"USE MORE WOOL"

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 148, 25 June 1931, Page 14

"USE MORE WOOL"

PROPAGANGA REQUIRED. COLLECTIVE ADVERTISING. GAIN TO NEW ZEALAND. - Mr. A. S. Muir, of Gisborne, write?: — It will readily be admitted, by all that tlie prosperity of New Zealand is governed by the prosperity of the farmers of this country, and in times such as the present it is essential that we examine any suggestions that may open the way to increasing the revenue received by the farmers. To anyone who has studied the problem of wool it is most noticeable that in New Zealand the people are not great wearers of woollen clothing'. Ask any farmer if he insists on his family, when buying clothes, giving preference to articles of wool or articles containing a percentage of wool. In the majority of cases you will find that the farmer has never seriously considered that aspect of the marketing of his manufactured product. Woollen wear has intense competition : from cottons, artificial silk, and real silk —competition that is organised and backed by sound marketing methods. The result has been to the detriment of the sales of woollen articles and the consequent lessened prosperity of the farmers. Take any local or national newspaper, or any special women's journal produced either in New Zealand or Great Britain. Look through the advertising pages and note the advertisements urging the purchase of woollen goods or goods made partly with wool. You will find practically none, but you will not be able to help noticing the number of artificial silk and linen announcements. What Advertising Can Do. . Advertising has beeome a pronounced powerful factor in the sale of all commodities of public utility. The trawling industry in England two years ago spent £100,000 in an "eat more fish" campaign, and in a few weeks the industry was working at high pressure. Trawlers that had lain idle for months had to be rapidly commissioned, and not only did the fishing population benefit, but the colliers had a great deal more work proi vided for them to supply coal for the hundreds of trawlers that recommenced fishing. It is estimated that the publicity expenditure increased the total sale of fish by over £3,500,000 in one year. The publicity is being maintained and the fishing industry continues to prosper. Following the "eat more fish" campaign the Empire Marketing Board decided to give the fruit industry a boost, and they expended £250,000 in publicity in one year. The sale of fruit in England jumped from £1,500,000 to over £5,000,000 in the first year, and is steadily being maintained at a high level. Here are two examples where modern methods of selling, organised by foreseeing people, lifted two hard-hit industries from the slough of despair. There is every reason to believe that a "buy more wool" campaign organised in New Zealand would have a very beneficial effect' on the woollen industry of New Zealand. That New Zealand people respondi to good advertising has been proved beyond doubt. One has only to note the big scale of advertising by both retailers and manufacturers to realise that these people would not go on with the game if it did not I> a y-

Local Consumption. There are twelve woollen mills in New Zealand. The use a total of 6,029,068 pounds of wool annually, producing goods to a value of £1,236,578. These figures disclose that the 1,488,595 people (European and Maoris) in New Zealand purchase annually less than £1 worth of New Zealand-made woollen goods each. They undoubtedly purchase woollen goods from England and America, but what guarantee is there • that those goods are made with New Zealand wool? An increase of local consumption is not going to mean that wool will be less used in other parts of .the world. A successful publicity campaign in New Zealand would" more likely show the way to the Home manufacturers to adopt the same selling policy with added benefit to themselves and New Zealand woolgrowers. At present there are two woollen manufacturers actively advertising their goods in the New Zealand Press, but their appeal is directed to lead the public to purchase their particular lines. They make no instructive appeal on behalf of the wool-producing and manufacturing community as a whole. Retail advertisers devote space to the sale of individual woollen lines, but this advertising, while helping to maintain the sale of woollen goods, does nothing to arouse the desire of the buying public for New Zealand woollen goods. It is not instructive advertising. It does not urge people to buy New Zealand-made articles for the sake of their quality— for their quality is good—neither does it appeal to the patriotic sense of the people—a sense that is strong in this country—to support an industry that is bound up closely with the prosperity of ; one and all. The cost of an extensive campaign thoroughly covering the whole of New Zealand for twelve months would not exceed £25,000 at the outside. There are twelve woollen factories and 30,022 sheep flocks in New Zealand. The cost spread over the factories and own- 1 ers of the flocks would be very light in comparison to the gain. Greatlyincreased consumption must mean a rise in prices to the producers and greatlyincreased output must mean a lessening of overhead charges to the mills, and a corresponding reduction in the market price of the manufactured article. This in turn would greatly assist a still further increase in consumption. A campaign would, of course, need to be carefully prepared by an advertising specialist, with a trained organisation, but there are several such men in New Zealand. Benefit to New Zealand. / It is not over-estimating to say that a properly-conducted campaign could be confidently expected to increase the ÜBe of New Zealand-made woollen articles by thrice the amount now purchased. That would, mean, a ready local market for over 18 million pounds of our wool, anrl further, it would show the woollen manufacturers at Home that if they got together and boosted their products— whiiffe they are not now doing—the deof their industry would be materially relieved.

' The ' result's of a "use more wool" ciLmpfiig'n conducted in Australia during May Have come to hand. For a week ah' Hbitfetee amount of publicity was given' ' to' ' Australian-produced woollen articles, and the populace were urged to aslc for Australian-made woollen goods. Shopkeepers and manufacturers in Australia have now measured up the results, and announce great satisfaction at the resultant greatly-increased demand for Australian-made woollen goods.