Forum Moderators: martinibuster
"Ken Carlton spends $40,000 a year advertising Corrugated Metals in the 100,000-circulation business guide Thomas Register. He says he nets about five new accounts a year from the ad. On Google, he spends $2,400 annually. In return, he says, he gets 16 to 20 new accounts a month."
Premium advertiser or infringement of TOS? :)
Why don't spends 40,000 on Adwords and 2,400 on guides?
I'm missing something?
Regarding why not spend more in adwords, what if he already has the #1 position?
My guess is that there is not much traffic for that phrase. Now if he was advertising in "Britney forming" instead of "Roll forming", he would be getting more clicks :D
Europeforvisitors hit it right. Thomas books are in virtually every manufacturing plant. They are the place to be even if dated a bit now. It would be like people not advertising in the Yellow Pages book. I really doubt that the folks at say a Ford plant, will go to a computer and search for something they need on Google. They use what they have been using which is the TR green books. If an advertiser is spending 40k per year they have a good size ad and are for real. One order from Ford can keep a company in business for years and more than pay for the advertising they spend in the Thomas Register. But like anything else, it works better for some and not others.
JAG
The Thomas Register, like (literally) tons of printed brochures, guides, and magazines has been relegated to the 'Sealing Wax' category. It's just going to take about 5 years for them and their likewise print-bound advertisers to realize that the rest of the world has moved on. They can put their head between their knees and kiss their tail good-bye. Like Kodak in a digital camera world, they are history.
I'll bet they winced when they read that article.
They can put their head between their knees and kiss their tail good-bye. Like Kodak in a digital camera world, they are history.
I have to disagree with that. They must change, as did Kodak, but they won't go away. They do far more in e-commerce than Google can ever dream of. Hard core manufacturing is their market where millions of dollars can be spent in a single transaction. Google is mainly nickel dime when you compare the two.
JAG
I've very familiar with TR, I used to keep current volumes in my offices for construction material research.
They're toast, though ~yes~ I'm sure they'll be able to linger on for years to come, like this [polaroid.com]. Bet you lunch I'm right.
I've very familiar with TR, I used to keep current volumes in my offices for construction material research.
I agree they have lost some reach and as I said they must change. But they still facilitate billions of dollars more in commerce than someone like Google. The level of automation alone, with EDI and such, is much more advanced than Google and a credit card. Thomas helps build relationships. They may have lost the research edge for smaller dollar value purchases but it's the multi-million dollar deals and above they have always excelled at. When I worked with Thomas we were able to send entire catalogs electronically through EDI directly to the manufacturing plants bypassing the green books. We could drop the catalogs directly into the manufacturers systems. They knew years ago things were changing and started to change. The books are mostly still around because it validates a supplier and it's a trusted source. This was all done way before the name Google was even registered as a domain.
Lunch in five years? A lot can happen by then I suppose. I'm not sure I could even afford the cost of lunch by then ;-)
JAG
Piece o' cake. Even mom & pop wholesalers are doing EDI now. (Had to, in order to send a purchase order to some mfg's.)
Googles will come and go, it's the new infrastructure of information research that will kill TR. (G only accounts for some 30+% of my traffic, btw. Contrary to what many here believe, this is a multi-SE world.)
The problem is they won't be able to sustain critical mass in advertisers while at the very same time the new infrastructure (not all web-based) fuels the already nagging doubt among users that "there's got to be more out there than this." The result will be defection at both ends, i.e., a death spiral.
Even mom & pop wholesalers are doing EDI now.
Yes. Today they are. Years ago when Thomas was doing initial e-commerce most people didn't even know the Internet existed let alone EDI.
It's interesting you pointed out Kodak. The man, Habib D., that runs the Kiosk hardware designs used to work for Thomas also. He's a brilliant man and a good friend of mine. An ex IBM'er and incredible mentor.
But, we're getting way off topic now although I've enjoyed it :-) Brings back good memories for me.
JAG
No, if you knew me, you'd know I stack the deck when I bet a lunch, hhh!
May 2002: [webmasterworld.com...]
Feb 2004: [businessweek.com...]
JAG
