Yellow Pages Advertising Is as Simple as ABC

If UC Irvine professor William Watt’s theory is true, and some Middle Eastern scribe decreed the order of the alphabet 3,500 years ago, that bureaucrat could not have foreseen the battles he would touch off in the Yellow Pages.

Because the scribe started his list with A, Orange County now has such institutions as the A Aesculapius Allergy and Asthma Clinic, the Aardvark Bankruptcy Center and A Ace Pest and Termite Control, all competing to be the first listed under their particular Yellow Pages categories.

Some succeed and some don’t, and some are bumped from first place by A-come-latelies.

And some of the runners-up take it hard.

“It’s difficult because they think being listed first will increase their business,” said Luann Boylan, one of Pacific Bell Directory’s general sales managers in Southern California. “Some people are invested in that (belief) enough that I had a customer I had to tell ‘no’ stage a sit-in in my office. We had to call the police to have him removed.”

The alphabet competition, which Boylan described as “pretty fierce” at times, has prompted formal rules controlling Yellow Page placement.

But according to Boylan, the basic rule is simple: If your business name starts with an unusual number of A’s, you have to show proof it’s your actual business name.

That was no problem for Ron Baltes of Brea, a plumber who last year left his employer to set up his own home-based plumbing business. He produced a city business license showing his company name: A.

His is the first phone number in the Orange County central/north white pages and the first listing in the Orange County central Yellow Pages plumbing category. “Nobody can be in front of me,” Baltes said. “That’s as high as you can get: A.”

“He has a cap on it, that’s for sure,” Boylan conceded.

But Boylan discounted the importance of a high alphabetical listing. She said the larger display ads in the Yellow Pages are used by people looking for a place to buy what they want, but the alphabetical listings are used by people who know the name of the firm they want and are looking for its telephone number.

‘Pretty Good Results’

Baltes, however, said his ploy has produced “pretty good results. I’m quite surprised. I didn’t think it would be that good.”

Possible supporting evidence: The former first-place and now second-place plumber--A AA Rotary Rooter Drain and Sewer Service--could not be reached for an opinion because the telephone had been disconnected.

Other firms that have fallen from first place seem to be doing all right. The Aardvark Bankruptcy Center in Santa Ana went from first to 10th this year and now is behind such legal firms as A Christian Lawyer of Santa Ana (“Turn It Over to...Him”) and A-Attorney Personal Injury of Westminster.

The firm of A Accident Clinic in Fountain Valley was edged out for first place by A Accident Attorney in Newport Beach, formerly A Auto Accident.

“I guess it’s a blessing,” said A Accident Attorney himself, who asked that his real name not be used. “I’m not sure we really get many calls from that ad. I don’t think we’ll be first for long.”

Aardvark Results

Kris Haymond, a legal assistant at Aardvark, said her firm’s name was chosen specifically to be first in the listings. While it lasted, it definitely improved business, she said, “because most of the people, if they just open up the Yellow Pages when they’re in a panic mode, start at the top and start calling down, especially if they’re price shopping.”

“That’s what I was told, and I went for it,” said Dr. Kenrick A. Licorish, an allergy specialist in Santa Ana. He is listed in the Yellow Pages under a parade of A’s: A Aesculapius Allergy and Asthma Clinic. (Aesculapius is the Roman god of medicine and healing.)

“I’m not too sure if it makes that much of a difference,” he said. “I have no direct evidence.”

If anyone should know, it is Perry Zimmerman of Costa Mesa, who is listed at the very end of 10 pages of real estate agents.

“Most of my business is referrals and repeat,” Zimmerman said. “I wouldn’t say there was an advantage. I know I wouldn’t change my name. No way.”