MEAT CAMPAIGN

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1935, Page 16

MEAT CAMPAIGN

DRIVE MADE IN LANCASHIRE. PUBLICITY FOR NEW ZEALAND. An area of about 600 square miles in North Lancashire, with an industrial population of 1,250,000/ was selected for one of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board’s recent publicity drives lasting for nearly three months, and there were many interesting features about this effort Intensive campaigning took place not only to interest the consumers, but also to bring the good points of New Zealand mutton and lamb before the notice of butchers who were either not selling it or were not particularly interested. Careful investigation was made into the nature of the buying demand, and local feeling towards various classes of meat. Usually in an industrial area the board’s officers expect to find a predominance of imported meat, but the majority of shops stocked English in the towns of the area, comprising Accrington, Bacup, Blackbum, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Clitheroe, Colne, Darwen, Haslenden, Horwich, Leyland, Nelson, Padiham, Preston, Ramsbottom, Rawtenstall, Rochdale, Wigan and Whalley.

Several reasons were found to account for the large proportion of home-killed meat on sale. There was a very strong patriotic or “buy British” spirit which gained in strength, reported the board’s officers, through the cotton trade having been so badly hit by foreign competition. Parts of Lancashire adjacent to. the area are big meat-producing districts. The preference for English was sufficiently pronounced to cause people to buy inferior bull and cow beef and ewe mutton, because it was home-grown, rather than good quality chilled beef. However, high prices for English meat opened the door particularly to New Zealand lamb, and it was discovered that both the retailers and the consumers had become dissatisfied with English meat at prices higher than imported. “Our campaign, has provided both with the lead required,” adds the board’s report, “and many have seized the opportunity. The public has been heeding our advice and asking for New Zealand lamb by name. This resulted in some shops stocking it that did not do so before. Our greatest asset apart from the quality of the lamb is the goodwill generally felt towards New Zealand.” New Zealanders are now fairly familiar, with the leading features of these publicity campaigns. The area on this occasion was so large that the usual competitions for dressed windows had to be divided into five sections, with similar prizes for each, and there were no fewer than 220 dressed window displays as a result. Entries in the decorated cycle competition produced 73 attractive displays. Large coloured posters were displayed on 326 hoardings; The campaign ended with a reception at one of the leading Manchester hotels, when over 200 persons, including the competitors in the various divisions, and representatives of the wholesale traders, had an opportunity of meeting the board’s chairman, Mr. T. A. Duncan. “We have done permanent good” is the opinion of the board’s London manager. “The retailers feel that they have the interest of the New Zealand producer. No other country enjoys such good relationships with ths trade as New Zealand.”