Background
The concept behind Top 5 was derived by a group of associates, who operated various businesses in the Perth metropolitan area. Amongst the group there was a common dissatisfaction shared toward current business advertising opportunities. It was felt that the market was becoming increasingly saturated with new advertising mediums. Businesses were being flooded with choice but with little knowledge as to what would work for their business. 

Between the group they had tried a large number of the advertising opportunities available, with many experiencing disappointment with the results. It appeared value for money was hard to find, monitoring results was difficult and the most effective mediums were those which were restricted to businesses with large advertising budgets. Those businesses with the large budgets were able to increase their public profile. As a consequence these businesses were identified in the public domain as quality businesses - ie; 'I heard it on the radio, or television so it must be true.....'

It was clear that with the existing advertising opportunities there was little ability for quality businesses (without huge budgets) to 'get their name out'. Consequently the group made a decision to invest in research to assist with the development of a new advertising medium which would fill this whole in the market.

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Research
Of course the most important aspect in developing a new product which would represent value for money for advertisers was to ensure that it satisfied consumer demand and would be utilised. However, in our efforts to provide a superior marketing product to businesses we also undertook research with businesses to ascertain some of the most common gripes and concerns with other advertising mediums so that these could also be alleviated.

Many of those concerns focused around current structures of ‘positioning’ in a large number of mediums. With positions providing the most effective results being reserved for long term clients or those with  the largest budgets. Another concern was that monitoring results was either impossible or very time consuming for most businesses. Therefore many businesses had little idea exactly where their business was being generated. There was a perception that perhaps many of the existing mediums relied upon the inability of businesses to gauge exactly what results were derived from their advertising.  

Research with consumers determined that they were also overwhelmed by choice. Where do you go at your time of need to find a business in your local area? General web searches often returned hundreds of thousands of irrelevant results. Other directory products were bulky, hard to handle and in many cases also had 30 pages of businesses to sift through.
What was lacking was a, quick and easy to use reference guide to identify quality businesses in your area.


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The Product
The initial format of The Top 5 Business Guide was based on the results derived from the research mentioned above. The primary focus of The Top 5 Business Guide was on quality and simplicity, providing access to five quality businesses in a number of consumer based categories via both a printed and online version of the guide,
As a result of extensive consultation with businesses over the past nine months, the product has continued to evolve to include considerable features which enhance both the advertiser’s and user’s experience. These include a third medium of access to The Top 5 Business Guide information, via SMS.   

The Top 5 Business Guide is more than just an advertising product. It is a source of concise, relevant local information for consumers. Top 5 also aims to ‘guide’ businesses to better business with support in the way of regular marketing tips, networking functions and business development workshops as well as extensive business management tools which are included as part of the Top 5 package.

For more information on entire The Top 5 Business Guide product, please see More Info


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The Future
As the Top 5 Business Guide has developed over the past 12 months there has been keen interest from the east coast of Australia. Even before the full roll-out is complete in Perth, discussions are already well advanced for the expansion of the Top 5 Business Guide into Sydney and Melbourne in 2006. Interest has also been shown from entities as far away as Shanghai who are admiring of the concept.

Top 5 is also continuing to source mediums in the technology sector to enhance and expand its accessibility. We also anticipate launching our telephone directory facility sometime in the near future.

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