Difference between revisions of "Phonebook"

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===Development===
 
===Development===

Revision as of 19:36, 24 October 2010

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A phonebook is an alphabetic directory of telephone subscribers within a geographic region. This directory can also include a section for commercial organizations, organized by service. This section is commonly referred to as the yellow pages. The general motive of these directories is to give free access to local information paid for by relevant advertisements. With almost 130 years of history since the 1878 birth of the phonebook, this media may be in decline, but is dying a slow death.

Timeline

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Origin

The telephone directory was born on February 21, 1878 in New Haven, Connecticut. Printed on a single piece of paper, the first printing included 50 exchange subscribers. These early directories did not include numbers since operators were responsible for making connections. The origin of the term “yellow pages” is the result of running out of white paper in 1883. Since it was easier to read black ink on yellow, rather than white paper, the term and practice stuck. Reuben H. Donnelly constructed the first yellow pages organized by business type in 1886. In 1909, St. Louis was the first to include coupons in their version in the directory.

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Development

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Market & Fragmentation

Advertising

For

  • 43 percent of users had a decision to make, and on average, these consumers considered seven ads. Surprisingly, 45 percent of consumers who already had a name in mind still considered more than four ads.
  • 83 percent of consumers who looked in the Yellow Pages contacted an office, and of those, 40 percent indicated contacting one or more places they had not contacted before.

Against

Strategy

Alphabet Supremacy & Naming Wars

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Trucking Under the new approach, the more letters in the string of As, the lower the name goes in the listings. The company registered itself under several names -- including the stand-alone A, 50% Off Towing and Half-Price Towing -- to cover itself against charges of misleading advertising.

Leads

3 elements that increase lead generation

  • Sans serif fonts in headlines
  • Dotted line boxes when uses in moderation
  • Caption with photos of the owner or satisfied consumer

Types

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Yellow = Commerical Listings The revenue engine of the industry, this section lists businesses and organizations under section headers such as Electric or Trucking. Within these sections relevant ads are placed among listings.

White = Residential Listings This section is typically organized alphabetically by last name and often includes a street address for a listed number. Subscribers can opt-out of listing, sometimes for a fee. Depending on the country this is regarded as being “unlisted”, “ex-directory” or “private”. This section is being discontinued by many phonebook publishers with the increased move to mobile.

Blue = Government Listings This directory included government offices at the local, state, and federal level, but is no longer supported by the federal government.

Grey = Reverse Telephone Directory This listing organizes by phone number instead of by last name. This was much more popular before the invention of caller ID and *69.

Pink = Gay/Lesbian Listings These are local opt-in listings traditionally geared towards large cities such as Boston or Chicago.

International

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Golden,Rainbow = International Foreign countries sometimes adopt the name yellow pages, as is the case with many Latin American countries where they are known as Paginas Amarillas, but in Sri Lanka the directories go by rainbow pages. Most of Europe translated the book to the Golden Pages.

Fun Facts and Myths

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Phonebooks don't usually inspire excitement, particularly in younger generations, but a competition has brought the declining media some attention recently. A dutch competition challenged viewers to recreate the MythBusters model. Two dutch students tested the phonebook myth that states if two phonebook's pages are interwoven they will be near impossible to pull apart. Beginning with human force, the students eventually attached the books to two cars driving in opposite directions. At 615 KG/m of force, the material degraded to the point that the books broke apart, but the pages remained intertwined. Beyond this myth, phone book tearing is also a popular party trick. This test was later recreated on the Discovery Channel show and was only busted using an army tank and an armored personnel carrier with over 8000 pounds of force.

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  • Approximately 540 million directories are printed in the United States annually. This averages out to about 1.8 directories per person!

Controversies

Recycling & Waste

Dated Phonebooks are discarded annually


The Yellow Pages Association:

“Phone books produce only 0.3 percent of the household waste stream—while "newspapers, in comparison, represent 4.9%."

Discriminatory Listing

In 1967, New York Telephone listed birth control related counseling for the first time, much later than contraception became widely accepted. Along the lines of gender bias, women also had to fight for equal billing in household listings. The Bell System claimed the dual listing would take up limited space and require excess ink.

Aside from these discriminatory practices was the issue of losing items after storing them in phone books for safekeeping. Bell urged customers to doodle on their phonebook covers in case of such an event. One anecdote cited a Boston jeweler who had to check over 75,000 directories that had been thrown away to find $1,500.

Legal Action

Opt-out has become a legal issue. North Carolina, Minnesota, Maine, and New York have considered making the option to be unlisted a state law. The legislation is obviously opposed by publishers in fear that circulation will fall substantially. Surprisingly, the opt-out law appears to be to the benefit of directory printers. After such legislation was adopted in Norway, only 7% of the population took steps to keep their information private.

Contemporary Obstacles

Reverse Phonebook & 411

Online Search Gets Local

Sidewalk

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Mobile Directory Solutions

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References

Adams Hudson. (2002, June). Why I love to hate the yellow pages. Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News, 216(8), 16

Boswell, Randy. (1998, April 10). Making a killing via alphabet scoop: A virtually unknown company hits paydirt by taking advantage of new Yellow Pages rules. The Ottawa Citizen,p. F1.

Collins, By Paul. "Why Won't Phone Books Die?" Slate Magazine. 21 Mar. 2008. Web. 24 Oct. 2010. <http://www.slate.com/id/2187035/>.

Gandolf, S., & Hirsch, L.. (2008, February). The Yellow Pages Game: Playing to Win. Dental Economics, 98(2), 94,98.

Hudson, A.. (2009, July). What The Yellow Pages Don't Want You To Know. Plumbing & Mechanical, 27(5), 61-62.

Rees, Peter. "Phone Book Friction." MythBusters. Discovery Channel. 2008. Television.

Yell and VisitBritain push tourism with added sections in directories. (2007, December). Marketing Week,11