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MARKETING EXPERTS are certain that the introduction of a new

7th April 1972, Page 40
7th April 1972
Page 40
Page 41
Page 40, 7th April 1972 — MARKETING EXPERTS are certain that the introduction of a new
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

car is psychologically a very critical event, If all the elements of a new model launch — press road tests, advertising, displays at distributors and publicity material — do not burst upon an unsuspecting public at exactly the right moment, initial sales can be directly affected. The launch of Ford's Granada and Consul range yesterday was no exception.

It is essential that every dealer has adequate supplies of brochures, stickers, posters and leaflets at just the right moment. One company — Road-Link Ltd, of Barking. Essex — had the job of delivering the promotional material to every Ford main dealer in the country.

120 tons of material Before the material could be distributed, however, it had to be collated, sorted and packed at the Road-Link London premises. As there was a total of 120 tons of material involving two million different items this was no simple task. These were delivered from a wide range of printers and had to be recorded when they arrived. Owing to, first, the power crisis and then a printing overtime ban, delivery of the material was seriously delayed. To allow time for display all items had to be delivered by March 28. They should have been packed ready for dispatch by March 6 but in fact the material did not begin arriving at Barking until then. Shortly after this the Granada Television injunction against Ford's use of the name came along and further delayed things. Finally, packaging was completed by March 16.

There are 410 Ford main dealers spread throughout the UK, 20 of them on offshore islands. Packages of material for these few were mainly sent air freight but consignments for all the others were sent by Road-Link vehicles. One of the features of the contract was that Ford insisted on having exclusive use of vehicles and not sharing with other products which Road-Link distributes.

The publicity material was valued in total at more than £200,000 and each dealer received an average consignment of about 4cwt consisting of 25 different packages. Some of this was passed on to retail dealers of which there are a total of 1000. The actual packaging of the consignments was closely governed by the letter of the contract but Road-Link was able to suggest some ways of cost savings. One of these was by not individually addressing packages. This would have entailed extra work and cost which were avoided adopting standard packs and comprehens delivery notes, In an operation for which distribution element was costed out at un■ £3000 this sort of saving was evider significant.

Multi –drop distribution

Obviously, the success or failure of r multi-drop distribution scheme particularly where a tight schedule must adhered to — depends very much on degree of expertise with which the veh routing is handled. But this is no I problem to Road-Link. About one-third the company's business is made up distributing promotional material and i one of the few companies specializing in field. For example the company distribi annually around 1200 tons of holi brochures to the 3500 recognized tr; agents in the UK. Also big business promotions run by large retail groups the oil companies; three million gia delivered to 2000 sites in a short tim nothing unusual.

The Ford Granada and Consul lau took about a week of detailed plant before driver and traffic staff briefing cr begin. This was completed in about 10 d ,s is often the case with a limited period, apital intensive distribution operation the larining and routeing time was 3nsiderably longer than the time taken to ztually deliver the goods.

As the packaging was all done at the remises at Barking all vehicles started from us point on the distribution runs — even tat going to the North of Scotland. Twelve hicles were allocated to the job, ranging Om Ford boxvans to AEC artic units. The am n principle behind the routeing scheme' as maximizing vehicle utilization and the arting point for the plan was a blown-up ap of the country. This was marked with

e drop sites and, taking into account stances. geographical barriers and an-made obstructions like one-way 'stems, routes were drawn in.

,cheduled basis

Deliveries in the Greater London area 2re made on a scheduled basis but those to

e provinces took longer. Two days was lowed for the South West area while :otland took about 54 days. The Scottish n was probably the most difficult to ganize. Of the 43 sites, 29 were in the dustrialized Glasgow-Firth of Forth belt -tile the remainder were scattered over the arth of Scotland. Because of the bulk of the material an AEC Mercury with 28ft York boxvan semi-trailer was used to move the consignments which weighed only 7 tons in total. The outfit was trunked to Carlisle from Barking, spent 54 days delivering before returning to Carlisle, thence to Barking. The round trip, Barking to Barking, was 1675 miles long and the mileage per delivery 49.8. Nationwide, the 12 vehicles covered a mileage of 10,500.

Route ing techniques While Road-Link's closely defined limits on time are by no means common to all distribution operations there are valuable lessons to be learned from its routeing techniques. On the Ford launch the contract called for exclusive use of the vehicles but, of course, a good deal of the profit on such a job is on the amount of back working which could be arranged after the Ford material had been delivered. Close working with Road-Link's provincial depots in Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol was necessary to achieve this. To cover all eventualities each depot had retained a spare vehicle for use in case of breakdown. In fact none of these were needed, all the promotional material was delivered on time and the Ford Granada and Consul ranges are now ready for the public.


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