Chances are, if you live in Auckland and listen to radio, you know their names – and voices.
Sailor Grant Dalton once remarked to Newstalk ZB host Paul Holmes that he knew he was getting close to New Zealand during one of his round-the-world races when he picked up radio reception at sea – and heard their advertisement.
It’s “Adrienne and John” of Auckland retail appliance firm Magness Benrow. Like Beyonce, Prince, and Madonna, they’re simply known by their first names – Kiwi style.
And while they sometimes bicker and poke fun at each other in their ads – all part of the shtick – let’s clear one thing up at the start: John Magness and Adrienne Harrison are not married to each other, as many people might think.
“We’re good mates,” says Magness.
They are also longtime colleagues who play a pivotal role in the success of a family-owned business, which this year is celebrating its 80th birthday.
Their advertisements are legendary – a little wacky, occasionally chaotic and sometimes (especially historically) risque.
“In one of our ads many years ago, we had an auction and John sold me for five cents,” says Harrison. “He got abused for that.”
The pair used to get a fair bit of negative reaction, but they say that’s eased off in recent years.
“If anybody ever rang up and complained about the ad, I’d thank them for ringing,” she says.
“And they’d say, ‘What do you mean?’ Well, you’d made the effort to find the phone number and to ask for me. So thank you, you now know who we are.
“They couldn’t understand that, but they’d think about it afterwards. All you’ve got to do is get through to somebody ... negative advertising is just as good as positive.”
Harrison, who has been with the company since 1978, told an industry magazine in 2011 that her on-air partnership started with John in 1994 after a conversation with a radio consultant.
“At that stage, sometimes John would do the ads and I would [do others]. This guy said, ‘You don’t need me. You have a great rapport, so just do it yourselves, as a duo’. We took his advice and have been doing [the advertisements] ever since.”
The pair record a weekly batch of ads every Thursday for distribution across the week, across stations. They work to scripts – but also sometimes go off-piste.
John Magness believes radio advertising has been a key factor in the company’s success, ever since they put their entire marketing budget into the medium in the early 70s.
“We met up with Tim Bickerstaff and forged a relationship with him, first on Radio i and later on Radio Pacific,” Magness told the appliance retailers’ industry magazine Wares in 2011. “Tim worked with us right up to his retirement about 20 years later.”
I’ve sat down with Adrienne and John a couple of times this year to learn about the company. Behind the ads is an Auckland company with a remarkable history.
John’s father, Roly, was an engineer who started the business in 1945 – his prowess actually came to the fore 10 years earlier, when he started Magness Sound, specialising in sound systems.
When war broke out in 1939, Roly was conscripted to look after maintenance for refrigeration units on visiting American warships. By 1945, and with war over, he took his skills into retail.
Magness: “The old man was probably a genius that as kids, you don’t know and appreciate.
“He was an extraordinary engineer of his time who could repair anything. He built his own refrigerators, and we’ve got a couple of them up there at the moment. One built in 1948 and one in 1952.”
John Magness’ initial stint in the business was as a teenager working for his dad from 1964.
“I always remember the first day of going to college, and that night he asked, ‘What time did you get home today?’ I said 10 to 5.
“He said that’s all right; when you walk up Khyber Pass – because the shop was in Eden Terrace in those days – don’t turn right for the bus, turn left and come down and do some work for me.
“He didn’t pay me. But in those days, we never thought of asking any questions. You just did it.”
Initially started as RJ Magness, the company eventually bought Benrow Appliances.
Over its 80 years, Magness Benrow has had various retail stores across Auckland and today maintains a head office and shop in Greenlane and another retail outlet at Homezone on Auckland’s North Shore.
It has about 25 staff.
It’s been a challenging period in retail, but Magness Benrow has a good many loyal customers with long memories.
“I had a woman come in one day, and she said, ‘John, I’m a loyal customer. I need a new fridge. Oh, and I might as well have a new washing machine at the same time,’” says Magness.
“When we delivered them to her, her previous fridge was 1972 and the washing machine was 1968! But she was a loyal customer.”
Another elderly, loyal customer recently came into the store, wanting a chest freezer.
“She was 95 years of age – how could I sell her a chest freezer?” says Magness. “In the end, I sold her an upright. There were about 20 people in the shop, and she gets to the door and says: ‘You got me this time, you bastard, but I’ll get you next time’.
“She goes out the door, jumps in the car and drives down the road. Ninety-five!”
Harrison says: “It’s a family business and people like dealing with families, and knowing they have personal service.”
She says customers have become sharper, especially now that they have access to online. “Customers are more conscious of pricing, and they’re always looking for a very good deal.”
The company carries a lot of stock and can often provide an item on the same day, or within 24 hours.
Magness counts some 60 different models of refrigerators, 30 different models of washing machines, and 60/70 models of television – “in sizes of 32, 85 and I see even 95 we’ve got in there now.”
While it has been a tough period economically, the company is in good stead. “Retail is tough. It spends most of its life fairly tough – up and down. Every week is different.”
Two of John’s children are now in the business – a third generation.
“If they want to do it, it’s there,” he told RNZ First Up host Nathan Rarere this year. “I think that’s the big thing in life. Not leaving your kids a requirement, but something that, if they enjoy it ... they will be very different to run it, to what I am. So be it.”
Editor-at-large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including managing editor, NZ Herald editor and Herald on Sunday editor.