The Marketing Bureau

By Brian H Meredith
From the NZBusiness"Marketing Maestro" Archive
First published September 2004

Little seems to have changed since this column was published 7 years ago. Mrs Meredith recently tried, once again, to desert the car and head for the bus. And her experience was remarkably similar to that described here.

The Aucklanders amongst us are constantly being exhorted to leave our cars at home and make better use of this city’s public transport system.

The problem is apparently a complex one (although I am not entirely convinced that it is, in fact, complex at all) and has engaged the brains of politicians, both local and national, city planners, engineers and experts and specialists in a whole range of bizarre professions.

However, the real problem with Auckland’s Public Transport has, in my humble submission, been the absence from that long list of experts of a marketing brain. And I am convinced of this based on the premise that, had there been a marketing brain within a thousand paces of the whole issue, we would surely see a very different public transport service offering.

And how can I be so sure of my contention?

Because I have a wife and a son who are sufficiently open-minded, selfless and community spirited to have recently decided to use bus rather than car and have found the entire experience less than edifying – and those dear readers who know me well already appreciate that this is all the evidence I need to make broad, sweeping generalisations about any major issue.

Having made the selfless shift away from the internal combustion engine and onto the bus network, Mrs Meredith has observed and/or experienced a range of issues which the completion of Marketing 101 by just one person within the public transport system would surely have ensured did not occur. Those issues include the fact that:

Buses are frequently late
Buses are frequently full
Bus connections frequently don’t work
Bus drivers frequently have the interpersonal skills of an amoeba – and yes, there are notable exceptions and they are heroes and should be paid more
Bus journeys frequently take up to twice as long as the equivalent journey by car

Despite all of the above, Mrs Meredith, not one to give up without a fight, decided to stick with the bus, even to the extent of deciding that she and our son should purchase weekly tickets rather than struggle with cash and coinage etc at the commencement of every daily journey.

It was with this in mind that on a recent journey through the city late last Sunday afternoon, Mrs Meredith decided to “pop in” to Britomart and purchase said weekly tickets.

Oh what a naïve old thing Mrs Meredith revealed herself as being. Of course she could not achieve her objective. The Bus ticket office thingy was closed. Of course it was. It was Sunday. The intercity train ticket thingy was open but not the bus equivalent. Now there’s integration for you.

Fortunately, the chaps at the train thingy told her that she could purchase the requisite weekly ticket at nearby Starmart ( a flash sort of an “open all hours’ dairy). Full of warmth and admiration for the hard working, “Sunday’s just another day for us”, TranzRail people, off she trotted to the nearby Starmart.

Whereupon she enjoyed the company of the proprietor of the Starmart who, perfectly charmingly, advised her of his distress at his inability to fully meet her purchasing requirements. The problem was that, whilst Mrs Meredith wished to purchase TWO weekly tickets, well, things being what they are in the retail trade, the said proprietor was embarrassed at having a stock of just one.

But all is not lost, she was reassuringly advised, there is another Starmart, operated, as luck would have it, by a thoroughly decent fellow who, like me, is engaged in his business to the benefit of all those weary travellers through life and in need of milk, bread or weekly bus tickets and he is doing all of this no more than a kilometre or so from here, advised the cheerful chappy.

Feeling a little weary now and getting ever further away from the Britomart hub of this fine city’s integrated public transport system, Mrs Meredith bid the proprietor of Starmart a tired yet cheerful “adieu” and headed for the business premises of the aforementioned colleague. A while later she arrived, whereupon she inquired as to the stock situation in respect of weekly bus tickets and was relieved (indeed, euphoric) to learn that the stock situation for the said items was indeed quite healthy and that her purchasing requirements could, therefore, be readily met.

The transaction was completed.

Over 40 minutes had passed since Mrs Meredith’s arrival at Britomart. Three potential suppliers of weekly bus tickets had been explored. One had failed completely, by dint of being closed. The second partially failed having not been able to meet the requirements of her bulk order of two tickets. And the third was able to complete Mrs Meredith’s requirements with the supply of a second weekly bus ticket.

Mrs Meredith triumphantly displayed her two weekly bus tickets for our son to admire . On the reverse of these tickets he noticed a remarkable phrase, clearly not penned by a marketer.

It read “It’s Easy on the Bus”   

Yeah. Right.

I am reminded of something Warren Buffet said which I share freely here with the all those involved in the public transport issue – “You don`t need to have extraordinary effort to achieve extraordinary results. You just need to do the ordinary, everyday things exceptionally well”