Don't phone those guys with moustaches
Jul. 17th, 2010 10:06 pmHooray for capitalism. (Or, perhaps, not.)
As those of you who haven't spent the last five years hiding from all televisual advertising[1] know, one of the prominent UK directory enquiries services grabbed one of the best numbers when the numbers were divvied up[2], and advertised the hell out of it, with two seventies-dressed men with silly moustaches who ran around shouting the number "XXY-XXY!".
I seem to recall (I'm not sure, but I'd bet it's true) that someone tried the various services, and they were all much of a muchness, but the moustache one cost more because no-one comparison shopped, and they got a big market share by advertising. Thus I was annoyed by them, and resolved never to call them, and to eventually forget their number. I was eventually successful at this (although kind of failed to remember any OTHER number).
Today, I heard an advert explicitly saying "If you phone directory enquiries, you pay more for the moustache. Don't do this, ring us instead."
I don't like gratuitously negative advertising, but also, there's many many many situations where comparison shopping isn't free (in terms of time, effort and money), which means that the theory of "best company gets business" doesn't work, and if this is to be rectified in any way, someone else has to come out and say "They suck. We're better."
[1] This is actually a good idea, and many people I know have.
[2] All directory enquiries numbers are 118-something. BT is 118-500. (I seem to recall many "official" numbers having 1s, 0s and 5s in, but that may be my faulty memory. I mention only to increase your chance of remembering a directory enquiries number other than annoying moustache one.) Another large one is 118-888, with the 8 repeated 3 times. The moustache one grabbed the number which repeated the three digit prefix again, which I'm deliberately avoiding spelling out so it doesn't infect your brain like a psychic worm.
As those of you who haven't spent the last five years hiding from all televisual advertising[1] know, one of the prominent UK directory enquiries services grabbed one of the best numbers when the numbers were divvied up[2], and advertised the hell out of it, with two seventies-dressed men with silly moustaches who ran around shouting the number "XXY-XXY!".
I seem to recall (I'm not sure, but I'd bet it's true) that someone tried the various services, and they were all much of a muchness, but the moustache one cost more because no-one comparison shopped, and they got a big market share by advertising. Thus I was annoyed by them, and resolved never to call them, and to eventually forget their number. I was eventually successful at this (although kind of failed to remember any OTHER number).
Today, I heard an advert explicitly saying "If you phone directory enquiries, you pay more for the moustache. Don't do this, ring us instead."
I don't like gratuitously negative advertising, but also, there's many many many situations where comparison shopping isn't free (in terms of time, effort and money), which means that the theory of "best company gets business" doesn't work, and if this is to be rectified in any way, someone else has to come out and say "They suck. We're better."
[1] This is actually a good idea, and many people I know have.
[2] All directory enquiries numbers are 118-something. BT is 118-500. (I seem to recall many "official" numbers having 1s, 0s and 5s in, but that may be my faulty memory. I mention only to increase your chance of remembering a directory enquiries number other than annoying moustache one.) Another large one is 118-888, with the 8 repeated 3 times. The moustache one grabbed the number which repeated the three digit prefix again, which I'm deliberately avoiding spelling out so it doesn't infect your brain like a psychic worm.