Friday, October 31, 2008

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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