Manawatu Daily Times TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1925. Group Advertising.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2732, 14 July 1925, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1925. Group Advertising.

New Zealand has not yet had an opportunity of judging the effects of what is now known as group advertising, although where it lias been tried in a small way, it has been eminently successful. Group advertising was seen in operation in many centres in New Zealand to stimulate the consumption of beef when the beef market was suppressed. Other examples are the combined movements to induce people to cat more fruit This group activity is becoming a marked feature of advertising in several countries, and it is well worth the attention of the New Zealand producer. Indeed, the producer here is already using it successfully in his export markets. He is beginning to realise that it is- sounder strategy to impress on the English public the value of New Zealand butter and New Zealand fruit, as such, than to push at first the worih of individual brands, provided, of course, that care is taken to maintain a general high standard for export. Once the market h<is been prepared competition between brands comes into play. An excellent. little book on advertising that has just been issued in the Horrle University Library, written by Sir Charles Higham, a noted publicity expert, contains some important facts and nrgu ments on this subject. The author points out that a group can operate much more effectively than individuals TA group, at a fractional cost to the firms that compose it, can be amazingly persuasive. A group can afford full-page announcements, where a firm buys a quarter of a column. A group can fill that space with attractive general argument, while a firm must, cram its smaller space with all sorts of duller commercial facts. A group can aflord (he fees of the finest artists and copy-writers; a firm must often be content with the second best.” The greater simplicity of the appeal in group advertising gives it .an advantage over the older method. Group Fruit. Some of the operations described should be noted by the New Zealand producer. The “Eat More Fruit” campaign in England last year

preached the virtues of oranges, apples,- lemons, pears, and grapes to millions of consumers, daily and weekly, "Letters of congratulation poured in from fruit brokers, shippers, wholesalers and retailers all over the country. Sales increased. Everyone traded with greater confidento, which helped to keep employment stable, and when tho new habit is made still more general by further propaganda it is hoped that Great Britain (which at present consumes less fruit than Iceland) will have become the largest fruit-eating nation in the world." Tho Indian tea growers tax themselves to provide a fund which is used for stimulating consumption of tea. Gradually now tea-drinking markets are being created in countries where tea has been but little used. Tho author conducted a nation-wide advertising campaign for tea-drinking In America, where, as some of our readers may have noticed, it is not easy to get a good oup of tea, and he predicts that in five years Americans will have acquired the habit. (During the it may be added, Brasilian coffee growers, deprived of valuable European markets, increased consumption by advertising jointly in America, and when Americans take to tea wo may sec Brazil launching a strong counter-offensive). Six years ago Sir Charles Higham informs us, tho Californian walnut growers, numbering 400, started group advertising. The first year they spent £2500, but by 1923 their bill was £20,000. They have trebled their sales and lengthened the period of consumption from two to six and seven months. The author contends that these methods have wide applications that whole industries should “use the force which individual firms have found so vital to their development." In this way "dying industries" could be resuscitated and trade stabilised, to tho lasting benefit of all concerned.