Faced with the 145 million searches for products and services carried out in the first eight months of 2009 on Paginegialle.it, the PagineGialle.it WebPoint network has been created to help businesses and commercial operators improve their online presence.

Turin, 9 November 2009 – How are the Italians buying during this period of economic recession? Faced with reduced spending capacity, consumers are proving to be more careful when evaluating products, services and suppliers, using the Internet to get information and buy what’s on offer in the market, before making a choice.
This is demonstrated by the more than 145 million searches carried out on Paginegialle.it during the first eight months of 2009. An analysis conducted by SEAT Pagine Gialle reveals the product categories on which Italians focused their preference between January and August of this year.

Food and holidays continue to be the great love of those living in the Belpaese: in fact the crisis doesn’t seem to making a dent in the enjoyment of fine cuisine nor the desire for travel, as shown, on the one hand, by the food (7,218,000) and restaurant-related searches (9,963,000) and, on the other, those carried out under the “travel and tourism” and “hotel accommodation” categories (7,460,000 in total).
Despite the economic difficulties, consumers continue to pay a lot of attention to their clothes (6,103,000 searches) and tend to invest in their homes, not only looking for furnishings (4,940,000 searches) but focusing particularly on repair and refurbishment works, often “DIY”, as proven by the many searches linked to the building sector (10,818,000).

Relaxation and physical exercise are ideal ways of coping with the crisis, as shown by the searches relating to leisure (4,458,000) and sport (3,409,000); buying intentions for hi-tech products are also on the hopeful side, with more than 2 million searches relating to telephony, computers and the Internet.
The Italians’ passion for cars is proven by the more than 8,5 million searches within the category; these do however suggest a greater propensity to hang on to their cars and not buy new vehicles. Finally, as far as services are concerned, what stand out are the searches relating to the world of medicine and beauty (13,947,000 in total) — a symptom of a widespread desire of wellbeing — the searches related to public services (7,873,000) and those targeted at professional consultancy services (5,993,000).

The WebPoint PagineGialle.it network

As the Internet is being used more and more by consumers during the pre-purchase stage, it is becoming essential for companies and commercial operations to optimise their presence and online, to reach new markets and consumers. It is within this framework that SEAT Pagine Gialle has created throughout Italy a network of 180 “PagineGialle.it WebPoint” agencies which develop and implement customised web marketing strategies.  

“The PagineGialle.it WebPoints represent the largest network of agencies specialised in multi-media communication existing today in Italy,” commented Antonio Macrillò, SME and Local Sales Manager of SEAT Pagine Gialle. “Thanks to their extensive presence nationwide, our agencies are the key partner for SMEs in developing and defining online web marketing and advertising activities for promoting their business and reaching the target audience on the Internet”.

Creation of websites and hosting, online advertising campaigns, optimisation and indexation of the main search engines, visibility of the Seat Pagine Gialle sites and ROI measurability are just some of the multiple services managed by the PagineGialle.it WebPoints to meet the diverse communication needs of companies and commercial operations. Each agency can be reached through a dedicated Internet site, which offers information on products, initiatives linked to the local area and the main case histories produced for local businesses.

See the website www.webpoint-paginegialle.net for more information on what the PagineGialle.it WebPoints are offering through the length and breadth of Italy .

SEAT PAGINE GIALLE GROUP
The SEAT Pagine Gialle Group is one of the main operators at world level in the sector of multimedia profiled advertising, offering “print-voice-online” directories, as well as complementary communication services such as one-to-one marketing.
SEAT Pagine Gialle has been engaged in information services, and search and communications tools for over 80 years. It is a success story based on a brand that is familiar to everyone, a sales network employing over 2,000 persons, a technology that is constantly evolving and a database that includes 15 million households and 3.8 million businesses (2008 data), and a wide range of products guaranteeing a real integrated system of communications to about 600,000 Italian customers. A total of 59 million volumes distributed to the homes and offices of Italian subscribers (2008 data), about 35 million enquiries through the directory assistance service (2008 data), and over 330 million hits on online directories (2008 data) connect people and businesses, bringing together needs and solutions and promoting economic exchanges.

SEAT Pagine Gialle

SEAT Pagine Gialle Communication
comunicazione.stampa@seat.it
Tel. 011.435.2199
Fax 011.435.3040

Burson-Marsteller

Silvia Vergani – Simona Mercandalli
silvia.vergani@bm.com
simona.mercandalli@bm.com 
Tel. 02.721431