Phone Book Goes Digital, Retains "Yellow Pages" Brand Name

Recently, I got involved in an online discussion with some other branding-obsessed bloggers about another logo change--Yellow Pages.  The full story and comment sequence can be read here.

My comment on the article was the following:
The biggest question for Yellow Pages is not really what their logo will look like or whether they change the brand name (I like the idea of just using the name "Yellow"). For me, the biggest issue is how the brand will maintain a relevant offering to consumers. Every time the phone books arrive, I joke with my wife about WHY we need them, with internet at our fingertips on at least five devices in our home. But then, invariably, I will use the Yellow Pages a few times a year, when I'm looking for a "category", not for a specific company.



The Yellow Pages competitive advantage was their sales force that knows individual business geographies intimately, so their categorical listings are pretty complete. Google is so huge and it doesn't know the individual neighborhoods, it just crawls all the web entries that have certain keywords or zip codes. So frequently a Google search for restaurants in my zip code will exclude establishments that don't use the word "restaurant" in their title or description.


My recommendation to Yellow Pages: acquire Angie's List or another similar services rating site, so they can offer localized service listings and ratings. Google will likely win the battle over searchable answers, but there is still room in the online space for answers to questions like "who is a good, honest plumber who lives near me?"

[The idea I proposed of shortening Yellow Pages to "Yellow" was picked up by one of the consultants who also commented on the article. You can read his extended article on his blog.]