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The Persuader
My personal blog, started in 2006. No paid or guest posts, no link sales.
Posts tagged ‘world-class’
08.08.2018

A letter I penned today to Prof Grant Guilford, Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington. I support the official adoption of a Māori name (I thought it had one?) but removing Victoria is daft, for numerous reasons, not least the University’s flawed research, dealt with elsewhere.
Wellington, August 8, 2018
Prof Grant Guilford
Vice-Chancellor
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington 6011
New Zealand
Dear Prof Guilford:
Re. Name change for Victoria University of Wellington
There have been many arguments against why Victoria University of Wellington should change its name. Count me in as endorsing the views of Mr Geoff McLay, whose feedback the University has already received.
To his comments, I would like to add several more.
First, since I graduated from Vic for the fourth time in 2000, brandingâa subject I have an above-average knowledge of, being the co-chair of the Swedish think tank Medinge Group and with books and academic articles to my nameâhas become a more bottom-up affair. In lay terms, all successful brands need their communityâs support to thrive. Not engaging that community properly, and putting forth unconvincing arguments for change when asked, fails âBranding 101â by todayâs standards. I donât believe those of us favouring the status quo are a minority. Weâre simply the ones who have engaged with the University.
As an alumnus, I have a great deal of pride in âVicâ, so much so that I have returned to support many of its programmes, namely Alumni as Mentors and the BA Internships. The Universityâs view of market-place confusion is, to my mind, a defeatist position, one which says, âOh, thereâs confusion, so letâs cede our position to the others who lay claim to âVictoriaâ.â Thatâs not the attitude that I have toward our fine university.
The alternative is to stand firm and build the brand on a global scale, something that is more than possible if the University were to adopt some lessons from international marketing and branding.
I have done it numerous times professionally, and for New Zealand companies with strictly limited budgets, and the University has an enviable and proud network of alumni who, I suspect, are willing to help.
Vic has told us for years it is âworld-classâ, and I expect it to stand by those claimsâincluding confidence in its own name, not unlike the great universities in the US and UK. A lot of it is in the way the brand is positioned. Confidence goes a long way, including confidence in saying, âThis is the real Victoria.â
Kiwis are adept at being more authentic, something which a strong branding campaign would highlight.
As alumnus, and fellow St Markâs old boy, Callum Osborne notes, if there is to be a geographic qualifier, New Zealand has far more brand equity than Wellington, so if a change is to occur, then âVictoria University of New Zealandâ is an appropriate way forward.
âUniversity of Wellingtonâ says little, and there are Wellingtons elsewhere, too.
This isnât about apeing others, but being so distinct in the way the University communicates, symbolizes and differentiates itself to all of its audiences. To be fair, I have only seen pockets of that since graduating, yet I believe it is possible, and it can be unlocked.
Yours respectfully,
Jack Yan, LL B, BCA (Hons.), MCA
Tags: 2018, Aotearoa, brand equity, branding, country of origin, heritage, international marketing, marketing, New Zealand, St Markâs Church School, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara, world-class Posted in branding, culture, marketing, New Zealand, Wellington | No Comments »
02.03.2010
Funny how a media article can inspire you to send out a release, especially when youâre a ratepayer and you wonder if our City Council of Ă©lites understands how hard it was for us to make that money. In todayâs case, it was Lindsay Sheltonâs Scoop Wellington op-ed about Wellington City Council going nuts with its spending. Lindsay highlighted not only a $350,000 sculpture for the World Cupâmoney which I reckon we could use to boost the central cityâs wifi coverageâbut Dave Burgessâs report in The Dominion Post that WCC spends six times as much as Poriruaâs council on food and drink.
Iâm not sure how we can justify those sorts of numbers, but I do have an aim to balance the budget if elected.
As I wrote today, if we can grow our creative and technological clusters in Wellingtonâand get free wifi up and running (initially in the centre of the city, expanding outward)âwe can grow the local economy and create jobs. After that we can look at partyingâbut not till we earn Wellingtoniansâ respect by doing a bloody good job.
A city that supports its clusters strategically will be able to balance the budgetâand so far, it seems Iâm the only candidate who is even willing to talk about this issue.
We can start improving those communities through the new jobs weâll be creating, and deal a blow to inner-city crime.
If we fall behind on the tech side of things, consider this: we will lose the Sevens and any other event because our visitors will be asking, âWhy canât I get on to Google Maps on my iPhone without paying for it?â Itâs very simple, and when a mayor and council miss out on the simplest things, then it is time for a change.
I would have thought a divided councilâa complaint of the incumbent, Kerry Prendergastâwould mean that we would not be spending massive amounts on things because there would be a lack of agreement. Spending ratepayersâ money, for some reason, seems to get rapid accord in this councilâwhich tells me that when we vote in our mayor and council later in the year, we should have a far greater change than even I would have expected when I began my campaign.
We have a divided council that needs firm direction on how to grow the economy, and a mayor who understands what âworld-class cityâ means.
World-class does not mean big. World-class means nimble, modern and transparent.
In 2010, we donât need the same old, tired voices. Or the same old Ă©lites. The direction Wellington needs is a fresh one that brings new promises.
Incidentally, we have added a Facebook widget for my campaign page on this blog. Itâs been placed at a few locations on my sites. Also, as of today, backjack2010.com redirects to jackyanformayor.orgâitâs important to have the consistency in the domain name and the campaign graphic (thanks to Demian Rosenblatt).
Tags: Aotearoa, budget, city, creativity, economics, economy, Fairfax Press, government, industry clusters, Jack Yan, mayoralty, media, New Zealand, politics, Scoop, technology, transparency, Wellington, Wellington City Council, Whanganui-a-Tara, world-class Posted in business, internet, leadership, media, New Zealand, politics, technology, Wellington | No Comments »
17.02.2010
While Iâve been a LinkedIn member for many yearsâmy LinkedIn ID has six digits, which gives you an idea of how long agoâI have to confess that I did not browse the brilliant Wellington, New Zealand group till quite recently.
And free wifi is being talked up there, too, as something Wellingtonians genuinely want.
We hear from expats who feel Wellington needs this as a major city, from Wellingtonians who believe this would be great for growing business, and from some concerned citizens who wonder where the money comes from.
Fortunately, two of the posters there have experience in the wifi space, and can attest to the fact that the infrastructure already exists. As mentioned on my mayoral campaign site, we can make this profitable for the city. Secondly, it will provide an additional avenue for Wellington businesses to be found.
Indeed, one of these experts notes that it was exceedingly rare for anyone to go mental over downloading things; in any case, I propose there will be a daily data cap on the service.
When I made wifi one of my core issues last year, I knew instinctively it would be right for Wellington.
I donât live in a bubble, and Iâm not part of the political Ă©lite. Which means I havenât learned how to distance myself from the needs of Wellingtonians. Iâve been engaging with people for a long time with an eye on this campaign. Anyone with oneâs pulse on the city knows that free wifi and new jobs are things that a world-class city needsâand I firmly believe Wellington is potentially world-class. I would hate for us to miss the opportunities that are before us right now, which can catapult us into the big league to become one of the worldâs great cities.
As those of you who came out to the two Asian Eventsâ Trust shows at TSB Arena in Wellington over the weekend know, I have returned to our shores after a wonderful trip to Europe. The warmest it got, I should note, was 2°C, which makes even a foggy, overcast day like today seem dreamy. (The coldest was â15°C.)
Some of the conversations I had in Sweden still canât be revealed yet (this isnât about transparencyâthis is about legality), but I was there studying some benchmarks for transportation and the environment. I want Wellingtonians to know I travel on my money and I use the opportunity to benefit my city. I donât miss these opportunities. (And yes, I was in KĂžbenhavn, too.)
As some of you who have followed my career know, I am not talking about incremental improvements.
After all, as early as 2001 I was talking about Fair Trade and social responsibility. By 2003, I had talked to the United Nations Environment Programme and convinced them that the best way of making environmental issues cool was to mainstream them through the world of fashion and celebrityâand Lucireâs partnership with them was born. The same year, we at the Medinge Group decided that Beyond Branding should be a Carbon Neutral book. The previous decade I was doing everything from web publishing (1993) to launching the countryâs longest running online fashion title (1997).
So when I talk about these ideas in Sweden, I am talking about game-changers that can benefit Wellington.
You have to be a few years ahead of your time, given what politics is like. No one who seeks public office can afford to be reactive or behind the times. And I hope that in the last 23 years, Iâve managed to demonstrate a fairly good record of identifying the next big thing.
And I owe a debt of gratitude to my good friend (and one of Swedenâs outside-the-box marketing thinkers) Stefan Engeseth for arranging my speeches and meetings. Thank you for entrusting me, Stefan, for being your first speaker in your Unplugged Speeches sessionâit was an extremely good, interactive morning. Itâs not every day I get to interact with someone who works for NASA. (If you thought I was good, you should see speaker number two, who has a Ph.D. and is very easy on the eyes.) But mostly, thank you for inspiring me even more, because you, too, always seem to be a few years ahead of the game.
As to France, the other country I spent heaps of time in on this trip, it was an honour to talk at the SorbonneâCELSA campus with my colleagues at Medinge.
While part of the Paris trip was occupied by a board meeting and with the 2010 Brands with a Conscience awards, I had the opportunity to discuss my mayoral campaign with the worldâs leading brand thinkers in a meaningful, collegial presentation. Medinge, too, is filled with those forward-thinking from people who are nearly always right about their predictions of how the world would look in three to ten yearsâ time.
And the session at La Sorbonne was, in my mind, a true highlightâwhere, again, Wellington got plenty of promotion, and I was able to share some thoughts with a smart, young audience.
Iâll be letting voters know ahead of time what else was discussed with the Swedish companies, so you can be even better armed when you fill out your ballot forms for the local elections later this year.
In the meantime, let me give my Facebook campaign page another little plug: click here for more. My heartfelt thanks to all those who have joined and have given me amazing encouragement for this campaign.

Cat Soubbotnik
Above At La SorbonneâCELSA in Levallois. Below Presenting to my Medinge Group colleagues at MIP.

Sergei E. Mitrofanov, copyright
Right I wasnât kidding about Stockholm hitting â15°C. It was around â9°C when this pic was taken.
Tags: 2010, Aotearoa, branding, business, commerce, diplomacy, employment, environment, experts, France, Jack Yan, job creation, La Sorbonne, mayoralty, Medinge Group, New Zealand, Paris, politics, public speaking, Stefan Engeseth, Stockholm, Sweden, technology, transparency, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara, wifi, world-class Posted in branding, business, France, internet, leadership, New Zealand, politics, social responsibility, Sweden, technology, Wellington | 4 Comments »
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