Sad that an industry rag would actually report it like it’s truth.

Each faces the same difficulty: Finding a “good” one that is available. I don’t even need to check to know that both “1-800-NEWAUTO” and “NewAuto.com” were taken long ago by savvy marketers.

when have you seen a company that has a URL like 800newauto.com

Actually, pretty much every day. I’ll pick a category right now.

“Shoes.” Applying the model used with “1-800-NEWAUTO,” I’m willing to wager a large amount of money that “www.NewShoes.com” will lead me to a website that somehow is involved in the selling of shoes.

Let me check…

Yep.

Is is possible some of the most outspoken comments on this topic reflect their own biased agenda?

I’ve been in radio my entire adult life, and I’ve got to say I’ve never noticed an “anti toll-free vanity phone number” bias among radio people.

By the way, I see you opened your blogging account within just the past few days. If my modest post somehow motivated you to join the blogging world, welcome!

After reading the posts here, I decided to pull out the phone book and looked at some typical web addresses that companies use. In 99.9% of the cases, a company’s web address matches their company name, not their phone number. I mean, when was the last time you saw a company, or had a client, whose web site wasn’t some variation of their company name – either exactly matching the company name, like the example you give here – Bayside Auto Sales and baysideautosales.com? Or, an abbreviated version of a company name, like CBCads.com? To that point, when have you seen a company that has a URL like 800newauto.com? I can’t come up with any off the top of my head, and I’ve been working in the advertising business, with dozens and dozens of clients for ten years.

The point, in my opinion, of the study is to show that a significantly LOW portion of consumers are able to recall a web address. So, when they’re in their cars on the way to or home from work, or going to the ski area on the weekends, they’re NOT going to remember a URL in a radio or billboard ad, they are going to remember the phone number, as the study proves.

So, I’m not sure what the point is of nit picking how the study looks at the recall of a phone number vs. a URL. It seems to me that the “mock” ads they use to test consumer recall are realistic representations of actual ads we hear on the radio and see in print, and I’m assuming that that was the intention based on the methodology of the study.

And, my last point is, we all know that companies use research and statistics to prove their credibility and back up their products. Concluding that all such statistics cited by companies in this respect are therefore necessarily fake or made up – as some comments here imply — is faulty, assumptive logic. Infosurv, the market research company that conducted this study and collected the data, is a credible firm. They’re not going to jeopardize their reputation by conducting biased studies. Is is possible some of the most outspoken comments on this topic reflect their own biased agenda?

Excellent post! I’m in the same industry as Response Marketing is finding vanity 800 numbers for clients so I want vanity numbers to be helpful to my customers just as much as they do, but I wrote the exact same thing the other day (and I updated right away to link to you and your article!) I thought I was the only one that saw this and understood it was comparing apples to oranges just to sell your own apples.

They’ve done this before. See their fake “statistics” about 58% of consumers preferring to dial vanity numbers over numeric advertising. I’m in this business and have to explain the vanity numbers that spell things are kind of like making a front door to your business that is easier to find rather than easier to open. People say they prefer a door that’s easy to open but a door that’s easier to open generates a higher response.

I may be losing people but to say that consumers prefer a door that’s easier to find over a door that’s easier to open is crap. Advertisers prefer it because it generates more calls if it’s easier to find but consumers are lazy and if asked they always say they prefer the one that’s easier to open. Anyway the point is that they definitely use and twist “research” solely for the purpose of selling more and earning a few links from people who don’t analyze what they’re doing.

Thanks for the straight talk!

Bill Quimby
President of TollFreeNumbers.com

Could you post links to any such resources please?