SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1931, Page 2

SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

SOUND POLICY ESBENTIAL.

Writing on the subject of marketing methods, Mr W. H. Harford, a leading English business man, states that in marketing methods we must endeavour to he more specific, “In these days success does not just happen to a firm,” he remarks, “No manna comes down from heaven today, Neither is success due entirely to A display of energy. Even the will to win is not sufficient. High-powered salesmanship, large-scale advertising, may both be weakened if a firm or industry lacks a sound business policy. Instances must be within your knowledge, a« they are within mine, of many firms who change their tactics as rapidly as does a professional politician, “The place of advertising in modern marketing must firstly be in accordance with an agreed policy. The policy o the firm should either be clearly laid down in consultation with the advertising department or the advertising adviser, or the policy should he mad;' daylight plain to the advertising end of the business. “Unless we stand firm by our policy we may find ourselves going off at all sorts of tangents. One director has a bright idea. Another has a brighter. We are surfeited with, ideas. We adopt this one and reject that, pursue it for a brief period, drop it and father another.. We do not keep our goal in sight because we get too interested in possibilities round the corner. “Thereforej I say the first thing to have clear in our mind in regard to the place of advertising in modern marketing conditions is that it should he based upon a clearly conceived and defined line of policy and action, only to be diverted by important new ana unimagined circumstances.’