The means of advertising and promotion for combative, self-defence, martial arts and related services and supplies are very different from years gone by. The Todd Group, formally and formerly the Baldock Institute, was established in 1927 and is the oldest global private training provider to the military of its kind. A stand-alone organization over 80 years, the Todd Group has a nomination, selection, training, and qualifying regime based on the most important factor being excellence. Maintaining the highest standards loyalty throughout the ranks and a realization there is no easy way with the Todd Group and every candidate must surpass the required high standards as they will never be lowered to accommodate the candidate.
All our rank-and-file have volunteered for training and we never solicit applicants from other training organizations. The best means of promotion for the Todd Group has always been by referral either discreetly, in regards to contract work, from service personnel, or by word of mouth in the civilian sector. We have, over the decades, employed many promotional means through as many media sources ranging from television to radio, magazines, newspapers, movie theatres, mail drops of brochures and the Yellow Pages.
The Internet has changed the face of advertising by considerable and now accounts for the majority of our advertising. When we moved into publishing the New Zealand Martial Arts Magazine, which became the Australasian Martial Arts Magazine, and then Fight Times, these publications were major sources of advertising for us. As the editor and manager of Fight Times some five years back I realized it was time to change from a paper version of fight times to an electronic version.
This change saw our readership explode and the scope and reach of our audience become virtually limitless. It was during this period that we secured a sole New Zealand agency for Sports Master Athletics International brand martial arts supplies. While it is difficult to determine exact accurate advertising numbers in relation to sales I believed the old Yellow Pages, newspapers, and magazines were not achieving the results for us of yesteryear. So not only did I cease printing the paper magazine, our major source of advertising and promoting services courses and products through, but I also ceased to advertise in the phone book's Yellow Pages nationally and only kept a headquarters local Yellow Pages advertisement. To give you an idea, we monitor all our traffic and for last month the traffic received from the Yellow Online directory is 0.00032% of total traffic.
Well time has passed since taking these initiatives and the results are astonishing. While on both the Todd Group and Fight Times websites we did increase the extent of our advertising and we did maintain a small budget for local newspaper advertising the rest of the previous advertising was cut. I can report after completing financial returns this year that the turnover has increased by considerable even in these times of a recession.
The hits on our sites have not slowed and there is no sign of them peaking or reaching a plateau even after all these years. Similarly we have constant sign-ups for readers wanting to get on the mailing lists for promotions and specials for fight times and our courses services and products from the Todd Group website continue to grow and exceed all expectations.
We no longer utilize outside publishing or production companies and now incorporate our own DVD production and manual publication facilities within the business. Such has been the success of the websites and free online e-mag that we have now established our own manufacture facilities and product invention and development centre.
I believe if we had not made the move to an electronic publication and means of advertising and promotion we would not have grown to the point where we are the largest supplier in New Zealand as well as the leading provider of self-defence and combative training.
Globally our products and services demand is constant and we now have some 30 national and international Todd Group training depots. We have another Fight Times shop due to open in December and another two planned for 2010 and all this has come about since we cut many of the old means of advertising and promotion and focused mainly on our websites referrals and our e-mag.
Times have changed folks and hands on assessments decision-making and the execution of the decided plans based on our own findings have been the difference between being a mere player and the leading major player. You simply cannot believe what you are told and must question figures and statistics quoted by agencies bidding for your hard earned advertising dollars.
Facts are facts and the best way to determine them is by testing the market yourself and by doing your own research and where possible being in control of your own operation and as close to every aspect of it as you possibly can be. The personal touch has certainly been taken out of everyday business services from yesteryear, such as banking for example, where you can now perform many of your requirements online and general online shopping taking the place of late night shopping in your town or city. The major corporations have had to change with the times and you can't tell me that e-mail has not affected postal services and the list goes on.
The reality is more and more people book flights online, shop online, utilize TradeMe and eBay, and it will only increase and many of the considered leading methods of advertising of yesteryear will become obsolete.
Establishing oneself on the Internet is critical and we are very pleased that our research all those years back identified this and that we now have a substantial readership and database that incorporates a massive and ever-increasing email list. The World Wide Web is truly the greatest tool and the negatives are far outweighed by the positives and the responsible and smart can easily identify the negative aspects for what they are and make educated decisions in relation to what they read by doing their homework.
In conclusion it's very much a case of less of, or in some cases totally out with the old and in with the new if you want to prosper and grow a your business utilizing the latest in electronic mediums.
