Aggressive Marketing Needed

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30839, 26 August 1965, Page 1

Aggressive Marketing Needed

New Zealand manufacturers must achieve greater export success if the country is to develop a mature manufacturing economy. This was said yesterday by Mr W. S. Lowe, Victorian manager of an Australian ’ firm of management and trade consultants, [ John P. Young and Associates Pty., Ltd., of Melbourne. Mr Lowe —he is a New Zealander, and as a member of the Commonwealth Department of trade, directed Australia’s drive for overseas markets before joining Youngs—said be believed New Zealand had done itself a disservice in confining the recent negotiations on the new trade agreement to a relatively narrow field.

“As a New Zealander 1 say this timidity is quite unnecessary,” said Mr Lowe. “Some of the New Zealand products are considerably better than their Australian counterparts, and some of the New Zealand finer craftsman-type operators are as good as any in the world.”

Mr Lowe said he had seen in New Zealand electrical fittings, various plastic products, a number of engineering items, some knitted woollen goods and a range of women’s clothing which were better in style and workmanship than anything in the same class in Australia.

There were two reasons why these products were not selling successfully in Australia. The first and most important was that New Zealand manufacturers did not have enough “aggressive pride” in their products. As a result they did not get into the Australian market with sufficient drive and vigour. The second reason—now diminished in some fields after the new trade agreement—was duty on entry. Mr Lowe said it had to be admit-

ted this was something of a hurdle, but he believed it could be tackled more realistically if New Zealand manufacturers would do more marginal costing and be content to accept abroad a lower price than could be got on the domestic market. Mr Lowe said it was not usually recognised that the

Australian market for imported goods, in spite of the complexity of its own industry, was extremely voracious. In spite of attempts by the Government to hold imports, they

were now running at a record £l6OO million. This provided opportunities for almost any good product, aggressively marketed, to move in. • But the approach had to be a strong one, and it had to be remembered that the Australian importer could afford to be unreasonable when he was I being courted by every country in the world.

“It s no use growling about this situation,” said Mr Lowe. "We have to find ways of meeting competition—you’ve got to sell the sizzle instead of the steak. The export market is always a buyers’ market and we must learn to live with that and adjust accordingly. “1 must say that the opportunity which some New Zealand manufacturers now have through the new trade agreement with Australia to add three or four times New Zealand’s population to their base market is a chance that the producers of most other countries would envy."