Читать книгу UnMarketing - Stratten Alison - Страница 12

Twenty-five years ago, we loved leafing through three big books: Encyclopedia Britannica, the Big Book of Amazing Facts, and the Yellow Pages. Maybe we wanted to read them because of our lack of friends in third grade, or for Scott, it may have been spurred by the avoidance of people commenting on his bulbous head, or perhaps it was just a general interest in things that drove the desire. Whatever the reason behind it, we could sit there for hours with those books.

Fast-forward to the present day. The encyclopedia has been replaced by Wikipedia, the big book is now called the Internet, and the Yellow Pages are called Google. Yet many businesses and phone directory sales reps continue to use these big hunks of paper and try to justify their use of them. We've had this debate with many people about businesses using tools like the Yellow Pages. Most people say it is a great doorstop, booster seat, or a thing to beat people with when they don't pay up on a gambling debt. But let's look at the case that most people say justifies using them: “They work in some markets. People still use them. Like old folks, shut-ins, and people who are still locked into AOL contracts.”

So, let's roll with that – people who still potentially use them. We have a few issues with this way of thinking.

■ You are aiming at the bottom of the barrel (the hierarchy of buying). As you can see when you look at the hierarchy, even people who use the Yellow Pages on occasion will only go to them if they don't already have a service provider, they don't know anybody who could perform the service, they don't know anyone who knows anyone, and they have never even heard of anyone in the field. So no relationships, no word of mouth, nothing. And even if someone were at that point, you would still have to get that person to notice you.

■ Paper spam. E-mail spam works on the premise that if you blast it out to a million people, a fraction of a fraction may be in the market for the product and a fraction of that may even click. Phone directories work on this same premise. Per year, 1.6 billion pounds of paper are used to produce the 500 million U.S. directories that go in the post. You may be in the market for one of the 2, 000 categories of businesses that are listed. It's paper spam at its finest! You didn't opt in, the majority of people don't use it, many do not even take it out of the plastic; instead, it ends up in landfills, might get recycled, or may be thrown at random phone company trucks that drop them off. Sadly, we don't see the books going opt-in, because like most things in the print industry, advertisers are charged based on bloated circulation numbers. And we estimate the number of people who would actually ask for it is 14, give or take 12.21

■ Price/competition sensitivity. The lower down on the hierarchy of buying you are, the more you are up against bargain shoppers and competition. The thing that we've heard the most from former advertisers was that even when they got calls from their ad, it was usually people looking for the lowest price. This is because you have not built any clout or trust with the potential customers, and you instantly make yourself a commodity. Or even worse, people call who are trying to sell you something, because what better way to sell to somebody who advertises in the Yellow Pages than with a cold-call.22 It also becomes a competition of who can have the most “AAAAAAs” in their legal name just to rank as first in their section, or sales reps telling you that you need to buy a bigger ad than your competitor who is right beside you. It fascinates us that businesses pay good money to be listed next to all their local competition.

■ Lack of updates. Because ads come out from a provider once a year, as soon as your ad is printed, it becomes stale. No testing on which ad converted to leads is better unless you plan on doing it on a year-to-year basis. That would mean to do a proper test using three different ads it would take you years to get any comparable data. It's like walking from Los Angeles to New York to see how your product is doing.

■ A dying market, literally. Through our totally nonscientific opinion, we are going to guess that the amount of people who use a phone book to look for a service provider goes up with the age demographic. Even senior citizens are ditching them to go online, however. According to PEW Internet and American Life Project, 45 percent of senior citizens over the age of 70 are online, and even 20 percent of those over 76 are surfing the interweb tubes. The average life expectancy is around 80, so we're not sure for whom you are aiming. Those over 80? Go get ’em! Just make sure you buy the big ads with the large fonts.

21

If you actually want to opt out, in Canada go to Delivery.yp.ca. and in the United States YellowPagesGoesGreen.org.

22

Insert maniacal laughing here with an Alanis Morissette “Ironic” soundtrack.