Ethos Public Relations Manchester

Looking after the pennies...

by Sean

Many people in the marketing and PR world are waiting, almost with baited breath, to find out what the Government’s spending plans will mean for them.

Recent reports that up to 1.3 million people might lose their jobs don’t seem to sit well with Chancellor Osborne’s Budget speech which talked about people coming off benefit and taking up jobs.

I’m not the only one to ask where these new jobs are coming from. Stopping a few skilled (non-EU) migrants won’t do it, that’s for sure.

Just like environmental scientists talk about the nitrogen or carbon cycles, maybe we need to consider the 'money cycle', with an emphasis on manufacturing.

Much as PR and marketing are essential – well we would say that – we can only promote goods and services that someone else has created. In this industry, our jobs depend on others producing something we can sell. We then need people to buy those goods and the more those products are conceived and ‘made’ in the UK, the more money will be retained in the economy creating and sustaining jobs - only then can more people move from benefits to a properly paid job.

This virtuous cycle is certainly more environmentally friendly than sending container loads of goods across the oceans and it shouldn’t been seen as some form of a ‘Little Britain’ mentality.  Indeed, I’d say if we need more workers from outside the EU to make these products or to deliver the services, that’s fine by me.

There needs to be a fundamental shift in thinking amongst consumers, away from cheap goods, often from the Far East to products made at home.  Now surely that’s a message for all marketeers. Call it enlightened self-interest.

Posted at 9:47am on 1^st July 2010