Ministry's Marketing Decision Smells Fishy

Last week’s  Weekend Herald (May 5^th)  included an article that would have reminded older readers of the bad old days of New Zealand government.  Go back a few decades and government departments appeared beholden to no-one and customer service was an unknown concept. 

Fortunately those days have largely passed.  Those unaware of the extent to which governmental departments and ministries have adopted many of the elements of the private marketing model need only talk to advertising agencies or market researchers, both industries being increasingly involved with governmental departments looking to become more customer focused, accountable, and effective at what they do.  Customer research and consultation is rife in Wellington as governmental organizations realise that to do their job effectively they need to forge effective and mutually beneficial relationships with their ‘customers’ (i.e. the public).

However, this seachange appears to have passed the Ministry of Fisheries by.  Readers may recall the Weekend Herald’s article that revealed how a very widely distributed guide to fish species, shellfish and their size limits is in fact inaccurate.  The guide is a long self-adhesive measure that the Ministry of Fisheries encourages users to stick onto a suitable surface, with additional instructions such as “sizes shown are legal minimum sizes”; “size does count”, and all the seals officialdom one would expect – the Ministry logo, website URL, 0800 number and of course the contentious inaccurate ruler (the tape-measure this writer received in a Christmas cracker is more accurate!).  Thousands of fishers have used these stickers and it’s not uncommon to find them on fishing wharfs as well.

Marketers reading this will be fast to realise the issue at hand here – the Ministry has issued a ‘product’ now found to be inaccurate.  As with any product recall or defect, standard practice is to admit liability, apologise as fast as possible, and demonstrate that action is being done to ensure the problem is rectified.  The recent Ribena case is a textbook example.  Customer trust is vital, and companies who well manage such problems can even gain credibility and customer loyalty in some cases.

By comparison, what a striking contrast there is in the Ministry of Fisheries!  Although the Ministry undoubtedly gained from the PR dream they obtained through the ‘Coastwatch’ television series, this good will have been largely undone by their bizarre actions in relation to the fish size guide.  After all, what marketer in their right mind would actually punish a person for innocently using their product as intended?  This has actually happened, as reported in the Weekend Herald – a Whangarei skipper being fined by the Ministry for keeping slightly undersize fish that the Ministry’s own guide indicated were of legal size.

Perhaps fancying a career in law, the Whangarei office of the Ministry has stated that the rules should only ever be used as a guide, not a measure – a semantic subtlety that is completely irrelevant in the context of the ruler and how it is presented.  Admittedly the adhesive ruler also states it is “a guide only” but then what’s the point of printing it?  The average punter could well expect the ruler to be accurate – it’s not as if rulers that are inaccurate by a full 2cm are common enough for the issue to be at the forefront of people’s minds.

This situation clearly demonstrates two things – firstly, how the unusual nature of this event highlights the degree to which most government departments have improved; and secondly, just how far behind the Ministry of Fisheries is.  Readers should ask themselves – is your company a Ministry of Fisheries?

Jonathan Dodd