Blog: More Facebook Advertisers Bail From Beacon. Plus, New Concerns.

Source: TechCrunch

http://techcrunch.flux.com/026FBFFFF000E2C390008000479A7/

The backlash against Facebook’s Beacon advertising program just gets worse every day. First, advertising partner Coca-Cola got cold feet over privacy … more

Sales persons are important link to the Company's future

Even in the greatest companies, the weakest link has always been the customers by the companies' customers facing units. Where are the points that customers are in contact with the staff? Are the staff well versed to give a single voice answer. Where answers are varied, this will lead to breakdown of communication. This has always been most of the cases, communication is never that precise. Training is necessary and also many companies used empowerment and companies such as Marriot Hotels, Disney Land and many others have used it with great success.

To these frontliners, empowerment have given them pride in fulfilling their jobs with passion and commitment. They have also been able to win back the customers because they can make decisions to reverse a potentially bad PR issue into a favourable position. Customers are delighted with this VIP treatment and instead of bad mouthing about the organisation, they praise them sky high. One such incident happened to a friend of mine, taking a British Airways (BA), his luggage was lost and with immediate effect of reporting the loss, the front line clerk was able to locate it with a few phone calls. Meanwhile, my friend was provided with many facilities like free upgrades etc. My friend since then remain a loyal customer and never stop talking of this great experience that could be been a disaster!

Turning a potentially bad PR to good is a matter of top management understanding of viewing customers with empathy and greater understanding so as to help customers remain customers for life.

So what needs to be done is a flatter organisation and empowerment so that everyone is looking out to delight the customers, always!

I have always noted that there has always been a silo effect whereby the sales and production works according to their own rules and regulations or business rules. Sometimes, this could be a pride issue where one department is trying to vie for the coverted position of a higher position or otherwise.

Although companies may have visions and missions statements exhorting virtues of working as a team breakdowns occur; some companies on a more frequently basis than others. Well, as long as these remains on the companies' walls and not in the hearts of the employees, the companies would not progress far as the customers loss would be difficult to replace.

So what should be done... find out in the next blog.

Can traditional media thrive in the sea of new competition

Its been a stormy year for the traditional media for the past few years. I am not sure for some of the printed media, is there a chance of turning the corners of either slow or negative growth. What are the strategies that need to be employed here? I know there must be turnaround ones that must be bold and revolutionary.



I remember that VW sales was also falling, they had stuck to their beetle model for so long and that is what they had been producing all along.. They forgot about the new, savvy and overseas market. What they did was brilliant - they knew that some die- hard fans still loves the beetle shaped VW which is the icon. They did not want to kill it. So, ship it to Brazil and they had been happily producing it till lately- a 20 years of prolonged life cycle for this iconic car. For the 3rd world country, VW is the savior to them. Good consumption and cheap to own. After to VW, they had recoup their investments many times over. In addition, they can also satisfy the minority in the developed nations who still wants to own this classic looking vehicle... One more thing, parts will be there; in plenty supply.



Meanwhile, for the VW itself in Europe, they embarked on new range of products, Golf etc.. and now VW is one of the most important brands for the better value cars for average family. Now this car is also produced in China.



So what's my point of bringing this out? Simply we need to identify the aspirant owners' demographics and psychographics profiles. Without this, VW will be in the museum. Move with the times and serve the customers what they want and beyond.- Whatever industry you are in, you will survive.



The lesson for the traditional media is to move ahead with the offerings in the new media and make the brand modern and relevant in today's lifestyles. Competition will always be there, the question here is that we have to fill the gap before others fill them for you.

So, traditionalist, watch those gaps.. Make a difference in the lives of the users and you will have them customers for life.

Singapore Advertising Scene 2007 and beyond

Singapore Advertising Scene 2007 and beyond

Well, well, well it seemed that during the past 3 months, there had been lots of action in the area of internet.

For almost a few years since the crash of the dot.com no big boys in the traditional media were pumping in money to get hold of the market to excite it about the what the online market can do in the future for their business.

With the web2.0 and the long tail effect as coined by John Battelle (author of Google Search) and the broadband and 3G in places in Singapore, we can literally surf at over 300 hotspots. In addition, the convergence is happening with TV boys coming into the space of the classifieds, a rich picking indeed! So why the delay then and until now did we see a sleuth of launches. I believe it is these Companies’ boards of directors are now realizing that the business is NOT to be as Usual. Of course, when the giants move, they take time. I always remember this phrase, when the top turns by 1 degree, the little men below the organization chart feel the hurricane.

Meanwhile, the small boys in Singapore and not main streams operators are making waves as Choices galore fill the internet space out there. They are serving the niches and more.

Now I will move the scene to US as Singapore always follow the trends of what goes on in the US. Since the phenomenon of Google Search coming into play, their dominance is seen… they overhauled Yahoo! And Microsoft is still playing a catch up game. Even though they announced (BT 4th October 2007) that it will go BIG on advertising, they still have along way more to go. Microsoft will invest US$6billion into ad business in the long term and they believe that this sector will yield them 25% of their biz in few years.

Mr. Ballmer confidently declared, “Over time, all ad money will go through a digital ad platform,” In addition, “All media goes digital, all advertising goes digital.

They bought aQuantive which provides websites ads in front of Internet viewers based on specific conditions. Just a couple of days ago, they finally paid a record price for the popular social networking website, Facebook.

I quote from Business Week on 25th October, “After losing many battles to Web behemoth Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) finally won one. On Oct. 24, the software giant prevailed in its bid for a stake in the social network Facebook. Microsoft agreed to buy a $240 million piece of the company in a transaction that values Facebook at $15 billion.” That will make many people millionaires and a few billionaires including its founder, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg. (Facebook is catching up on MySpace in terms of signed-up at the rate of 200,000 a day)

I believe there are about 20,000 sign-ups from Singapore including me. Actually, I have signed up to most of the social networking sites, Linkedin, MySpace, Multiply and many smaller ones.

Competition for the ad dollars on the internet is going to heat up. At the present moment, Google is dominating because of its Search and Adsense technology. That is the reason why its market price is over US$600 per share! During my talk in Ho Chi Minh City, I mentioned the following about Google which is:

What makes Google so hot? Shares hits US$615 on 10th Oct 2007!
l Google’s share of US Internet search market rose to 56.5%. Yahoo! Is 23.3% and Microsoft is 11.3%
l The US Web advertising market will climb 29% to US$21.7 billion and will double in 2011 (source: eMarketer)
l Google will show on YouTube videos on thousands of websites with ads attached to clips
l Google plans to buy ad distributor DoubleClick amongst others

Well, what leaves the Singapore Media? Well, the prominent traditional players are: the SPH Group which produces the English papers, Straits Times, Business Times and an afternoon tabloid, the New Paper and a host of other magazines and outdoor media.

The other group is Media Corp which controls all the airwaves; TV and Radio and recently made a successful foray into the printed media with a morning tabloid called “Today”. They have made gains in readership amongst the young while Straits Times suffered a dip. (Source: Today papers Oct 2007)

Recently, to most people, it’s an open secret that SPH Search and 701 Search Pte had a tie-up with Schibstedan to launch the Search engine which runs on Fast technology. Its local website was in the making for sometimes and supposedly to be unveiled in December.

Low and behold, in August, the Media Corp Group launched a classified website Mocca.com with an interesting and captivating TVC. It managed to capture the imagination of most Singaporeans including me! I instantly registered and use this free classified websites. Within 3 months, it became the top website in Singapore with 7 million visitors and only in October that SPH brought forth its website, 701 Search.

Well, the battle is now beginning. Who is going to take the classified pie which is huge, time will tell.

I think SPH has better edge to emerge winner as they have the right customer base. With the print media to back them up, there could be synergies between their print classified and the new ST701 website. Likewise, Mocca.com has that too but to a lesser extent. The only advantage that Mocca.com that ST701 did not is TVC and the Radio, which they gave up in 2003 due to amassing huge losses. (This is not their Core Competency)

Which is more popular at this juncture? Mocca.com ranks 10,000 whereas SPH ranks 26,000 worldwide (Alexa.com). ST701 should be catching up fast after the ramp up. Who knows, they may decide to work with M1 for which they also partially own.

In the SPH stable, there are many websites such as Asia1.com, omy.com.sg including the newspapers in electronic forms. Likewise, MediaCorp has more popular websites hosted by their array of TV, Radio personalities and of course, the TV stars.

Singapore consumers are like cats, no loyalty, whatever they can get free, they will go and enroll until they are full of it. That’s probably true of most consumers worldwide. I believe that most people have their own guiding principles of value. For certain thing, because of habit or natural formation, they attached a value to it.

Even the ugliest websites like craigslist will still have their own niche of users as long as it remains relevant to their lifestyle. The fans will swear and die by it. That’s the power of what’s good for you is not necessary good for me.

What about the other traditional media like…. Outdoor and Yellow Pages… watch out in the next issue

10 Tips of having an unforgettable time working in Asian Countries

10 tips of having an unforgettable time working in Asian Countries

After spending much of my career as Business Development Director with last 4 years in Thailand, I have found that the following guidelines helped me enjoyed my working time there. On top of that, I have learnt a new language and able to immerse myself into their culture and appreciate the diversities of different peoples living on our planet earth.

Practice गूढ़ Relationship. It’s important to know that you are working as a “family” in the company. This is especially true if the company is small and you know each one of them on a first name basis. Sometimes, the staff would feel more comfortable to address you formally, with proper salutation.

Pace yourself to the speed of your local colleagues and teach them to also appreciate the international pace. Over time, you will win them over, especially if that is tied to an achievable incentive.

Get to know their lifestyles, food and culture. Learn their Language if you can. From here, you will understand their psyche. The only way to know this is to explore the land on weekends.

Get to know their families; especially those who are your direct reports. Have an occasional meal with them. When they open up, you will find that human aspirations all over are the same. Everyone is hunger for success/

Don’t be shy about your preferences. When you are invited to their house or restaurant for dinner, tell your hosts what you can or cannot eat because of your religious beliefs/dietary requirements. They will be more than happy to cater to your requirements. It’s no good if they order the food and you refuse to eat it. They think that you do not like their cooking or what. Remember that your hosts will tend to over order to show how important you are as they want to treat you as one. Do not forget to bring a gift along to the family too.

Bargaining. In Asian culture, bargaining is part of their habit of doing business. Therefore, do not be afraid to drive a hard bargain especially shopping in small shopping centers, flea markets or just street spaces.

Don’t offer bribes. In business, when things do not get along well, just ask your local staff to fix it. As a foreigner, you should avoid offering coffee money (bribes) to officials.

Networking. When in the host country, offer your services and participate in the growth by joining your local chambers e.g. American-Thai Chambers of Commerce, Singapore-Thai Chambers etc. Let your wife participate in the women’s group. Your children will also find meaningful things to do with the extra curricular activities organized by the international schools.

Be a Volunteer. Contribute your money or your talent to the disadvantaged in the society. There are many who are lost, orphaned, abused etc in the society. Volunteer your time to educate them to have a meaningful skill.

Enjoy your time, Relish each moment for the good and the short comings. There is never a perfect place in this world but if you feel it in your heart that you have done your best, just celebrate each month of your progress with friends or loved ones in the many nice restaurants in the country. So as the adage said, “Don’t worry, be happy.” In no time, your stink is over and you will live to regret that you did not have the time to enjoy the local sights, sounds and the wonderful hospitality that some of these countries can add to your life. Very soon, you are going to miss it as I have.

Advertising in a challenging Age

This is the hand-out note given out to participants in a talk organised by SIBME(http://sibme.edu.vn) in HCM city on 17th Oct 2007

Advertising in a Challenging Age. By Dr. Charles Han

We all know that we are living in a global village and everything is well networked. We can call anyone, anytime and anywhere for free through Skype etc. That is exactly what the challenge is all about. Internet is changing so much of our lives. Twenty years ago, it was in gopher language and only small number of people can have access. Today, we have over 460 million users in Asia alone, or about 13% of the total population as compared to worldwide of over 1.25 Billion users or about 19% penetration.

Internet has revolutionized our lives. We can find everything here, LiveScore to check on latest EPL results, YouTube to be famous for a minute or just have a good laugh, meet a friend or even a wife through a new buzz word called social networking at FaceBook, Linkedin, MySpace etc. Through here, it has created a new economy and the key challenging age for the traditional media houses such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio and even the yellow pages is what can they do?

(Note: The differences of Media. Yellow Pages is a kind of directional media whereby only interested buyers would come flipping the books whereas the other media are Creative as they help create demand for the branded products or services)

Couple of days ago, I was looking at the newspaper and chanced upon this article in the Singapore Straits Times, Its headline screamed. “Google is King of the Web” this is because the shares price hits US$615 on 10th Oct 2007.
l Google’s share of US Internet search market rose to 56.5%. Yahoo! Is 23.3% and Microsoft is 11.3%
l The US Web advertising market will climb 29% to US$21.7 billion and will double in 2011 (source: eMarketer)
l Google will show on YouTube videos on thousands of websites with ads attached to clips

With this kind of news, what’s the story going to be for the others traditional media? And what can they do about it to stop the internet becoming a threat to their business model and eat into their advertising market share.

In 2006, worldwide Advertising revenue is US$466 Billion. However, the growth of the traditional media growth is only 3% and the Internet revenue is projected to be about 28%. The US paid search is the largest sector in online advertising and will account for nearly $14 billion in global ad spending in 2007, Zenith said; display advertising, including broadband video, (such as VEOH, YouTube etc) is among the fastest growing and is forecast to account for $10.5 billion in ad spend; online classified ranks third with a forecast of $6.2 billion in 2007, followed by $721 million for other media, such as email and mobile

What makes this a hot commodity, we can see that it’s because the digital media is a one on one marketing tool. Just imagine we are now hearing the voices of individuals collectively. Murdoch said at American Society of Editors 2005 “What is happening is a revolution in the way young people access their news. The next generation have a different set of expectations about the kind of news they will get, including when and how they will get it, where they will get it from, and who they will get it from.” They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it…unless we awaken to these changes, and adapt quickly, we will as an industry, be relegated to the status of also-rans, or worse, many of us will disappear altogether…”

Mr. Bill Gates issued a predication during the Interactive Advertising Bureau conference, Oct 2005 that “The future of advertising is the internet” And that all media channels will ultimately be powered by the internet. Each day that passes by, it’s becoming a reality.

The supporting argument is in John Battelle’s book entitled “The Search: Googling Google” he explored the success of just what makes Google so exciting is the ability to let users search using keywords. Now keywords are really being monetized! As an advertiser, you need to pay for it! Selling keywords was never heard of in the old economy, everything has to be either a 30secs. TVC or Radio. One can never get sack for recommending that line of media planning, not today! More and more things are shifting towards the Internet era, a simple key stroke “Restaurant” using Google in Ho Chi Minh, I would have thousands of choice restaurants to pick.

What leads to this path is the fact that web1.0 is a great hype that led to its doom but rising from the ashes is a more potent web called Web2.0 or the long-tail in which the relationships keep on growing… that’s why social networking are able to latch on a viral down the route to a comeback.

In Netocracy a book written by Jan Söderqvist and Alexander Bard (2001) It advocated that “Technology will empower individuals but disempower the control governments have over their citizens…Nation states will become less important and probably collapse while the netocrats and their networks, their “electronic tribes”, will have a huge impact on world events.

In South Korea and China, citizen’s reporting is becoming an important part of the norm where they drew in millions of netizens to be the reporters of accurate news… Oh my News in China drew in 56 million viewers whereas each of the networks cannot boost such numbers.

I believe many young people have blogs and also a member of social networking website. When Murdoch bought MySpace early in the years, many analysts think he is senile. What they have failed to understand is Murdoch is able to uncannily read the future of advertising is not the same model as before and I quote... “To find something comparable, you have to go back 500 years to the printing press, the birth of mass media... Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite, now it’s the people who are taking control.” (Rupert Murdoch, Wired July 2006)

Now we can see a sleuth of social networking websites being snapped up by Google, You Tube and Face Books etc are now worth billions, making the owners very, very rich indeed.

Why is there such a shift in attitude? To understand this, we should look at the survey done by Edelman Trust Barometer, 2006 – attributes for building trust, the prognosis is that today’s consumers are like Cats which do not have much of a royalty and making matters worst, they are saying that their level of trusts for the commercials are low. They rely more on the Word of Mouth (WOM). What the consumers want is for the brands to be true, as they do not like liars. They also like service and quality, fun, credible and memorable. And its like don’t just sell me the sizzle, give me the steak too.

So where does the leave the traditional media roles? Advertising will be eroded from them. Of course, they would need to carve a niche for themselves. And here are some advices of what they might be able to do which are:
l Join in, or get left out
l Embrace, learn & utilize citizen media
l Symbiotic & competitive relationship
l Not a replacement, but complementary media stream
l Blogs: traffic / watchdog / niche topics / alternative views
l But also Beware of the hype, ask the hard questions

It’s a part of the evolution that we must keep up with. I am also a believer that not all traditional will disappear down the tube. They said years ago when TV came, Radio and newspapers will disappear, but they all co-existed, each finding their niches. Maybe there will not be a mass kind of media, but large segments of users cutting across geographic boundaries. So, my advice to publishers and media owners are:
l Stay relevant, move with the trends and stay engaged.
l You can never be wrong if you serve the customers first, your reward will be sustainable long term growth
l Whether the media is in print, broadcast internet and wireless bringing timely information at the point when you need it most in whichever medium defined by consumers.

In conclusion, Mr. Lee Kwan Yew, Singapore’s Mentor Minister recently suggested in his interview regarding the traditional media industry is that they should provide analytical views as a key differentiator. He said that although many of the news carried on the citizen’s reports are good, they lacked the analysis which true journalists with the right training are able to provide. However, he did not tell how to make money. That’s up to the media owners to figure out. If Murdoch can, so can you! End.

Is Yellow Gold for Asia?

The Asian Yellow Pages market.

One of the fallacies of most management team is to think tha t the markets for yellow pages market is similar through out the entire world. Well, if you see what the advertising guru said sometime ago is that we produce the same ad and just run the ads with some minor modifications as the message comprehension is similar. We are living in a global village! Certainly, I agree that there is some similarity with certain markets if the demographic profiles, geographical spread of population etc are there. However, there are dissimilar features as well especially so after the initial euphoria of growth tampers out. One such is the development of the Yellow Pages market. With 6,000 copies over Yellow Pages published worldwide, it is certainly one of the largest single brands that spread globally; the total revenue is about 6% of the total advertising spent.


What makes Yellow Pages market so attractive to investors? It’s hyped to have the ability to make so much recurring revenue and has a margin as high as 50%, thus EBITA should be around 30%. The last couple of years, we saw many Telcos releasing their prized asset to the banks and fund managers. The New Zealand Telecoms was the last to go under the hammer for a huge sum so much so that they so much cash on their hands to invest and return some as dividends to the shareholders.

My point is that Asian Yellow Pages vs the different blocs of Yellow Pages are quiet different in nature. I would like to compare them in trading blocs; US, South America, African, European, Eastern European and Russia, Australia and New Zealand, North Asia, S E Asia, Indian continent.

In terms of why Yellow Pages is popular and still is in the US, Europe, Australia, Canada and other larger countries is the per capita income and geographical distance between the shops and the residents. This makes it ideal for the residents and businesses to interact through the medium of Yellow Pages as this is the lowest costs for investment with a guaranteed circulation.

Just a note here is that Yellow Pages has benefits that no other media enjoys but also it also lacks certain appeal. The benefits points of Yellow Pages are clearly four points:
Price- in terms of the CPM and ROI factors, its money well spend (depending on the classifications and also size of investment)
Circulation- Because all telephone line subscribers receive a copy of the Yellow Pages at their homes or office so, its one of the better book that is kept throughout the year.
Repeat Usage – Ads can be seen all the time when there is a need for the product or service
Advertisers are genuine as they their phones are authentic; it’s not the fly by night type of operators. So, one can have the piece of mind using the information contain therein.

I think in recent years, we can see that the Yellow Pages in Singapore and as a matter of fact, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia fell like ten pins was due to the financial meltdown effect. Many companies especially the SMEs were forced into liquidation. And when they do, advertising is gone. That eventual year, some companies saw as much as a fall of 50% of their top line revenue.

Depending on which countries you are in, some countries still have the concession fees for getting the rights to publish these directories, these fees range from 10% to 50%., according to the open bid being selected. That’s why some countries Yellow Pages came under tremendous pressures to return to its original sales revenue. Many of them still have a long way more to go.

This being the advertising landscape has changed, more competitors offering different bundles, internet yellow pages and trade pages and also with the convergence, we find that advertisers have more choices.

It is common knowledge that the Yellow Pages market is dependent on the Small Medium Enterprises to advertise. During the past twenty years, there has been a shift the industries type. Especially in Singapore, the government has shifted its labor intensive factories. These companies landed up opening factories in China or to a third world country to hedge on the low wages. This resulted in the shift in the revenues types.

A study into the types of companies advertising and also which market they are trying to reach concludes that most of them especially in the South East Asian market are trying to reach a B2B type, not really a B2C. If it were to be a B2C, then, it would be for the transient or an expatriate to use. Even they are now spoilt for choice of the information – coming from Credit card companies and a host of other specific industries magazines to serve the consumer market.

That’s why the Yellow Pages are never going to be where it was in its hay days when the revenue and popularity was synonymous with its finger walking icon. There was memobility in the air with great ads that brings people to use the book as it was top of their minds.

The greatest challenge facing the S. E Asian markets are two factors
1) The high advertising rates with relatively low ROI. This is especially exacerbated by the internet new terms of advertising, key words and pay per click etc.
2) The reliance of the B2B market to use the product rather than the B2C markets. With internet and a proliferation of other media, I think it is like climbing up a wall with your bare hands.

Concluding Remarks:
Advertising is revolving especially with new media coming on streams. One must know how to harness it early so that as a media house, we play a role of early adopter adapting the media to the information. After all, the users after all, are interested to get the information to fulfill their needs! If they do not find it in the YellowPages, they will use their fingers to search it online for the best results. At this present moment, it seemed to be Google winning the race with its sleuth of new waves of offers, everything is possible with Google- which is a very sup-up more than a yellow pages. It’s a total new experience. However, a saving grace here is that Yellow Pages is more local and Google more global. One can see that if you type restaurants, over 10,000 from all over the world will appear but Yellow Pages is specific to the country. Yellow Pages will become a niche player and therefore its time to look for alternative niche use instead of becoming a main media for everyday use. Anyway, Yellow Pages have always been used when there is a need. It will continue to be used on a needs basis.

Is Yellow Gold?

Yellow Pages in Asia by Dr. Charles Han

With the convergence of the media through technologies, the advertising revenue grab is on the cart for all media owners. The internet and new media have opened a new field of competition amongst them. Now an annual publication and daily classifieds can potentially compete. With multi-media, suddenly advertising can become richer in presentation as the streaming videos are pumped in. With safer and secured transactions, mCommerce is already a reality ready for roll-out.

The informational platforms are ever evolving as the mobile phones are now packed with increasing sophistication to revolutionize the lifestyles of society. The wireless market has seen tremendous growth as more handsets are made available in Asia. With this, content is the king and search for information is becoming a great challenge. That is why companies such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung are working with various content suppliers including Yellow Pages and/or search engines such as Google, MSN etc to bring about search within the users’ fingertips.

Every publisher around this region is positioning itself for a bit of the action. Printed media will still be around as Radio and Newspapers are when TV was introduced. Users will now find a plethora of choice and will use it according to its attributes.

The key issue in all these is HOW to deliver this information in different platforms with the minimum human intervention. The companies’ content stored in various silos created in different times and by brands is likened to the last mile that the Telco’s are facing too. So there exist this opportunity to assist companies in the integration of all their legacy systems into one unified fighting force so as to deliver rich information to the satisfaction of both users and advertisers alike.

Asian Yellow Pages Business

Unlike the States and Europe, the state of Asian Yellow Pages is different in each country solely because of their economic development. Most Yellow Pages are B2B in orientation with B2C existing in the more developed economies/& or richer nations like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

The state of development is dependent on each country. Certain countries especially the backwards Asian countries formerly communists have legislations that does not permit anyone from publishing the information with telephone numbers as it is deemed “Secret”.

With various levels of development in these countries, there are endless opportunities for servicing these companies like providing various forms of consultancy ranging from front to the back end.

As we already know the key to producing a good White and Yellow Pages is the database. Accurate and up to date information are the bedrock of the business practice and will continue even more as different competitors are now fighting for a piece of the advertising pie.

The traditional business revenue generation is the print- which many of the Publishers refer them as their cash cow and will still be. (Appendix 1- Print Yellow Pages segment growing 8th March 2007) However, the holy cow is constantly being challenged by the new media – especially from the internet. Thus, on the internet, we can find many forms of information sources colliding together to provide a huge battleground for the every media owner, from newspapers, yellow pages, TV etc.

Now with the integration, rich media are available to the users when and where they want it. It is this that we as the suppliers can position ourselves to serve the ever increasing demands to have their back end information integrated together so it is able to improve their competitive position to serve the increasing demands of new generation of fussy users and demanding advertisers. See diagram.


In Asia, like the west, there is an association of Yellow Pages Publisher called Advertising Directory Publishers Association Incorporated (Adpai- registered in the Philippines under DPC)

ADPAI was formed in 1993 by several Asian Countries and GETIT Yellow Pages is the member from India. The objectives of ADPAI are to enhance cooperation among the Asian Directory Publishers and it has been a very useful experience for each member. There are regular exchanges of technology and management skills among the ADPAI members and this Association sets an excellent example of regional cooperation
Goals of ADPAI are as follows: 1. To establish a nonprofit association composed of companies, employees and individuals who are involved in the business of Directory Publishing, in order to establish a forum where members can meet on neutral ground to examine problems of mutual interest, facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experiences and ideas, establish standards and practices of the Directory Publishing industry, and to promote better relationships between members through congress and conferences and improved communication channels. 2. To initiate studies and analyses important to the industry and to assist in education and training through the organization of work-study courses, educational programs and familiarization visits among member countries. 3. To provide industry related information as well as political and other changes which are affecting or of benefit to members.
:
The following are their members
AustraliaPacific Access Pty Ltd.Tel: 613-9246-4835Fax: 613-9246-4535Email: sruddock@pacificaccess.com.auURL: www.pacificaccess.com.au
BruneiGTE Directories (B) Sdn BhdTel: 673-245-2452Fax: 673-245-1619/20Email: gtebru@brunet.bmURL: www.bruneiyellowpages.net
China-ShenzhenChinaBig Unicom Yellow Pages Information Co., LtdTel: 86-755-2091980Fax: 86-755-2091888Email: gary.t.chan@chinabig.com.cnURL: www.chinabig.com.cn
China-ShanghaiShanghai Yellow PagesTel: 86-21-5632-0000*2372Fax: 86-21-5662-5187Email: snllu@online.sh.cnURL: www.yellowpage.com.cn
FijiFiji Directories Ltd.Tel: 679-311-000Fax: 679-300-004Email: fdl@is.com.fjURL: www.yellowpages.com.fj
Hong KongPCCW Directories Ltd.Tel: 852-2828-2033Fax: 852-2802-9001Email: cs@yp.com.hkURL: www.yp.com.hk
IndiaM&N Publication Ltd.Tel: 91-11-331-4409Fax: 91-11-331-7947Email: getitblr@vsnl.comURL: www.getitindia.com
IndonesiaPT Infomedia NusantaraTel: 6221-720-1221; 726-2595Fax: 6221-720-1225Email: inyp@idola.net.idURL: www.yellowpages.co.id
JapanNTT Directory Services CoTel: 813-5776-4172Fax: 813-5776-4275Email: kokusai2@nttds.co.jpURL: http://english.itp.ne.jp
KoreaKorea Telephone Directory Co (KTDC)Tel: 822-3274-2429Fax: 822-3274-2409Email: chsj@ktdc.co.krURL: www.ktdc.co.kr
MacauDirectel Macau Listas Telefoùnicas LdaTel: 853-517-520Fax: 853-517-523Email: info@yp.com.moURL: www.yp.com.mo
MalaysiaTelekom Pubblication Sdn BhdTel: 603-492-1111Fax: 603-491-9191Email: marcom@tpsb.com.myURL: www.yellowpages.com.my
Papua New GuineaEdward H O’Brien Enterprises PtyTel: 675-325-8344Fax: 675-325-6464Email: yellpgpng@dtldc.com.pg
PhilippinesDirectories Philippines CorporationTel: 632-889-8601Fax: 632-889-8967Email: dpc@info.com.phWebsite: www.directoriesphil.com
SingaporeMedianusa (S) Pte LtdTel: 65-743-8933Fax: 65-743-0332Email: msplcwan@mbox5URL: www.singnet.com.sg
Sri LankaDirectories Lanka (Pvt) LtdTel: 941-30-0331Fax: 941-30-0405Email: yellowpages@lsplk.comURL: www.lsplk.com
ThailandTeleinfo Media Public Co LtdTel: 662-262-8888Fax: 662-262-8270Email: info@teleinfomedia.netURL: www.yellowpages.co.th
United Arab EmiratesDubai (Head Office)P.O. Box 55184, Dubai.Tel: 04-297 0297Fax: 04-297 1710URL: www.yellowpages.ae
Vietnam
Vietnam Tel Directory & Yellow Pages 2 Joint Stock CompanyTel: 848-855-6666Fax: 848-855-5588Email: yp@hcm.vnn.vnURL: www.yp.com.vg


Appendix 1
Print Yellow Pages Segment Growing

Despite the downward trend among some traditional print media, the Yellow Pages segment may grow in coming years.

According to media research company The Kelsey Group, the print Yellow Pages segment is expected to grow from $26.50 billion in 2006 to $27.80 billion in 2011, writes BtoB.

The online segment, which includes internet Yellow Pages and local search advertising, should grow from $4.10 billion in 2006 to $11.10 billion in 2011.

Overall advertising revenue from print and internet Yellow Pages, along with local search, is expected to grow from $30.60 billion in 2006 to $38.90 billion in 2011, a compound annual growth rate of 4.9 percent (Source: Media Buyer Planner -8th March. 2007)





Appendix 2: Rise of the EAST

Presently, we all have become aware of the spectacular rise of China on the world scene. Just as Henry Luce dubbed the 20th century as "the American Century," many are recognizing that the 21st century will be "the Asian Century." And China 's achievements are spectacular, indeed. In just one generation, they have tripled their per capita income, and lifted over 300 million people out of poverty! And they now have become the major competitor for energy and other commodities.But with all of the spotlights singling out China, there is another - overlooked - giant rising in the east: India.Few people realize the remarkable emergence of India in the global technological culture, which is destined to dominate the next few decades. Their research and development centers are sprouting everywhere and are the seedbeds of the most advanced software platforms, multimedia devices, and other next-generation innovations.Major companies, such as Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco Systems, are looking to laboratories in India for their most advanced product developments. Their advanced 3-D computer simulations are tweaking designs for car engines and aircraft wings for clients like General Motors and Boeing. India’s Bangalore Research Hub is spawning companies that produce their own chip designs, software, and pharmaceuticals.Just as China has emerged as a mass manufacturer, India is emerging as a giant in services. Technical and managerial strengths in both China and India are becoming more important that cheap assembly labor. And, their relative strengths are complementary, not competitive.For example, China has excelled in mass manufacturing, with multi-billion electronics and heavy industrial plants; India has specialized in software, design, services, and precision industry. Their efficiency in back-office processing alone is legendary and outsourcing such work is expected to quadruple by 2010 to over $56 billion per year!These two emerging giants will transform the entire global economy. China and India account for one-third of the world’s population. For the past two decades, China has been growing at 9.5% per year, and India at 6% per year. Both are projected to continue at an annual rate of 7-8% for at least the next ten years.This is, in some ways, analogous to 19th century America, when a young, driven workforce grabbed the lead in agriculture, apparel, and the high-tech innovations of that era: steam engines, the telegraph, and electric lights. Similarly, these two emerging giants are positioning themselves at the vanguard of the critical technologies of the coming decades. (Source: Foreign Affairs.org)

My beginning in the Yellow Pages business.

After working for over 30 years in the Yellow Pages industry in Asia environment, I thought it would be a good idea to just pen what I have gone through, the peaks and valleys of yellow pages business.

I started off by coincidence, meeting with a chance meeting of an old friend, Mr. Emmanuel Joseph from the then General Telephone Directory Co; Ltd in 1978. At which time, I was not working having not been able to successfully run my own business. He told me that there was an opening for some management trainee positions in his company and would I be interested to join in? I gingerly said, "Well, I am not too sure what yellow pages is all about as I last used it was when I was a salesman at Ford Motors and used it to as my leads to call on customers." Emmanuel was a patient person explained to me from the publishing perspective and in a gist it is another powerful form of advertising and which I came to know later - the Directional medium.

When I left him, I went to ask my friend, Mr. Tay Tatt Cheng who was then the Managing Director of CAM Associates, a local advertising agency. His advice was its once a year book and looked interesting because the entire businesses in Singapore was in that book. I certainly was delighted to know that whatever it is, it’s a resource rich book and one can use this book to look for information. It was used by sales persons to look for customers as I did before, c0nsumers can certainly used to check on availability of products and emergency buyers to call for their plumbers before the kitchen is flooded. Well, a lot of potential then.

If I do not make it, at least, I would be able to know the market quite well to move on to the next job... I smiled.

I applied for the position of a management trainee and it was not about 3 months later that I joined the General Telephone Directory Co; Ltd. There were about 6 of us in this group of trainees. All graduates - Mr. Chua and myself were educated in United Kingdom, the rest were from local universities. One of them dropped out on the first day, and we were down to 5 persons.

The training in those days was done by the managers themselves who rotated to give their time off to teach us the ropes of selling. Therefore, it was actually a hands-on approach after going through the theoretical parts. The entire sales training took 2 weeks. During that time, I was literally poor! Well, although the title is that of Management Trainees, I was to start off at the bottom rung - a sales representative.

Well, biting my pride and all the prejudices, I persevered and stayed on the entire training sessions, participating in the selling process and taking part in all their little tests with good grades. Just imagine, being paid S$180.00! Because there was not commission and transport allowance while one was on training. As the locals would say at that time, "Aiyoh! So chum" meaning to say, so little, how to survive?

Luckily, I had an elder brother, Ron; his name was who believed in me. He helped me with my living expenses when I was studying in the UK. Now he was to help once again because my 2 years since my return from UK was an unsuccessful venture into the business side that left me high and dry.

Well, I had something to prove right? Yes, you bet! From what I was taught in class and the role play, I practiced very hard at every opportunity when time allowed it. During that time, I literally stood in front of the mirror to say aloud the canned scripts. Luckily, I was a trained actor and a relatively good singer. I was able to memorize those lines. As a former visualiser, I was able to practice drawing artwork and did many kinds of planning in a sales process. In order not to make it too hard and stressed me out, I created fun around it.

Not only were the Sales Managers like Robert, Henry, Edward and Dominic helpful in the training but the production people were involved as well. So the entire front and back end people were on hand to give us the head start that is important. We had the right foundation. The then GM, Mr. Ramasamy and production Manager, Mr. Khoo and publishing manager, Mr. Emmanuel Joseph was there for us. The operations level was next, Messer Goh Boon Sim, Koh Fuei Fang, Seow Chin How, Mrs. Ang and others were there to provide us the finer points of the sales and production process from a manual system perspective.

Today, we would see the IT people, art directors with their computer tools making up the advertisements so different from the old days where every display advertisement is hand drawn and the entire book is paged by manual - its hands job! All hands on deck!

I was lucky that with this type of interpersonal relationships training which is missing in this day and age because we cared about streamlining and productivity. We had the support of the back end and there was no other ways but to move forward and do our best.

Our then MD was Mr. Whiteman. I remembered that a few days after graduation, we were invited to his residence up in Ardmore Drive, off Orchard Road. His unit no kind of got stuck in my mind for that 1706 is the same no as the price of a 1/8 page advertisement in the Singapore Yellow Pages. His invitation to us to see him was important factor to allow that we support the Management Trainees and asked for the feedback whether we did have the support of the entire company, for which we all readily approved of.

Soon after this, 2 of them dropped out leaving only 3 of us behind. Mr. Wong, Mr. Chua and myself to continue the renewal process of the company.From all these, I can draw that to be successful in the business and also helping the new recruits to stay on, the top people must be involved in the training too. This gives the freshies the bonding that even the MD in his busiest schedule still made it a point to give me the attention. There are many in the then GTDC Company that stayed on for more than 30 years and some of them were their first job.A syllabus which provides the trainee with the breadth of knowledge - esp. the basic knowledge is important. That is the building blocks of the understanding of Yellow Pages selling and publishing taught in the class and adequately too? With complete understanding especially for Management trainees, it would allow them to make their own forays into areas that would help the company later.

Labels: The beginning of my working life in Yellow Pages

Is Yellow Gold?

My beginning in the Yellow Pages business

After working for over 30 years in the Yellow Pages industry in Asia environment, I thought it would be a good idea to just pen what I have gone through, the peaks and valleys of yellow pages business.

I started off by coincidence, meeting with a chance meeting of an old friend, Mr Emmanuel Joseph from the then General Telephone Directory Co; Ltd in 1978. At which time, I was not working having not been able to successfully run my own business. He told me that there was an opening for some management trainee positions in his company and would I be interested to join in? I gingerly said, "Well, I am not too sure what yellow pages is all about as I last used it was when I was a salesman at Ford Motors and used it to as my leads to call on customers." Emmanuel was a patient person explained to me from the publishing perspective and in a gist it is another powerful form of advertising and which I came to know later - the Directional medium.

When I left him, I went to ask my friend, Mr Tay Tatt Cheng who was then the Managing Director of CAM Associates, a local advertising agency. His advice was its a once a year book and looked interesting because the entire businesses in Singapore was in that book. I certainly was delighted to know that whatever it is, its a resource rich book and one can use this book to look for information. It was used by sales persons to look for customers as I did before, c0nsumers can certainly used to check on availability of products and emergency buyers to call for their plumbers before the kitchen is flooded. Well, a lot of potential then.

If I do not make it, at least, I would be able to know the market quite well to move on to the next job... I smiled.

I applied for the position of a management trainee and it was not about 3 months later that I joined the General Telephone Directory Co; Ltd. There were about 6 of us in this group of trainees. All graduates - Mr. Chua and myself were educated in United Kingdom, the rest were from local universities. One of them dropped out on the first day, and we were down to 5 persons.

The training in those days were done by the managers themselves who rotated to give their time off to teach us the ropes of selling. Therefore, it was actually a hands-on approach after going through the theoritical parts. The entire sales training took 2 weeks. During that time, I was literally poor! Well, although the title is that of Management Trainees, I was to start off at the bottom rung - a sales representative.

Well, biting my pride and all the prejudices, I persevered and stayed on the entire training sessions, participating in the selling process and taking part in all their little tests with good grades. Just imagine, being paid S$180.00! because there was not commission and transport allowance while one was on training. As the locals would say at that time, "Aiyoh! so chum" meaning to say, so little, how to survive?

Luckily, I had an elder brother, Ron, his name was who believed in me. He helped me with my living expenses when I was studying in the UK. Now he was to help once again because my 2 years since my return from UK was a unsuccessful venture into the business side that left me high and dry.

Well, I had something to prove right? Yes, you bet! From what I was taught in class and the role play, I practiced very hard at every opportunity when time allowed it. During that time, I literally stood in front of the mirror to say aloud the canned scripts. Luckily, I was a trained actor and a relatively good singer. I was able to memorize those lines. As a visualiser, I was able to practice drawing artwork and did many kinds of planning in a sales process. In order not to make it too hard and stressed me out, I created fun around it.

Not only were the Sales Managers like Robert, Henry, Edward and Dominic helpful in the training but the production people were involved as well. So the entire front and back end people were on hand to give us the headstart that is important. We had the right foundation. The then GM, Mr. Ramasamy and production Manager, Mr. Khoo and publishing manager, Mr. Emmanuel Joseph were there for us. The operations level was next, Messers Goh Boon Sim, Koh Fuei Fang, Seow Chin How, Mrs Ang and others were there to provide us the finer points of the sales and production process from a manual system perspective.

Today, we would see the IT people, art directors with their computer tools making up the advertisements so different from the old days where every display adverisement is hand drawn and the entire book is paged by manual - its hands job! All hands on deck!

I was lucky that with this type of interpersonal relationships training which is missing in this day and age because we cared about streamlining and productivity. We had the support of the back end and there was no other ways but to move forward and do our best.

Our then MD was Mr. Whiteman. I remembered that a few days after graduation, we were invited to his residence up in Ardmore Drive, off Orchard Road. His unit no kind of got stuck in my mind for that 1706 is the same no as the price of a 1/8 page advertisement in the Singapore Yellow Pages. His invitation to us to see him was important factor to allow that we support the Management Trainees and asked for the feedback whether we did have the support of the entire company, for which we all readily approved of.

Soon after this, 2 of them dropped out leaving only 3 of us behind. Mr. Wong, Mr. Chua and myself to continue the renewal process of the company.

From all these, I can draw that to be successful in the business and also helping the new recruits to stay on, the top people must be involved in the training too. This gives the freshies the bonding that even the MD in his busiest schedule still made it a point to give me the attention. There are many in the then GTDC company that stayed on for more than 30 years and some of them were their first job.

A syllabus which provides the trainee with the breadth of knowledge - esp. the basic knowledge is important. That is is the building blocks of the understanding of Yellow Pages selling and publishing taught in the class and adequately too? With complete understanding especially for Management trainees, it would allow them to make their own forays into areas that would help the company later.