Applications to use Australian-made logo soar amid pandemic

Interest in buying from Australian businesses has soared in the past months, while an increased love for the green-and-gold kangaroo has emerged.

CONSUMER and manufacturer queries about the “Australian Made” logo have skyrocketed amid a groundswell of support to buy local following the coronavirus pandemic.

Business applications to use the popular green-and-gold kangaroo logo have increased five-fold in the past three months, from an average 60 applications per month to more than 300.

Meanwhile, consumer visits to the Australian Made website per month tripled, to hit the 300,000 mark in June.

Australia Made logo

Australia's new gold wattle logo

“Post-COVID, there is an enormous pro-Australia sentiment in the marketplace at the moment, for obvious reasons,” chief executive of the Australian Made campaign, Ben Lazzaro, said.

“Australians were shocked into realising that we’re being over-reliant on imports and so we’re seeing an enormous push from consumers.”

The renewed love for the kangaroo comes as a new logo was revealed to sell Brand Australia internationally — to largely negative reviews.

The wattle-inspired gold logo is the result of a $3.3 million design process, which was meant to create a national brand and logo that could be used on all exports, in a campaign to rival New Zealand’s ‘100% Pure’ strategy.

But, with what some say is its unfortunate resemblance to a coronavirus cell, the new logo has not won support in the agriculture industry, which has firmly backed continued use of the kangaroo.

“It would be equivalent to Coca-Cola throwing away the red Coke can. Why would you do it?,” Victorian Farmers Federation livestock president Leonard Vallance said.

“You travel around and everyone knows what it (the kangaroo) is and where it comes from.”

Mr Lazzaro said the Australian Made logo had a 30-year proven track record, with a 70 per cent recognition rate in China.

“For decades it’s been used as a trusted country-of-origin mark alongside other brands,” he said.

The Federal Government has said the kangaroo was not being replaced, and that the wattle logo would be used for international trade or business shows alongside other branding.