BUILDING UP GOODWILL

Evening Star, Issue 25941, 5 November 1946, Page 5

BUILDING UP GOODWILL

NEW ZEALAND PUBLICITY IN BRITAIN

AUSTRALIANS ENVIOUS

SYDNEY, November 4

Australians in London are loyally convinced that New Zealand has nothing to offer which Australia cannot match, and become indignant when they see the sister dominion consistently beating Australia to it, cables the ‘ Sydney Sun ’ special correspondent in .London. They, realise that New Zealand might not be able to supply immediately all rthe products its attractive posters and advertisements promise, but they are convinced that, when trade flows normally again, New Zealand will havq built up valuable goodwill, and the British housewife may have got into the habit of asking for New .Zealand products. The correspondent records that hundreds of Londoners paused outside the New Zealand headquarters in the Strand this .morning to read multi-' coloured posters which told them that New Zealand was at present supplying butter to Britain equivalent to four days’ ration and cheese equivalent to three days’ ration weekly. , Australia House displayed a model of the Sydney Harbour bridge and two ships and pictures of Bondi beach, hut promised no food. Ninety per cent, of the Dominion’s food advertisements on buses, screens, and hoardings were messages from New Zealand. The correspondent finds the Australian migrant publicity excellent, but points out that trade goodwill might be more important in the long run. When the New Zealand Publicity Department resumed operations at the end of last year, tourist expenditure was cut out in favour of commodity advertising. New Zealand concentrated on food because it was convinced that Britons were food conscious. Realising the impossibility of resuming immediately the pre-war volume of food and trade, the New Zealand experts considered it worth while to spend thousands of pounds a year just to remind potential customers, “ Your rations to-day are your choice to-morrow.” ■, . • Australians in London now believe that New Zealand has . resumed its activities at the right time and that Australia courts a chance of missing the bus.