LIC looking for improvement

LIC has chosen the 50th Fieldays to launch its new brand theme.

“There is always room for improvement” is the brand refresh that LIC is promoting.

It has been two years since LIC’s last brand change and it seems to be well received.

“We want to be more about people than we have been in the past,” LIC marketing manager Jason Szabo said. “To be a lot more human.”

Szabo said that before they launched the brand refresh, the company wanted to make sure their staff lived and breathed the new slogan.

“We don’t just want talk the talk,” Szabo said. “We want to walk the walk.”

He points to the example of Waiarapa Moana Incorporated (WMI), based in Mangakino. It has 10 managed dairy farms, two share-milked farms and three dairy support farms.  Altogether it manages over 10,000 cows and has been working alongside LIC to help improve its herd records, in-calf rates and bottom line.

The goal was to improve the in-calf rate of 59 per cent and head toward the industry target of 78 per cent.

WMI’s six-week in-calf rate increased from 59 per cent to 72 per cent, the average across all farms.

LIC key account manager Neville Cooke said that the WMI team undertook training and everyone became experts in identifying cows ready for insemination, with data management and a variety of heat detection tools providing on farm support.

“Thanks to the combination of improvements across the board, Waiarapa Moana has seen a dramatic increase in reproductive performance,” Cooke said. “With these numbers heading in the right direction, we’re now aiming even higher.”

WMI with the help of LIC are working on how it continues to improve year on year.

“We are always striving to improve with our farmers,” Szabo said. “There is always room for improvement.”

LIC communications advisor Aleisha Clark thinks that the new brand is clever because it encompasses everyone.

“We have so many people who do lots of different jobs,” Clark said. “It’s good to include everyone.”