Null Hypothesis and Yellow Pages

There are many reliable sources that are readily available for researching topics, whether it is for personal or professional use. Two of these sources are known as the Internet and the Yellow Pages. Based upon the test performed, to determine if the Yellow Pages will become obsolete in the near future, the following information was found based on the hypothesis and test results that have been recorded in the passage. There are many people who would prefer the use of the Internet to the Yellow Pages because of the convenience and not having to flip through pages to find what you are looking for.The Yellow Pages have become a thing of the past and is quickly being replaced by new research methods individuals can access via the Internet. In the past twenty years the Internet has continued to grow into what we know today. In 1993 the first primitive search engine was released (Seymour, Frantsvog, & Kumar, 2011). Google became the prominent search engine around 2000 by using an algorithm to rank web pages; the desirable pages would be linked more than others based on importance (Seymour, Frantsvog, & Kumar, 2011).With the growth of the Internet and the rise of technology, there has been an increase in the number of businesses that use the Internet for marketing (Salehi, Mirzaei, Aghaei, &Abyari, 2012). Businesses use the Internet to increase their business and people have easy access to the Internet, which makes it convenient for shoppers online (Salehi, et al, 2012). Our team wanted to determine if the Yellow Pages or printed phone book was becoming obsolete.We believe that with the advancements of the Internet and with the increase of people having smart phones, which have the internet readily available at your fingertips, the phone book is no longer needed and will become an archaic form of obtaining business listings or shopping. To test and evaluate our research issue, we used the five steps of hypothesis testing. In the first step we hypothesized that the Yel low Pages will become obsolete in the near future with the advances of technology such as the Internet. Our team formulated a null hypothesis, which states theYellow Pages will be proven as a viable research method. The second step was introduced to determine the characteristics of our comparison distribution. We polled 84 people, asking each person two questions. The first question was, â€Å"When looking for a business listing, do you look to the Internet/search engines or the Yellow Pages (hard copy)? † and the second question was, â€Å"If you are going to make a purchase, do you look in the phone book, Internet, or both? † Of the individuals polled, 68 were women and 16 were men.There were two individuals who fell into the under 20 category, three in the 21 to 30 group, 17 in the 31 to 40 range, 18 in the 41 to 50 crowd, 38 in the 51 to 60 set, and 6 representatives of the 60 and over. Our results showed for the first question there were 14 individuals who answere d they used the Yellow Pages and 74 who preferred to use the Internet. The second question only yielded five people who answered Yellow Pages while 83 indicated they used the Internet. We set a cutoff point of 50% or . 5 hypothesized means difference of usage among all age groups.This cutoff point was used both as a first method of searching for a business as well as usage in general. The mean for Question 1 was determined to be 3 and for Question 2 the mean was determined to be 13. The Z score for the combined questions was -3. 71. The Z score for the first tail or Question 1 was 1. 64 and the Z score for the second tail or Question 2 was 1. 96. From our research and the data collected, we found that the null hypothesis was rejected. The statistics clearly show that there is over the 50% or . 5 hypothesized means difference. The gap in the Z scores shows a 5. 35 difference for the first question and 5.37 for the second question. Through our research and statistics, we found the res ults to be opposite of our null hypothesis which is the basis for the rejection. â€Å"With the rise of local search sites, social media, and mobile directories, the physical Yellow Pages books delivered to consumers’ doors — long a staple of local marketing — are quickly becoming obsolete. According to data from the Local Search Association, total consumer references to print directories declined from 12 billion in 2009 to 7. 4 billion in 2011, and have most likely declined even more since (Jones, 2013, para. 2)†.There might be some interesting news for local businesses that still use marketing strategies through the Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages is now offering advice in areas such as SEO, online advertising, paid search, and the effects of an online reputation in the social media. Recent findings show that on average, consumers consult two to three sources of information when intending on making a purchase. These sources include the Yellow Pages, but mostly through search engines. The physically printed Yellow Page book may become a part of history, but it will be a while before it is completely obsolete.â€Å"Today, Yellow Pages and search engines dominate the local search space among all media. Last year, 84% of people used a Yellow Pages product and 76% used a search engine to find a local business (Norton, 2011)†. With that said, there are some things to consider when utilizing the Yellow Pages to advertise your business, like reviewing your competitors ads, including a dedicated phone number, immediately creating a working system to track business leads, and including offers exclusively for ad respondents. The data and statistics we collected lead us to the results that the Yellow Pages will soon be outdated.While modern media like the Internet is on the rise, traditional print media will be pushed off the market. The Yellow Pages have found a way to use this change in marketing as an advantage. They now use new mode rn media to advertise their product as the Yellow Pages online. The Yellow Pages are a name and a brand that people trust, so the concept will never actually be outdated. While the Internet pushes traditional media out of business, like books, newspapers and other print media, those branches have found to be resourceful and will therefore always find a way to survive in today’s ever-changing market.