Friday, October 31, 2008

Restaurant Marketing Survey: Thumbs Down On Yellow Pages

A whopping 60% of restaurants said they have decreased their Yellow Page directory spending over the past two years, downgrading their listing from a display ad to a bold listing, or from a bold listing to free listing.

This was one of the many facts that surfaced in RestaurantMarketing.com’s “Restaurant Yellow Page Usage Report” – a survey of 214 different restaurants across the USA in various food and concept categories, from casual, to pizza to fine dining, taken in September 2008.

Restaurant marketer Joel Cohen, of RestaurantMarketing.com says that a total of 69% of respondents who decreased their Yellow Page expenditures over the past 2 years, eliminated their directory expenses altogether by going to a free listing.

Cohen reports that 42% of restaurants indicated when decreasing their directory expenditures, the Yellow page reps applied more sales pressure than usual and sometimes even threatening scare tactics.

Cohen says, “some restaurant owners reported that some sales reps said that their restaurant wouldn’t succeed without them being in the book. Some owners said they were hounded daily while others said they were the target of insults because of their decision.”

According to the survey, Cohen reports that the love affair with Yellow Pages is over. 80% of the restaurants surveyed said they didn’t feel that the various Yellow Page directories are successful in getting them new guests.

Over the next two to three years, 44% of the restaurants do not see the Yellow Pages as being part of their advertising budget, with 36% projecting it to be extremely minimal.

Technorati Tags: Yellow Pages  Restaurant Marketing

Posted by jcohen in • Restaurant Marketing
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  1. I read your item with interest and some concern for restaurant owners facing tough economic times without Yellow Pages support.  According to valid, third-party resarch (which we’ve been conducting for many years)restaurants are then # 1 heading with a whopping 1.3 BILLION references each year. Of more importance to owners struggling with how to spend their marketing budget, 32% of consumers using the heading are shoppers with either no name or only two names in mind, when they go looking for their next meal. 
    And 32% said that after consulting the Yellow Pages, they ate at a new restaurant, so the YP is a great generator of new customers.  It’s easy to see that if your restaurant isn’t in the Yellow Pages, your going to miss out on an opportunity to remind former customers that they can still get a great meal at your place or worse yet, not tempt those all important new patrons to come by and give your cuisine a try. 
    Full disclosure, I work for the Yellow Pages Association and the facts about YP’s ability to generate qualified sales leads can be found on our site, http://www.ypasssociation.org or call your local rep for more information about the ROI in our # 1 heading - restaurants.

    SHobbs  on  11/01  at  09:58 AM

  2. How often when you make a dinner reservation or walk into a restaurant do the people there ask you “where did you hear about us?”. Be honest. A pizza shop, or Ruth’s Chris. Pretty much never. Which is why people usually decrease their yellow pages. The hostess being paid $8.00 to seat you doesn’t care. And the restuarant owner thinks- ” No one found us in the ancient Yellow Pages”.  They do not track their advertising. I work in the yellow page industry now, and businesses who track their advertising, not only are usually more successful, but have a much higher renewal rate in the yellow pages. If a 3rd party puts a remote call forwarding phone # in an ad, and they see they average 70 calls a month- you probably won’t cancel your ads. Well at least if you know anything at all about running a business. Its an easy cop-out when you don’t track and you naturally think “no one uses these”. Track your advertising, then talk with your reps about the RESULTS…which is why people advertise in the first place..right?

    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  11/04  at  11:14 PM

  3. We hear this all the time. The problem is that in the fragmented marketing climate that exists today, everyone needs to educate themselves in order to make wise marketing and advertising decisions. The Yellow Pages is not without value but no one can argue the fact that it’s value has diminished significantly. Yet the price of advertising has not. There are better values for restaurants to advertise and market. Most would benefit by optimizing their websites so that when someone looks for a type of restaurant in a specific area they are prominent. In fact the simple act of optimizing their free Google local listing is a 10 minute effort that will give them far more exposure the the old YP ever will.

    Winchester Restaurant Guide  on  11/07  at  01:28 PM
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