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Under a Bushel
Page 89
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ADVERTISING is as indispensable as fuel to the passenger-vehicle operator. He has plenty of potential customers, even if the growth in the use of the private car is diminishing their number, but he would get little business if he did not force •his services on their attention. He has to get his message into the papers and magazines they read, on the air for them to hear, and on the posters and cinema and television screens at which they look. He distributes leaflets and publishes time-tables. He must lure the customers towards his vehicles, which may also carry his advertisements, and towards his window displays.
As Mr, J. H. Richardson pointed out in his paper to the annual conference of the Passenger Transport Association early this month, the operator of excursions may even findit almost essential to have r an attractively prepared blackboard leaning against the coach." The public in general may be myopic and erratic, but it is not through any lack of effort by the passenger vehicle operator if they do not get on to his vehicle in the end.
Nothing to Say The difference in the attitude of passenger and goods operators towards advertising is shown by the fact that the P.T.A. willingly devoted a good part of -their conference to a discussion on the subject. There may be good reasons'why it is difficult to imagine hauliers doing this. A passenger service that does not advertise itself adequately would go out of business in .a few weeks, whereas many a haulier seems to thrive Without advertising at all. In a debate on advertising, hauliers might so-on find themselves with nothing to say.
Whether hauliers are wise in hiding their light under a bushel is another matter. They have a different publicity problem from that of the bus and coach operator. His customers are legion, and only by advertising Can he keep in touch with them. Except for one or two specialized services, such as furniture removals and the carriage of parcels, the haulier can make do with a few customers, provided they are of the right kind.
A Mistake For this reason, he may look upon advertising as a waste of money. This iS a mistake. His customers may leave him, or the volume of their traffic may decline. His competitors may hem him in, May Change his environment. Unless he has kept uP. his link with the public through advertising of one kind or another, he may no longer be able to make a living.
At . least one of his competitors has no misgivings about the value of publicity. British Road Services are spending a large amount of money on Press advertising. They have succeeded, or are well on the way to success, in establishing their name 'as what is usually called a household word. Through advertising, they are certainly getting themselves talked about, although' I am not sure that every trader will approve the suggestion in most of the advertisements that his methods in dealing with the problem of transport ate somewhat feather-brained.
There can be little doubt that this is the message of the campaign. The appearance and content of each advertisement is similar. About half the space is devoted to a picture of a girl finding obvious difficulty in coping with the results of the kind of shopping spree that most
of us have to be content to imagine. In the opposite corner is a drawing Of a Man, with a telephone in one hand and a pencil in theother. The context makes it clear that he represents the transport manager or -C-licence holder. His identification with the girl is emphasized by the caption linking the picture and the drawing with the words: " How well organized is YOUR transport?", Round His Legs
Although the girl herself is pleasing, I am not sure the C-licence holder is likely to be pleased at the suggestion that he allows his transport problem to get in his hair and twisted round his legs. If B.R.S. have been less than clever on this point, it may be, as the psychologists would say, 'that they are subconsciously compensating for the many occasions in the past (and not all of them in the past) when C-licence holders have suggested much the same thing about nationalized road transport. The girl is the symbol of revenge, and B.R.S. perhaps hope their choice of revenge is sweet enough to neutralize any offence.
The, sponsors of the advertising must have accepted the risk that it would not merely bring more business to B.R.S., but would divert traffic from rail to road. The advertisements do not mention the British Transport Commission Or British Railways, much less extol the virtues of co-ordinated or integrated transport. Neither is there any reference to nationalization, a fact That should carry a lesson for any Socialists who still . imagine that the word or the deed has any longer a general popular .appeal.
Railway Service?
The theme of the advertising is that B.R.S. can provide a comprehensive, flexible, national service, far beyond the scope of any other haulier. The temptation to add that it is also much better than the service provided by the railways is, of course, resisted.
Independent operators would not have to be similarly tender about competitive forms of transport. Their approach to the public can be much more full-blooded than that of B.R.S. They have no need to attack their competitors, and it would not be good policy to do so. They have public opinion already on their side, and if they neglect this asset too long they may find it diminishing. Public sympathy and support are precious, and ought to be cherished. Publicity directed towards this end would be well worth while.
The railways, as well as B.R.S., have plans of their own that are rapidly taking shape. They are bringing their equipment up to date. and they have a new charging policy which, when it =comes into operation, may soon become a danger to their opponents. According to Mr. Richardson, the programme of electrification and " Dieselization " of local train services has already had a marked effect upon the receipts of competing bus routes. The time may arrive when road hauliers will be similarly affected. Their policy should surely not be to wait until this happens, but to do something now to keep public preference on their side. How this should be done is a matter for mature consideration and it should receive this primarily from the Road Haulage
Association. .