The structural changes relate to the decline of traditional advertising stalwarts, the yellow pages, print media and television advertising.

Firstly the Print Media

The print media has long been the main source of news, and hence advertising. However, good journalism, even bad comes at a price. The print media’s classified and advertising revenues have long funded their journalists and distribution costs. But that is no longer the case.

NEWSPAPER REVENUES FALL 29%

Internet news is cutting deep in to the traditional print media. Many companies have tried to build business models that are Internet friendly? Albeit that they are extensions of the old business models, such as subscription services. Such models have generally failed, for a variety of reasons, but one in particular dominates all. There is a perception amongst Internet users that information on the net is free or should be free. With so many other sources of information to choose from, browsers simply err away from subscription services to other free sources of information.

Journalists are having debates over the fact if you want good information you need to pay for it. That may be true, but at this stage of the Internets maturity, people appear to be less discerning in the quality of information they receive.

The Canadian Company Dialect has published a list of newspapers around the world that have been closed down,

Secondly Television Advertising

I read recently, unfortunately I can not remember the source, that over half the world’s television advertising spend is in the USA. Audience fragmentation is a main issue, people have choice now in their visual home entertainment, from free to air television, cable tv, Internet programs, even video games and dvd’s etc. This choice range acts to fragment the audience, and even the audience with in a household. Consider the old images from the 1950′s and 60′s probably even the 70′s of families all sitting around one TV watching the hit shows of the day. Now days, it is more likely that mom is watching on one TV, Dad on another, the kids in their rooms either on MSN messenger or playing video games.

Here are some statistics, in the UK there forecasts indicate that advertising revenue is expected to fall by nearly $0.7 Bn US in three years.  The USA television bureau is forecasting another 7% decline in advertising across the sector.

Finally Yellow Pages

Increasing research in the US and Australia has found that the use of the traditional yellow pages is declining.

People are increasingly turning to the Internet to find information, even local information. Some figures suggest that this the use of on-line search can be as high as 80% of all information searches.

Even Wall Street acknowledges that the days of printed directories like Yellow pages are numbered. The Wall Street Journal reported that advertising in US print directories is expected to fall 39% over the next four years.  In there words as people migrate en masse  to the web.

Dr Lynella Grant is the author of Yellow Page Smarts, she makes the point that relying on just yellow pages is now longer safe. She makes the points that over half of all customers now go to the internet first to find information even for local products.  This is not too say you should not have Yellow Pages advertising, rather you should not be singularly reliant on it.

As an example, speaking to one of our customers recently, he said.  When Dad run the business we use to spend up to $15-$20k a year on yellow pages advertising, we now spend $2k.  The reason is that our leads for our small print business are increasingly coming from both business and private customers finding us on the web – even the locals!

So what is going up

Well not surprising internet advertising is growing at around 10% per annum. Again this is not surprising either when you go back to fundamentals. The media companies whether TV or print provide information and entertainment. But so does the internet!

The yellow pages provided information that was traditional inaccessible – a list of all service providers in a category. But again so does the Internet, but it does so with the user being able to source information of their choice.

So what to do

Firstly, your advertising mix still needs to contain elements of each of the media services. Obviously depending on your target market and budget. Most companies are well versed and educated in advertising in these traditional forms, so there is not much point discussing them further.

Although it is worth mentioning that for small business it may be worth looking at TV advertising as the costs may be more palatable now, relative to the results.

What we would contend is that companies need to have a well considered marketing mix. The element needed though is to create a digital marketing foundation. An subject discussed in the next blog post.

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A survey in May 09 in Australia by Core data, identified that over half of the population DONT want yellow pages even delivered.

People are increasingly turning to the Internet to find information, even local information.  Some figures suggest that this the use of on-line search can be as high as 80% of all information searches.  The following citation from blognow.com.au, shows the impact:

As the volume of locality focussed searches for products and services increased (ie “beauty salons in Chatswood”), Google and other major search engines responded by adding local search functionality such as Google Local (now Google Maps). Quite suddenly, some competition began to emerge in the Australian directory advertising market.

Even Wall Street acknowledges that the days of printed directories like Yellow pages are numbered.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that advertisement spending in US print directories is expected to drop by 39 per cent in the next four years, the steepest projected decline across all local media categories, as customers migrate to the web en masse.

Dr Lynella Grant is the author of Yellow Page Smarts, she makes the points that relying on just yellow pages is now longer safe: (click any point below to be taken to the article – well worth reading)

• Most customers research first on the net even for local products.
• Trust in the internet as a source of information is increasing.
• Search engines now offer local search functions.
• Significant percentage of young adults dont use Yellow Pages at all.

Further proof, recently emerged that the recession may be accelerating the decline of Yellow Pages, where the Australian Yellow Page provider Sensis announced on 31 Mar 09, that it was reducing staff numbers by nearly 50 due to a large drop in print classified advertising.

So what to do?

Well the answer is to look at your marketing advertising mix.  The Yellow Pages still has a role – but should it be the dominant element?  There are alternatives now – the question becomes where to most effectively spend your marketing budget?

This question of balancing the marketing mix is becoming a challenge for all companies.   It is no longer static.  The Yellow Pages is a barometer of this change.  The days of solely relying just on Yellow Pages has finishedfor some companies - we are in a different more social and connected world – where the marketing rules change almost daily.

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