Councils Stop Own Communication

The proposed bylaws by North Shore, Rodney, and Waitakere City Councils about controlling letterbox advertising shows how naïve council planners are in relation to understanding how businesses operate.

If the proposed bylaw goes through, that means that the council newsletters and the Auckland Regional Council newsletters that are put into letterboxes won't be able to be undertaken, because they will be covered by the 'no letterbox advertising'.

"Councillors need to work with businesses in their communities to encourage them to use sensible marketing rather than putting in restrictive laws." says the President of the Sales & Marketing Institute of NZ, Richard Gee. "There are already 25 government laws, plus 20 voluntary codes of practice, that are in place covering sales and marketing activities, why should local councils want to add another administrative regulation for no benefit to employment, no benefit to the community, and to harm the very business ratepayers that are the employers in their regions?"

Sensible marketers don't upset their customers, because they know that if they upset their customers, the customers will walk with their feet and it will take them a tremendous amount of advertising communication in other media, such as external signage, radio, newspapers, television, the internet, to actually attract the customers back.

The Sales & Marketing Institute represents 2,400 sales managers, marketing managers, sales and marketing managers, and business owners who are responsible to their customers.

"At a time when the New Zealand economy may be experiencing a bit of tightening, it seems senseless for local authorities to start looking at ways to restrict business communication to their customers. The customers have the right to decide whether the advertising message is suitable for them." comments Richard Gee.

More information can be found about the Sales & Marketing Institute on www.salesmarketing.org.nz.

© Scoop Media