VALUABLE WORK.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17277, 13 December 1927, Page 8

VALUABLE WORK.

PUSHING N.Z. PRODUCE.

BOARD’S BEST INVESTMENT.

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN. The New Zealand Dairy Produc# Board is doing valuable work in connection with the advertising of New Zealand butter and cheese (says the Dairyman). It is probably the best money ever spent by the Board and the best 'investment ever made. From reports coming from overseas it would appear that the methods adopted are effective and that the business is in the hands of an expert. If imitation is the truest form of flattery and envy the child-of success, then we may take it for granted that the money spent by the Board in advertising New Zealand dairy produce is not spent in vain. “It will'interest Canada to know,” writes a trade periodical from that country, ■ “that demands for New Zealand butter have been greater here of late, not because it is of .better quality than Canadian, hut because the advertising just now is bold, forceful, and persistent. For example, along the sides of many electric trams in London are the words in big letters: ‘Ask Your Grocer or Dairyman for New Zealand Butter and Cheese.’ That is all—no picture; just the plain invitation to buy. Similarly, the posters advertise the commodities in a very direct manner, and sales have gone up in poor districts as well as in rich.

“Another point in Australian New Zealand marketing,” continue?! the same writer, “has been window displays. In even the poorer districts of East and North London, whole sections of shop windows have been stacked i with canned fruits and other produce. The tins, etc., have been well arranged with show-cards quoting the price per tin or per lh, and announcing country of origin. It is hoped that Canada’s publicity generally will be as forceful and appeal as>, directly to the actual consumer.” For years past there has been an outcry against the large amount of blending that has been going on throughout Great Britain in connection with New Zealand butter. It became a recognised practice with produce houses and large departmental stores to buy or import regular quantities of butter, blend and sell it under their own label or package. Though quite legitimate in every respect, producers in New Zealand objected to the loss of identity suffered by their produce under such treatment, without, however, suggesting anything in the nature of a substitute. In fact, they expected the distributor to create a demand for their butter as “New Zealand butter without centributing anything towards the cost. It is only fair, to mention, however, that before the advent of the Board the advertising of New Zealand butter in Great Britain presented serious difficulties. Importers, distributors and retailers could hardly .be expected to individually advertise an article the sale of which was shared by hundreds of others and with a continuity ■of supply more or less problematical. Nor was it reasonable to expect that individual New Zealand factories should embark upon a costly advertising campaign when it was doubtful whether • ■ their produce would ever reach the* consumer under their own brand op even as New Zealand butter. With the establishing of a national brand,; and the existence of a Board endowed j with funds equitably contributed by, all manufacturers, a thorough and 1 comprehensive advertising campaign has for the first time in the history of the New Zealand dairy industry been brought within the reach 1 of practical and profitable enterprise. We trust the Board will continue the good work until the name of New Zealand butter and cheese has become a household word in the home of every British consumer.