RedBk challenges old Yellow
Published:Friday | December 9, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Correction & Clarification
The chairman of RedBk Jamaica was identified as Charles Bernard, but the correct name is Bernard Henry.
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The 50-year-old Yellow Pages directory product run by Global Directories appears to have received a significant challenge from the newly launched RedBk Jamaica Limited, which aims to start publishing a new directory by mid-2012.
The company was set in motion by Carol Pryce of Nuff Talk Limited, who is RedBk's chief executive officer; Bernard Henry of FIMI Wireless, chairman; and Richard Robinson, chief operating officer and former executive of Food for the Poor America.
RedBk, designed as a paid listing directory for corporate individuals and small and medium enterprises, is funded by $200 million in equity, with some debt, the level of which was undisclosed.
The company is locally registered, but the ownership structure has also not been undisclosed. It already employs 70 persons and there are plans to increase that number to 100 in the first 12 months of operation, according to its management.
Pryce, who is also president of RedBk, said the company aimed to expand the directory advertising market by listing both mobile and fixed/landline numbers from across the spectrum of network providers - Claro, LIME, Flow and Digicel.
At the same time, however, Global Directories, which owns the Yellow Pages, is flexing its muscles, pouring marketing and product development dollars into flooding the market with new multimedia products designed to vacuum more profit into its coffers.
Cecelia Bell, marketing manager, Jamaica Yellow Pages/Global Directories, said on Tuesday that the company has been repositioning itself as 'a multimedia directory services' company, offering existing advertisers the opportunity to capitalise on new online opportunities to connect with users.
While Bell would not give market size, or its share within it, the company, which pursues publishing, sales and marketing of directory products, is believed to be dominant in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
It produces two business and one residential telephone directory in Jamaica, as well as directories in several other islands across the region, including Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. All print directories are available online and via mobile telephones.
No investment figure
Bell was unable to provide a figure for the investment being made by Global Directories in product development and marketing, but said that "new trends indicate that consumers in Jamaica are spending an increasing amount of time online and using the Internet to make purchasing decisions. This development is driven largely because of the Internet penetration and high level of mobile phone usage in Jamaica."
In response, Global Directories has, for the last two years, been offering small and medium-size businesses a suite of online products, including websites, to position their businesses online.
"Some of our smallest customers' online presence is only their advertisement in the Yellow Pages," said Bell. "We are changing that for many businesses. We are helping businesses to develop websites, manage ad programmes on Google, Yahoo and Bing, as well as online profile pages, videos and other avenues to tap into the online market. These products and services are available to all levels of businesses, including small and micro-businesses, regardless of telecom service providers."
For 2012, Global Directories, which employs 200 persons in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, will be rolling out a mobile app and targeting the expansion of a distribution network.
But new kid on the block RedBk is confident that with a product designed to meet recessionary conditions, inroads will be made in a market estimated at three million, many of whom are small businesses and householders without a landline.
RedBk is planning to publish five directories in the five defined regions across the island. "Books will be smaller and easily portable, the content easy to read, and the advertising rates affordable," Pryce said. Some 600,000 books will be published in year one.
Company chairman Henry said at the December 1 launch that "in addition to large corporations and SMEs, the micro business and members of the informal sector are potential customers. Our market research showed that residents with cellular numbers, but who were not in business, were interested in listing their numbers, once the cost was affordable."
Said Bernard: "We are very bullish on the potential of this business as we believe we have the right product which will cater to all markets at the right time for the right price."