled to adrenalin-inducing and everything in between there is an itinerary for everyone. Getting around our country is a breeze with a variety of transport options, and there is accommodation for every budget.”
In order to know the opinion of our readers in this regard, we asked them If they agree or disagree with the following statement: “New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world for backpackers.” For most of our readers this statement is true (88%), while only the 12% of them disagree.
As such, this is a highly valuable perception of the public towards New Zealand. A feature well communicated by the tourism board which represents a strength for the country from a branding perspective.
Brand message number 2: “Since New Zealand drifted away from the super-continent, a unique flora and fauna has evolved, leaving a land full of interesting plants and creatures.”
It is believed that when New Zealand split away from the supercontinent today known as Gondwana, the country was entirely covered in forest which were inhabited by hundreds of bird species. The plants and animals evolved without predatory land mammals, something pretty unusual in our world. As such, many of them developed unique features as they evolved in relative isolation.
Today, New Zealand still continues to have one of the richest flora and fauna in the world and this feature is highly recognizable by our readers.
For the 86% of our readers the statements presented above are true, while only the 14% of them disagreed.
This is also a strong brand image feature of New Zealand and the tourism board can keep raising its awareness among the people using all the inspiring visual content that thousands of creators share on social media.
Brand message number 3: “You will find a variety of awesome landscape in New Zealand, all within easy reach of each other.”
New Zealand consists mainly of two Islands dominated by incredible glaciers, rugged mountains, rolling hillsides, deep forest, volcanoes, fjords and sandy beaches. As the official tourism board says, “It is all here.”
Apparently our readers seem to agree, as the 87% of them recognize the variety of landscape in New Zealand. Only the 13% of the responders disagree with the statement presented above.
Brand message number 4: “New Zealand is a great destination for facility-friendly holidays, and no matter where you travel, there is always plenty of things for kids to do.”
In the same regard, we wanted to evaluate to what extent our readers think that New Zealand has the necessary facilities for all sorts of trips and adventures. This questions served to make a differentiation between the hiking trails and the facilities.
The 24% of our readers don’t think that New Zealand is a great destination for facility-friendly holidays. This is one of the poorest brand perceptions of the country according to the results. Although showcasing such facilities may not be extremely attractive from a marketing perspective, the results retrieved in this survey suggest that more attention should be focused on such item.
Brand message number 5: “New Zealand has a rich and fascinating history, reflecting the unique mix of Mãori and European culture.”
As the official tourism board highlights, “Mãori were the first to arrive in New Zealand, journeying in canoes from Hawaiki (in Polynesian mythology, Hawaiki is the original home of the Polynesians) about 1,000 years ago.” So, “you’ll find amazing Mãori historic sites and treasures – as well as beautiful colonial-era buildings – dotted throughout the country. A walk around any New Zealand city today shows what a culturally diverse and fascinating country we have become.”
In order to test such statements and get to know the opinion of our readers in this regard, the population of this survey had to evaluate the following statement: “New Zealand has a rich and fascinating history, reflecting the unique mix of Mãori and European culture.”
One may say that this brand image feature would perform poorly (specially if someone compares the history of New Zealand with any Asiatic or European country for instance). But that is not the case, as the 87% of our responders agreed with the statement present above.
So, New Zealand made a great job branding this feature as the results demonstrate it.
According to data from the 2017 Best Countries Ranking, New Zealand does not appear in the top 100. Actually, NZ has one of the lowest scores when measuring attributes such as “culturally accessible”, “many cultural attractions”, or “has a rich history”. So, either New Zealand has done a great job promoting this brand image feature along the last two years, or our readers have a different point of view in this regard.
Brand message number 6: “New Zealand’s friendly and down-to-earth people will be one of the things you treasure the most about your visit.”
The official tourism board presents this feature with messages such as “New Zealand has become a melting-pot population – but one with some uniting features that make it unique in the world.”
Interestingly, the 87% of our readers agree with the statements presented above. A really high score which is in line as well with the results presented by the 2017 Best Countries Ranking. Even though the official tourism board of New Zealand does not present this feature widely in their online channels, it is pretty well ranked.
Overall, “friendliness” can be considered as well one of the main strengths of New Zealand from a touristic perspective according to the results. A key feature to support the backpacking side of the tourism industry.
Brand message number 7: “From the crisp days of spring to the burnt orange beauty of autumn, New Zealand is a visitor’s paradise all year round.”
According to New Zealand’s official tourism board, “New Zealand’s climate is mild, and ranges from subtropical in the north to temperate in the south. No matter the season, the majority of our main attractions are open year-round.”
In order to test such affirmation we asked to our readers if they agreed or disagreed with the following sentence: “From the crisp days of spring to the burnt orange beauty of autumn, New Zealand is a visitor’s paradise all year round.” This sentence is also highlighted in the official tourism website.
The 95% of our readers agreed with such statement. This is the highest point of agreement reached in the survey!
The 2017 Best Countries Ranking researched this feature as well. The attribute “New Zealand has a pleasant climate” scored 9.5 out of 10.
Brand message number 8: “New Zealand is home to unforgettable road trips.”
Our readers also believe that New Zealand is home to unforgettable road trips. Only the 13% of the responders disagreed with such statement. This result is in line with the conclusions retrieved along the study which indicate that New Zealand is seen as an ideal country for adventure, backpacking and exciting trips.
Brand message number 9: “New Zealand is one of the most expensive destinations in the world.”
Firstly, taking a quick look to the 2017 Best Countries Ranking, one may think that New Zealand is perceived to be one of the most expensive destinations in the world. The attribute “affordable” was measured and the score was incredible low – 0.5 out of 10, which indicates that in general, people think that NZ is not a cheap country to live in.
Taking a look to Numbeo’s cost of living survey, which takes into account the price of around 50 items, we can see that the cost of living in New Zealand is 4,91% higher than in United States for instance. According to this study, New Zealand is among the 20 most expensive countries in the world, situated concretely in the 14th place, just above Ireland and below Australia.
Apparently, our readers are aware of this as the 57% of them agreed with the statement presented above: “New Zealand is one of the most expensive destinations in the world.” Yet, for the 43% of the readers this is not the case.
This is an interesting result which shows that either our readers are not completely aware of the facts and figures of New Zealand or that the Kiwis have done a great job promoting the affordable side of tourism in the country.
Brand message number 10: “New Zealand is a safe country.”
We researched this feature after the horrible and unfortunate terrorist shooting that occurred in Christchurch the 15th of March, 2019. Even though the news around this event were still prevalent, our readers strongly agreed with the statement presented here: “New Zealand is a safe country.”
The 89% of the responders agreed and this result is in line with the 2017 Best Countries Ranking, which scores 10 out of 10 the attribute “safe” in the case of New Zealand.
In this regard, the UL Safety Index also provides an interesting insight and is also in line with the results mentioned along this section. This study concluded that New Zealand has a safety index of 83 out of 100, ranking 25th globally.
Brand message number 11: “Visiting New Zealand is in my bucket list.”
Among all the quantitative questions forming this social media survey, the following feature ranked extremely higher as well. Interestingly, for the 91% of our readers visiting New Zealand is in their bucket list! This is the second highest point of agreement reached in this survey.
12. The word that best describes New Zealand is…
Finally, regarding the only qualitative question of this survey, the word that best describes New Zealand according to the responders is “paradise”. No wonder why!
This word was mentioned by the 10% of the responders.
