Call Sign March 2011 - Page 24 - Allen Togwell's Marketing Place

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who voted for me at last month’s AGM. The attendance was once again very small, but everybody conducted themselves in an exemplary manner. There was humour and even a touch of AGM’s of old between two ancient adversaries - trust Toggers to attract a dig!

The materialistic age?
The London Mayor’s decision that in twelve months time all taxis over 15 years old will no longer be licensed must be pleasing for those who lobbied against any age restriction of taxis, especially as rumour had it that the age limit was likely to be ten years. It is estimated that around 1200 cabs will be affected, the majority of which it is claimed will be owned by garages. Even so, I would imagine amongst the remaining group there will be a number of drivers of semi-retirement age working part time to supplement their meagre state pension, who are going to find themselves in the difficult situation of having to invest in a newer cab, work longer hours to meet the additional costs and with no guarantee of getting a return on their investment should they be forced to fully retire earlier than anticipated.
   When I came into the trade in the early 60s, the life span of a London taxi was ten years. Owners who wanted to licence a taxi over that age were subject to quarterly inspections instead of annually. I don’t recollect a ten-year limit being an issue back then, maybe because nobody knew any different. Then when I first got my Bill, I worked a garage cab on the clock with earnings being split approx 50-50. I then bought a taxi with just two plates remaining, which on expiring, was sold to a garage up in the Midlands. By then I had sufficient funds to be able to visit M&O in Wandsworth, confident in the knowledge that I could afford to purchase a brand new cab. Nowadays, it seems the moment a knowledge boy or girl get their Bill, they’re off to the cab showroom to be greeted with coffee in china cups and possibly even donuts while spending big bucks on the latest model with all the whistles and bells and only later to wonder how many hours out of 24 they will have to work to pay for it!
   Exactly how much advice they are given by the PCO on the subject of buying their first taxi I don’t know, but the advice I got was that all taxis have the same earning capacity irrespective of age, so start with the minimum of outlay and put sufficient capital aside each month for its eventual replacement and apply the same policy throughout your taxi career.
   I mention the above, partly as a follow up to the letter from Martin Freeborn (C67) in last months Call Sign, when limited space prevented me from mentioning what I believe could be an additional benefit to the Mayor’s attempt at removing the dirtiest cabs from London. That is it could also change the attitude of many similarly attired drivers.
   At a guess, I would say the vast majority of smartly dressed cab drivers are those that drive new cabs, which makes sense. And I don’t necessarily mean brand new cabs, but new to the driver. Driving an old

boneshaker with wind and rain blowing through the gaps in the doors doesn’t encourage dressing in clothes for style. So I can understand in some cases - and I stress some cases - why when I see drivers sloppily dressed, it could well be an extension of the state of their vehicle.
Hopefully, when every cab in London is brought up to a specific standard, the standard of dress might just follow. Because it’s a fact that the manner in which your peers dress can influence your attitude towards your own appearance. If you went into your regular watering hole and every driver looked presentable, it would encourage you to do the same. An example of that fact was when I first joined your Board. At the first board meeting I attended, I was the only person wearing a suit, shirt and tie. The others were in jeans, trainers and clothes they wore driving the cab. However, within a few months the-then Chairman began wearing a suit, followed by the rest of the Board. I’m not suggesting our members should wear suits and ties like PH, just smart casual and clean-shaven would make not only a noticeable difference especially to our account clients, but also the public and the trade in general; it would be setting a much-needed trend.

Who markets who?
At the AGM a question was raised by a member about Marketing, which the Chairman answered adequately and the member accepted. However, on that point I’d like to elaborate a little on marketing at DaC. When I first joined your Board, I did so prompted by the fact that we didn’t have a proper sales department. I obtained the post as head of sales together with a very small budget.
Computerisation was just coming to the fore; in fact I was the first person at Dial-a-Cab to use a PC - a second hand Amstrad. Using Yellow Pages, I created a database of names and addresses of every major business in London. It took me three months to complete and using that list, I sent mailshots to every company, including 50 or so written in Chinese to the growing number of Chinese banks. I advertised our services in post offices, hospital A&Es, colleges, airline magazines, women’s magazines and on one occasion I even took a full-page ad in the Sunday Times supplement. I was working 70 hours a week and being paid for 40, which was the maximum allowed. It’s true to say a considerable amount of success was achieved by all this hard work, mainly because nothing like this had been done before at DaC. Also companies were more responsive to flyers and brochures than they are now and of course PH had yet to rear its ugly head. However, not everything I did was successful.
One project involved 27 commercial slots on ITV, the first of their kind by a London taxi company. But because of unforeseen

circumstances, it was an absolute disaster, the final cost was huge and I was slaughtered! It was then decided we should use marketing professionals. A company was selected who were confident of success, simply on the fact that we had over 2000 members traveling all over London 24/7. They introduced dozens of ideas involving our members and every idea was a complete failure, simply because our members would not participate. Needless to say the marketing company soon realised at theirs and our cost that selling the service industry - and particularly one with no control over its workforce - is totally different to selling tangible products. Hence the reason you rarely, if ever, see the top PH companies advertising on TV or taking full-page spreads in the national press. The reason being it would be counter productive. The demand for their service would outweigh supply tenfold and they wouldn’t survive. Successful marketing of a unique service such as ours has to be done in such a way as to reach a target audience as opposed to a wide audience. In our case the target audience is the casual cash user, users who if let down cause the least damaging effect. And preferably users in the areas that could guarantee coverage such as Westminster, Kensington, Chelsea, St John’s Wood, Islington, Stepney etc. Areas that the majority of our 2000 vehicles cover 24/7 like ants. Imagine how many cards could be distributed in a month if all of you made a concerted effort and had a belief in your Society, instead of complaining about the work you refuse to target being lost to PH? For those who like statistics to support facts, I include a bar chart of responses to letterbox marketing over other means of direct marketing.
It’s hard to believe in an age of high technology that letterbox marketing is still the most effective way to generate spur of the moment business. And by co-incidence, on the first day of business after the AGM I was approached with the opportunity to embark on a joint venture with the Met Police to distribute our literature in the very boroughs I mention above to generate more cash work and spread our name amongst the general community as opposed to solely the business sector. I hastily designed an appropriate A5 leaflet in line with the new colourful tip-up seat that I am about to produce and had our new printers run off several hundred thousand, plus 10.000 extras for you the members to distribute. In the past I have been sceptical about using companies to distribute door-to-door leaflets because from experience of old, there were instances where more leaflets were found in dumpsters than letterboxes! However, in this instance as it is being associated with the Met Police, I have been assured together with references that the company involved have a proven record of professionalism in doing a job of proper distribution.
However that doesn’t mean you no longer have to play your part. In fact, distributing our cards alongside our flyers would have a doubling effect on advertising our name and the service we offer.

Allen Togwell
DaC Marketing

The response of letterbox marketing over other forms