Brand Launch 

In April this year, Andrew Meo launched a new coffee roasting company. For that type of business, Wellington is a daunting market to break into. Any new brand trying to break into this market has to stand out amongst the myriad on offer and encourage consumers to forgo their loyalties and try something new.

Andrew Meo approached us. He said he'd been tossing up between two options for a name for his new coffee business. One was safe and would sit comfortably amongst his competitors. The second option was more unusual, perhaps even a little risky. We knew immediately that it was the only choice '" and it did not take long to Meo that he had to go for it. The name was The Immigrant's Son.

There are a couple of basic principles you have to live by when you're developing and marketing a brand. The first is that we make gut-level snap judgements about brands. And it's these emotional reactions to a product or company that primarily drive our purchase decision.

The second principle is that nothing makes an emotional connection like a story. The more genuine emotion a story induces in us, the more we connect not only with the story but also with its teller.

The Immigrant's Son brand takes storytelling to its literal extreme, by incorporating an actual story in the identity. It is the tale of Andrew Meo's Italian immigrant father, his love for well-made, real coffee, and his son's desire to continue that tradition. And it's extraordinary some of the reactions it has provoked. '~One client actually cried,' says Meo. '~I've had people stop outside my roastery and spend time reading the story from start to finish. Some will even make a point of coming in and saying how much they enjoyed it. People with European heritage have said how much it reminded them of their own upbringing.'

Business-wise, it has stimulated trial beyond all expectation. While Meo has no wish to seriously challenge the bigger Wellington roasteries, he has been more than happy with the amount of business he has picked up in just a couple of months '" from cafes, gourmet food shops and individual customers.

'~People have sought me out,' he says. '~And purely because they have heard my story from others and liked the sound of it. I've told my story and now people are telling it to each other.'

Brand storytelling does not have to taken as literally as it has been in The Immigrant's Son identity, but Robertson Communications believes it is essential to successful marketing. The company uses a unique new research model to understand the story behind each of the brands it develops marketing and advertising campaigns for. The model enables us to plot a course through a series of emotional drivers to work out which form the real storyline '" the emotional core '" of the brand should take. Once we know this, we can tell it in a creative way that speaks directly to the consumers we want to reach.

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