Transport Needs Selling
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DOES road transport make the best of itself? Do its quality of service, speed in movement from door to door, low cost and security speak for themselves? Many operators seem to believe that they do, but in the modern competitive world, what should be self-evident frequently becomes 'obscured. • As Mr. J. H. Richardson pointed out at the annual conference of the Public Transport Association at Eastbourne, passenger transport operators must pay increasing attention to advertising if they are to compete successfully with the growing use of private means for transport. Advertising is expensive, and expert advice is necessary if the greatest possible benefit is to be derived from a reasonable outlay.
Unfortunately, publicity is one of those subjects in which many amateurs believe they are qualified to dabble. Too many operators who advertise appear to leave the preparation of publicity material to a clerk, whose efforts are unskilfully translated by an unimaginative printer.
Quality in advertising is as important in road transport as in the marketing of consumer and industrial goods. This fact is already appreciated by some of the large bus companies, and notably by London Transport, as well as by British Road Services and the railways.
B.R.S. Make Strong Appeals Much B.R.S. advertising is solely for prestige and the direct benefits cannot be measured. The indirect return, spread over a period, will probably be substantial. Few industrialists can fail to be impressed by the attractiveness, ingenuity and penetrating sales appeal of the advertising campaign now being conducted by the State road haulage. undertaking.
What has the private-enterprise sector, which in terms of vehicles heavily outnumbers B.R.S., to offer as a counterblast? Some time ago the Road Haulage Association promoted a prestige advertising campaign on a limited scale. It was conducted in excellent taste, and in quality compared favourably with the work now being put out by B.R.S. It was, however, all too short and carried on might have proved more fruitful.
With the virtual ending of fuel rationing and the migration of traffic back from the railways to the roads, the time is opportune once again to remind trade and industry that 50,000 hauliers are available to serve them.
Sustained prestige advertising in selected national media is desirable to reinforce the advertising in provincial and local newspapers by individual hauliers, or by groups of operators. Joint publicity by several hauliers is effective only if the space taken is large enough. A list of names and addresses is singularly uninformative in the absence of details of the services which each operator offers Propaganda by the Independents Both the railways and B.R.S. are engaged in high-pressure propaganda, and free-enterprise hauliers cannot afford to. lag behind. Transport, like any other service or commodity, must be sold, not only by the recognized methods of advertising, but by making the utmost use of vehicles and staff for propaganda purposes. Many lorries are unwashed and shabby, and do not create confidence in the minds of the passers-by. They are hard worked, but there is no reason why they should not be reasonably clean, or why paintwork should not be kept fresh.
Road transport's general lack of appreciation of the value of publicity is a symptom of one of Britain's main failings. America knows better than to hide her qualities. Her films seldom fail to present a false standard of living that Britain can never hope to attain. Everything shown is the latest and best, with the result that the world is given an exaggerated impression of American prosperity.
Britain must study American methods of salesmanship, and adapt them for internal and overseas use. Road transport operators have as much to learn and gain as any in the art of attracting business.