In the early 1980s it was realized
that many businesses dedicated too much of their advertising
budget to an area that offered very little possibility
of growth or return
something many business describe
as a necessary evil
the yellow pages
(which ironically isnt even a form of advertising).
In an attempt to help educate businesses on more effective
ways to advertise, American Consulting Services was
founded and began training media properties in the use
of this yellow page consulting technique. This consultative
selling approach resulted in merchants reducing what
they spent in the yellow pages and redirecting the dollars
into more effective creative advertising.
In addition to the questioning technique,
the media properties were also educated on what the
yellow pages really were, how they were sold, prices
and on consumer usage. Over 29,000 salespeople at more
than 1,000 media properties (including 85 of the top
100 markets) began Selling Against the Yellow
Pages. By 1990, Yellow Pages revenue growth had
whittled down from 18% per year to 2% per year.
In 1988, American Consulting Services
produced a videotape version of their training system,
A Closer Look At Yellow Pages Advertising,
to be used as a retraining tool and allow smaller media
properties to take advantage of this valuable training.
Training was expanded to include seminars designed for
merchants and professional associations. Business owners
were taught how to evaluate the effectiveness of their
yellow pages expenditures and also learned more effective
ways to market their business.
In 1990, A.C.S. launched TOMA Research
and created a tool for the advertising salesperson unlike
any other in the marketplace. The TOMA survey measures
who is thought of first in up to 60 categories of business.
Most businesses do not score as well as they wish and
learn that they need long-term name awareness advertising
to succeed. This TOMA concept is now offered in over
a thousand markets throughout North America.
American Consulting Services and TOMA
Research is committed to excellent service, product
innovation, measurable results and helping media properties
generate new, unbudgeted revenue from non-traditional
sources.
As American Consulting Services and
TOMA Research celebrates its 20th year, they reaffirm
their ongoing commitment to excellent service, product
innovation, measurable results and helping media properties
generate new, unbudgeted revenue from non-traditional
sources.
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