Where would you go to gather ideas for the best recreational spots in your city to suggest to a visiting client? Tips on remodeling your home office? Gifts for a difficult-to-please vendor or supplier? Health and fitness options within a five-mile radius of your business? High tech equipment that fits within your modest start-up budget?
Look no further than the Yellow Pages, now the focus of a first-ever industry-wide marketing campaign designed to change the way people look at this trusted product and, ultimately, change the way they use it.
As you may already know, SBC's directory publishing operations (comprised of Pacific Bell Directory, Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages and SNET Publishing) have teamed up with Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Bell South, GTE, Sprint and US West Dex to support this national effort.
Precedents exist in other industries with, for example, the Milk Board's "You Got Milk?" campaign, and efforts by the National Beef Council and the Florida citrus growers to enhance the popularity of their products. In this case, the goal is simple: dramatically increase the usage of the Yellow Pages.
How do we plan to do this?
New Positioning.To quote comedian Jon Lovitz, who is humorously assuming the role of the "man who wrote the Yellow Pages": "The Yellow Pages is not just for looking up stuff. It's for thinking up stuff.˛ It's an idea source and, as such, the long-trusted Yellow Pages becomes more relevant today than ever before. This is the message being taken to consumers, a message best summed up by the new light bulb logo and tagline, "Get an Idea!"
New Campaign. As Lovitz explains, the Yellow Pages contains a new discovery, a new revelation on every pagefrom air compressors to zoos. Radio, television and print commercials humorously encourage people to consider this medium as a never-ending source of new ideas.
New Aggressiveness. Initiated in January during the college bowl games and the Super Bowl, the campaign includes exposure on prime-time shows like "Friends," "Frasier" and "ER," as well as print ads in People, Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, and radio spots. It is estimated that 95 percent of adults 25-54 will see and hear the commercials 24 times during the first five months of 1999. This high degree of saturation is comparable only to national campaigns run by such giants as McDonald's or General Motors to launch a new product.
According to Forrest Miller, president and CEO of SBC's directory operations, "I am very excited about the upcoming year. We've not had a consistent national message about Yellow Pages usage out to consumers since the "let your fingers do the walking˛ days. We believe this campaign promises great visibility and strong, positive word of mouth. If we're successful in this industry-wide effort, people will be using the Yellow Pages in a whole new way. And that's going to benefit all of us."
Excerpted with permission from Small Business Success magazine, Volume XII, produced by Pacific Bell Directory in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Partners for Small Business Excellence.