Truly Deeply/Madly

Brand Folk­lore and the Power of Brand Sto­ry­telling
For many years we worked with one of Australia’s most loved food brands; King Island Dairy. King Island is a speck of land in the mid­dle of Bass Strait between main­land Aus­tralia and Tas­ma­nia. Bass Strait is renowned for huge seas and blus­ter­ing winds, just as King Island is known for pro­duc­ing some of the best tra­di­tional cheeses in the world. Over more than fif­teen years we car­ried out con­sumer research on behalf of the brand, and each year with­out excep­tion we heard the same brand story; The rea­son why the qual­ity of King Island cheese is so good goes back to the ships wrecked upon the island a hun­dred years and more ago. The ships were from Eng­land, car­ry­ing early set­tlers and con­victs to Aus­tralia, and the cab­ins con­tained mat­tresses filled with grass seeds from the green pas­tures of the Mother Land. As the ships were thrown upon the rocks of King Island, the seeds from the mat­tresses were washed over­board and by natures own hand sown across the island, cre­at­ing the best grass any­where in the coun­try, which when con­sumed by the King Island cows pro­duced milk of the high­est qual­ity, lead­ing to the rich and creamy cheeses of King Island which know no peer.

A great story to be sure — but one with­out any basis of fact, and cre­ated entirely in the minds of the mar­ket by the spirit of the brand — much like all great brand folklore.

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