MODERN METHODS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12411, 22 March 1911, Page 8

MODERN METHODS.

ADVERTISING BUTTER.

LONDON, February 3. At Christmas-time there appeared m the Daily Mail a series of displayed advertisements m which were pictured butter boxes of the following brands of the JNow Zealand North Island National Dairy Association: — "Ballance," "Cardiff, ' "Glen Oroua," "Kia Ora," "Hi-' kurangi," "Hamilton," "Lake," "Northern Wairoa," "Red Rose," "Te Aroha," "Thames Valley," "Tawa," and "Warea." The letterpress m the announcement was as follows : — "New Zealand Butter. — Ask your grocer for New Zealand butter. Made from the freshlychurned cream of cattle fed on the glorious pastures of New Zealand. You will be surprised and pleased by ihe splendid quality." This advertisement was inserted by a Tooley street house as the outcome of an arrangement made with the association to devote £ per cent, out of the business commisison received (3 per cent.') to advertising, up to about £3000. Coupled with the newspaper an L nouncements was the despatch to grocers very widely of a neat pocket diary, containing an insurance coupon. Not to be outdone by Messrs Mills and Sparrow, Messrs J. and J. Lonsdale went one better by taking the whole front page of the Daily Mail on January 19th, and giving an outline map of New Zealand, with the situation of the principal butter factories marked. The Kaupokonui cheese factory and the Mangatoki butter factory were specially mentioned. The front page of the Daily Mail costs about £35(1.

This advertising idea is quite new m practice. The grocers do not like it at all, for they prefer not to have thenhands forced by their customers, and many of them are "tied" to wholesale houses, and are, therefore, not free agents. The advertisement, of course, has as its object bringing influence upon the housewife to go to her grocer and" demand New Zealand butter. New Zealand butter is used largely for blending, on account of its excellence, and it goes to the West of England districts extensively, but there are thousands of retailers who never cut it. It is a rooted principle of the retailer m this country to object to informing his customers what butter they are buying. Grocers do not stock particular descriptions of goods with regularity except those m package form. Also the blending industry, under which New Zealand butter is largely used to tone up inferior goods, is a lion m the path. The great difficulty m this matter is the fact that it is practically impossible to recognise New Zealand butter when tendered by the grocer m consequence of demands from customers set up by these advertisements. After the butter; has been taken out of the box it would be difficult for even an expert to swear m court to its identity. So if the grocer wishes to commit a fraud, he can invoice with safety any similar description as "New Zealand butter." It is suggested to me that for the advertising enterprise to be successful the names of shopkeepers should be given who can be applied to with confidence, or that the New Zealand Government should open shops. Where articles have been boom-, ed by newspaper advertising it has been m cases where they are recognisable by the public. One may be sure that the demand for New Zealand butter by the public will be stimulated by these, ad! vertisoments, but it is' not so clear that the grocer will pass on that demand to his provision house unless it is of so pressing a nature. and so considerable that it cannot be set aside. It is a question that can only be settled by experience, and, ajijrway, it is all to the! good m that it brings the fact that New Zealand butter is to be had of high quality and m regular quantities so prominently before the world. j Woulld the factories of New South' Wales benefit by similar advertising? I. asked a Tooley street' friend. "If you can create the demand, no doubt, good would* result. But euch benefit would fall to Australian butter as a whole, and not specially to New South Wales," was the ieply. Some practical men hold that this advertising should be done by the Now Zealand Government for the industry as a whole. The advertising of certain factories is not doing the work on a national basis. It is for the Government to popularise the butter m Great Britairi. There are many ways m which this could' be done; 20,000 cards distributed amongst householders setting forth' the good quality of New Zealand butter would prove effective. — Sydney Herald.