THE ART OF MARKETING

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11097, 16 October 1901, Page 7

THE ART OF MARKETING

WHAT MIGHT BE DONE WITH COLONIAL PRODUCE. In an interesting article by Mr Donald Macdon&ld in tb» Melbourne "Argtfs," he discourses pleasantly and wisely on the art of marketing as practised at' Home, and tfae possibilities of applying it to colonial piodace. Wβ give below some extracts from Uue article:— Nexb to offering every stimulus that i policy can give to increased production— for tiafc is the main thing—a point of importance, writes Mr Maodonald, is as to -whether we are getting the best possible return from what we do export. In London lately I saw something of the ramifitktions of the Australian ex--1 port trade, and it was unsatisfactory to I find that in many lines of increasing importance the a-rfc of marketing was so indifferently done, and- tho retailer, by the exercise of special knowledge and the legitimate tricks of trade, was vgetting a profit oiit.of all proportion to tlie grower's - return. T«ke, for instance, Tasmanian and Victorian apples, as sold at Covent Garden—and in no place in the world oan t3*» art of perfect marketing be more effectively studied than at this great Londoa market. The agents to whom tiio fruit was. consigned naturally got through, thek work with lightning-like rapidity that waj confusing, to the inexpert onlooker, but the competition seesned to be fairly keen. One or two coses in a particular line were opened, some of the apples taken out, and a little pyramid formed on top of the case, so that everyone could ccc' exactly what lie was buying, and the man wlfo displayed them did his work always to thfl best advantage. So far as I could learn from inquiry amongst the buyers, no one troubled himself greatly as to the brands 01 ordbard reputation ; they bought solely on :, the appearance of the fruit. From that experience alone one might reasonably have assumed that th'-e apples were bringing their full market value. Doubts upon the subject only cam« next day, when one found the same apples being retailed in baskets containing, perhaps, a third of the original case, and selling for pretty nearly the price paid for the whole case They were the same apples and yet were not th« same. Away from the dingy surroundings and the crush and contrast o! Coveot Garden, th-ey had increased in size and im,> piroved in appearance; they were daintily packed in an artful .basket that seemed to 'hold half as much again as its actual ■ capacity. This was the secret of effective marketing—the arfc of making things look 'better than they really ■were; or, if you care to jmt it-in that way, selling the consumer thte apples at a reasonable profit on their wholesale cosfc, arid a basket 1 at more than six times its original cost. The question that naturally occurred was tlhob i! the London buyer wants to pay an extravaganti price for fruit; baskets, wihy not go into the basket .business ourselves? It seemed wrong—utterly- unfair— fcbat a trickster should make more by his trick thaia a hard-working orohardist by his in.dusfery. , ■

. So it -was in other markets •with other goods. Homey packed in bulk and put up with no special care sold at prices that must have been, simply heart-breaking to the original apiarist of the Australian . bush.—and this though oar bush, with, its vast flowering gum forests, has ft. capacity in honey production which, taken with its long summers, is vwequaHed in any other partof tfatf world. ■: A few London grocers, finding the bulk so cheap, ~ have hit upon - thte expedient of putting it up as • Austin- ■ lian. eucalyptus itoney, and selling perhaps slightly under, a. pound—certainly not ovei it—at a shilling a jar. It means tia-fc th« man wtbo knows Ms business, and ihds customers, is selling at 112 a per cwb what , originally cost him less than sOe. A-Lon-don doctor, who is also an •enthusiast in .'bee-culture, asked mc whether it-was a fact that eucalyptus hsn&y contained some ' of the anedidiuil qualities of tihte tree- I told; him it did, and hopeii afterwards that I was correct; fottt if the view can be maintallied, or at rtny rate.' encouraged, then is a possibility of working up a. large trad* in Australian ihaney. But it must be.artistically done always, ' TsbsT jar or "bottle should be attiractive, -tibe Laijeieven.mose • so, and above all things unique, distinctive. It should, if the statement be justifiablej- ■ contain an intimation, as to its medicinal qualities, for, pleasant &s the eucalyptian, flavour "is to the Australian palate, it is strange and perhaps jrepellant to those who try it for the first time. * They need some other inducement to keep on. To realise to the full the value,of artistic marketing one had to se& IVench, produce, at Coven? Garden. It was tlie early spring,, and, they were making the most of early produce, but they were not leaving the profit of it to the London dealer. I. noticed especially some early apricots, grown possibly under glass—though' they were miserably small and ■ colourless as - compared with Australian'fruit. Eight of these were placed, in a'beautifully mitred cardboard-box as though they had? been the •daintiest) sweets,' The packing was cun-' ningly chosen to ahow the colour of the " fruit to best .effect, and' in' Covent Garden these were selling at half-a-crown a box. , Had a Swansfcon street' frujtAseller offered you the lot for sixpence in a brown paper bag you would have laughed at him, and waited for seasonable fruity but the packing that caught the eye.' ' Sixpence would have easily that, so that the grower was- getting threepence each for Ibis miserable apricots. This would bepossible in no other city on earth; but London, w&ere there is a vast assemblage of the wealthy- of the world, to ' whom price is absolutely no object if y&u, tarn bht catch their eye and tempt the'eternal craze for novelty. What a field to exploit—but we at present* merely supply ibhe means for others to do the exploiting. And so it is with almost everything sent across the diaubel to Covent Gfaxden—even potatoes were tastefully packed in baskets or boxes that gave them at once a.vastly increased value. And the patterns of the packages varied so constaxitiv with diflerenfc articles and always displayed them to such advantage,- that knowing it to be merely- the trick of effective marketing I should still have been tempted by them. One couia not help seeing that if the Frenoli had our resources in 'production, our opportunities for catching the off season in the London market, to what profitable advantage ■ they would, ihave turned them. Yet the lesson is always there, and he who has eyes may read Speaking of Continental competition in -petite culture, it must always be formidable. Tlie wonderful economy ra land ia noticeable everywhere. Between Mareeillea and Paris you find no euoh woods and; hedgerowe as. in England. Every scrap of land is utilised*— in far-stretching orchards of apricots, almond, and olive, all severely pruned into mere stumps, wiii fruit spurs on top like the pollard willows one-sees by English streams. There are scraps of vineyards literally propped up on rocky ledges of the Jbills, and in between the- orchards \ only the tall, straight rows of poplars, planted, not to beautify the lancfcscape, but as wind shelters for the fruit, and l selected because they grow tall without spreading, and.so take up little space.' No waste anywhere—always tho one end,* production. In ordinary trade channels there is no sentiment, It is purely a question of quality and price, and whenever the English merchant gets something either a little cheaper or a little better than, he can get from, it may be, his avowed and: naturul enemies, then only will h« buy from his friends. Usage in English trade is very ■hard to upset. When one nation has already got its goods in, the newcomer must fight, it on its own grounds, and with its own weapons. We may in time get some preference in army contracts-i-not because the English authorities .'are p>spared togivs "Tommy Atkins" inferior food, if it has an Australian brand, but because, aa I know from the personal assurance of leading comt misstiriat officers and army contractors, Auijtralian tinned meats, for example, are the [ very best they can obtain, ana, as Colonel 1 Ward put it once in Ladysmith,- "always a i bit better than they pretend to- be," Aft • the same, we need to pretend a little more It ia difficult for an inexperienced outaidei

to suggest to business men just how reform in this matter should be carrk-d out, but that we should seek to please the eye and artistic sense as well ns the palate is made very clear. One noticed that South Australian brands of wine are most largely advertised in London, and tbut if one asks for Australian wine the bottle supplied is generally South Australian. Ido not suppose for a moment South Australia has paid the extravagant sums which London caterers require before they put a new brand of any Kind of wine upon their lists, but it is significant that South Australia is the only State, as- fnr as I know, which has established a wine depot in London, and placed, I believe, an active and competent man at the head of it in Mr Burncy I'oung. Victoria has at least the same wine-growing resources as South Australia, and, in any case, no question of interstate competition nor jealosy need come into the question, for the marke* is a huge one, and we have touched it only on the very outskirts. ? ~- I have mentioned in this article only oiie or two products as typical examples. It is needless to go through the whole list of what may bo called export perishable products, for it is a long one. The establishment of an agricultural dejwt, as it is cabled, but, more properly, a.Government museum, only toys with the subject without covering it, for the reason that no on 3 knows where it is, and few visit it, save in search of other than trade information. A more active agency —in fact, nothing less titan Australian stores—seems to be the thing required, or, at any rate, such variation of it as would serve tire purpose. Above all things, it needs to ba controlled not by those devoted to official routine, but by men of keen business enterprise and sound* tasle —men who would not ba content to wait until the merit of un article enabled it eventually to make its own market, and in the interim to make huge profits for those who did nothing to bring it into existence. It would not be an easy thing, and none but shrewd, up-to-date men—certainly not th? ordinary run of official billet-hunters—would i>e able to accomplish it. There is all tb, prejudice of rooted custom and the hostility of the present middleman to break down, biic it must be fought under disadvantages at tlie outset if it is to ba conquered in the «nd. What we produce is in the main goot* enough, and always getting a little better, but it has never really had a fair chance to make a full prniit iur thz producer, and probably never will until it is marketed in such a- way as to catch the consumer's eye by its attractiveness. No one can look at the ordinary street hoardings without realising that «yen in tlis last five years pictorial advertisement has made remarkable,progress. Onoe it was the work of artisans fnow it is the work of artists, and it is not done for art's B<ike, but for trade's sake. The art poster of to-day was not so long ago a happy individual idea, which success has made a trade necessity. Nα business firm—only a publio state—would dream of advertising its wares by putting some of the raw products ; in a glass show-case in some out-of-the-way ' building—called a depot. In this the old industrial exhibition routine seems to have got an almost hopeless grip of us, and thr?r= is no place in the world, probably, where such mean* are less effective than in over«rowded, eager, novelty-loving London.