Moving the Yellow Pages to Mobile and save it.

From here.. its possible to save any kind of problem to make the product more relevant to modern lifestyle... product MUST move with the times.....


Keynoters from Down Under say Big Transformation Possible
Tim McElligott
05/21/2008
In a video-taped keynote address, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, encouraged members of the TM Forum to be more than plumbers who move bits around--and build business models around--the customer experience. He said now is the time because of the opportunity presented by the second phase of the Internet. But it was Sol Trujillo, CEO of Telstra and Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom New Zealand, who spoke in person about the challenges and rewards of doing so through major business transformation efforts.


Chambers said that top line opportunities are almost unlimited, but that the approach to seizing them must be through collaboration. “Collaboration gives us the chance to bring new revenue models to market quickly,” he said.


Chambers emphasized, however that the role of the service provider will change and that service providers should not lose sight of the importance of quality management for the new environment, that this is their ultimate role.


“If you can’t manage it, you can’t monetize it,” Chambers said.


Actual service providers talked about re-inventing themselves to become the leaders of content and communications services, thwarting Chambers’ opinion.


Trujillo silenced his critics by turning around Telstra despite what he described as the worst regulatory climate in the world. Telstra, a company that had admittedly lost its technology leadership, was losing revenue on all fronts and was on the verge of being sold off in pieces.


“Dramatic change was required. We had to place some billion dollar bets like shutting down our CDMA network,” Trujillo said. “That was not a popular decision and not everybody welcomed it.”


Now, halfway through his company’s business and network transformations, that network is closed. And with the help of IBM, Brightstar and others, the company has realized $150 million in savings in its supply chain. It has also built an ecosystem that Trujillo called “the standout feature of the company’s transformation” and raised average wireless revenue per user by $20 per month. The company even saved its Yellow Pages by taking it mobile.


“These kinds of products are not dead. When you add value and create an experience, people will use it,” Trujillo said.


Trujillo said he has been trying for years to train the whole industry about the customer experience being the key differentiator and now he has an example to prove it.


“Differentiation is the most powerful word I can think of. It is everything in the market place...now, you can almost do anything you want, anywhere you want in Australia and now when I come to the U.S. or Europe it is like taking a step back in time.”


Some of the keys to a successful transformation, Trujillo said, are to take your people with you as you migrate to an IP environment, to build an ecosystem, transform your supply chain and focus on the customer experience by organizing your company around the customers’ needs.


Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom New Zealand, is not as far along on his transformation plan as his colleague from Australia, but he said his company is moving further and faster along this path than anyone else.


He, too, is putting the customer experience at the heart of the transformation initiative. However, he is struggling to serve people with “quite sophisticated Western European tastes in a country with little scale to support those aspirations,” he said.


As a provider in a country with only a few players, Telecom New Zealand enjoys higher margins than providers in more crowded markets, but that makes the consumers more demanding. It was a demand the company was failing to meet when Reynolds came on board in October of 2007.


“The quid quo pro is that customers must get a good deal and feel they are getting services they have come to know in their travels across the world,” Reynolds said. “New Zealanders are famous for their competitive spirit and prowess. They expect to win on the world stage and it is no different for its telecom companies. We have to win, too”


Reynolds is leading the transformation of NZT in order to overcome losses in revenue and customer satisfaction as well as its perceived arrogance and a conflict with its government.


The conflict culminated in a forced separation of its operations, which Reynolds saw as an opportunity to drive its customer-focused transformation now underway.


His strategy and advice are to invest in both long-term health and bottom line growth while meeting the needs of shareholders.


“It’s not about a long wait during transformation followed by a big-bang [return on investment],” Reynolds said.


His goal is to get the PSTN switched off altogether, but efficiency can be gained in other areas. The company has moved approximately half its customers from its legacy network to an IP network, increased bundling from 45 percent to 75 percent of customers and grew online sales from 1 percent to 25 percent. It also focused on reducing its provisioning time form weeks to days and is taking 300 legacy systems out of the network.


NZT has an aggressive timeline. Quoting race car driver Mario Andretti, Reynolds said, “If everything seems under control, you’re just not moving fast enough.”

Competition to fire up new users

One sure way to fire up the imagination of new users... a competition and a challenge. And here is how they did it in the US....

Terminix, Leading Yellow Pages Advertiser, Partners With Yellow Pages Association to Select Winners of 3rd Annual Collegiate Advertising Competition
University of Illinois at Chicago Marketing Student Wins Advertising Campaign Challenge


BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ--(Marketwire - May 21, 2008) - Continuing to bring Yellow Pages advertising into U.S. and Canadian college classrooms, the Yellow Pages Association™ (YPA™) today announced the winners of its 3rd Annual Collegiate Advertising Competition in partnership with ServiceMaster, a home and business services company with nine national brands and one of the largest national Yellow Pages advertisers.

The Yellow Pages competition asked college students pursuing an education in advertising, marketing, graphic design or a related field to create a print and Internet Yellow Pages advertising campaign for Terminix, a part of the ServiceMaster Family of Brands and the largest termite and pest control company in the world. Terminix and ServiceMaster marketing executives judged the competition and awarded University of Illinois at Chicago student Steven Tran and faculty advisor David Koehler first place for their Terminix advertisement that communicated key company benefits and positioning. Tran is a senior pursuing a bachelor's degree in marketing.

"All of the entries we received were creative, original and clever," said Roy Beatty, vice president, ServiceMaster Yellow Pages Marketing Group. "We chose the ad that has great potential to break through the clutter without sacrificing the information contained in the body copy which is most important to consumers when they are making a purchase decision."

In a survey conducted after the competition, 80 percent of participating students said that Yellow Pages serve as an important and valuable medium.

Managed by Joel Davis, professor in the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University, the competition stimulated more than 800 entries, which represented the work of nearly 2,100 students enrolled at 189 colleges and universities throughout North America.

"This challenge is a great way for students to bring their creative and artistic skills into the classroom, and at the same time, demonstrate the true value of what the Yellow Pages bring to businesses nationwide," said Neg Norton, president of YPA. "The advertising industry will be richer indeed as these students begin their professional careers."

Second place was awarded to Robert Morris University senior, Mitch Kramer, whose faculty advisor is Hyla Willis. The third place winner was George Fox University senior Emily Burford with faculty advisor David Kerr. Nearly $10,000 in prizes were awarded to winning students and their faculty sponsors.

For more information on the YPA Collegiate Program and to view the winning entries, visit http://www.ypa-academics.org, a specially designed Web site that offers material professors can easily integrate into courses on media and advertising issues.

What is happening to Phone book?

With the petrol prices hitting the roof, US$130 per barrel, travelling to shop will be pulled back making internet shopping much more appealing.
So, it means the story of Yellow Pages is on the Internet as this story suggest..

http://wcco.com/consumer/phone.book...

Good Question: Why Do We Still Get A Phone Book?
Reporting
Pat Kessler (WCCO) Record players, pay phones, even VCR's will likely soon be extinct. Yet every now and then you come across something seemingly from the past. And you think: Those are still around?

This week, the phone books started showing up here at WCCO and at our homes. So we had to wonder: With all the directories online, why do we still get a phone book? Good Question.

It is among the most ubiquitous of household items, but the lowly phone book gets no respect.

13,000 tons of phone books were dropped at Minnesota's front doors last year. Almost all of them were trashed.

Tim Pratt, Roseville's director of recycling says most phone directories end up where they shouldn't: landfills.

"Most of them are ending up in the trash. It's because people don't find them useful," said Pratt.

Pratt said the main reason people don't use them anymore is the internet. The phone book culture is all but gone.

Nowadays, phone book videos are wildly popular on the internet, but mostly just showing tricks and information on how to tear them in half.

When it comes to making the call, phone book or internet, there appears to be a great divide by age. It seems the younger crows uses the phone book even less than average.

The Yellow Pages Association said phone books are recycled more often than newspapers, even if fewer people are using them.

In fact, Minnesota's considering a law ordering phone companies not to send you a phone book unless you say "yes." In Roseville, Tim Pratt is all in.

"It's best not to get them in the first place," he said.

The Yellow Pages Association said the phone books still make money, even if fewer people use them. That's because people who consult the Yellow Pages actually intend to buy something or pay for a service.

In Singapore, its still much the same as elsewhere. Need to get them to use.... fast.