Campbell, Harrington & Brear

June 21st, 2011
Posted By: Mel Campbell, Jr.

There was a time in a world long, long ago when yellow telephone directories may have had reason to exist.  That day is way gone.

Back then, if you were a local retailer, all your advertising dollars were in the Yellow Pages except for some local media advertising that directed consumers to your Yellow Pages ads…and, well, that may have worked 40-plus years ago.  It won’t work in today’s world.

Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning:  The phone directories are directories and nothing more.  Period.  No matter what sweet talk the sales rep fed you, they have never been an advertising vehicle.  They are, first and foremost, a book people go to for phone numbers. People do not do their “shopping” in the phonebook as their reps would like you to believe.  It is a book that lays there until someone picks it up to look up a phone number and then calls it.  And that habit has totally changed.

The medium of choice now is on-line phone number searching on Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Yellow page advertising is not in the equation anymore.  There is an abundance of research information on-line showing the rapid decline of phone directories and yellow page advertising.

But rather than get bogged down in a lot of research data, charts and graphs, tables and logarithms, let’s just look at some simple truths that should make any sound business person abandon their yellow page advertising.

1. Search localization.  Local search was the final nail in the phone directory coffin.  On-line phone number searching on Google, Yahoo, or Bing is the medium of choice.
2. Websites.  They tell us everything about a business and more.  Much more than a directory ad does.
3. More mobile phone users.  303 million wireless subscribers don’t carry phone directories around – they search on-line using their mobile device.
4. Fewer households use landline phones.  As of 12/10, 26.6 % of all U.S. households were wireless ONLY households.  It was 8.4% five years previously. Again, mobile users use on-line directories.
5. Wall Street has abruptly abandoned the phone directory industry.  Idearc Media (now SuperMedia) got delisted from the NYSE.
6. Communities are opting-out.  Tired of phone books piling up on doorsteps, communities are adopting “opt-out” ordinances.
7. In May 2010, Verizon petitioned the State of New York – which requires by law that they print alphabetical residential and business directories – to support a New York State waiver to end the mandatory printing of White Pages.  Too many customers complained they don’t want them any more.
8. Yellowpagesgoesgreen.com. This is Yellow Pages’ own initiative to opt-out of printing directories.
9. Super Pages, the largest of Yellow Page companies, experienced a 61.3% decrease in revenue from 2009-2010.
10. And the number one strongest reason:  The yellow directories no longer advertise their directory services.  They now tout their internet services.

Yes, they no longer even talk about themselves as a phone directory company any more.  They are now web-developing, SEO, SEM experts.  Even Yellow Books’ national TV ads have been touting themselves as your internet company.  They don’t even mention the word directory in their advertising.  Go on-line and you will see all their messaging is about “internet,” “get leads new website PPC,” “Yellowbook Mobile App.”

Even the yellow page companies have given up on their yellow page advertising!

Somehow, overnight, BAM! they became “internet communications experts” and they are now ready to advise and handle all your strategic internet needs!  Whoa!  Can you believe that?  From a Frog to a Prince instantly.  Like going from a baker to a nuclear power plant operator over a weekend.

If you believe that, I have a telephone directory company I would like to sell you.

Next.  Part III:  Beware the New Yellow Directories Story.