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A real interesting study was released today done by Classified Intelligence on the impact Craigslist has on local publishers when they enter a new market. The question that the study dealt with was how does local newspapers compete with the free classified service from Craigslist when they of course charge for their listings. The study showed that Craigslist merchandise section caught on much faster than the job boards in new markets. Though I think the main takeaway of the study was how local newspapers were proactive and launched both a marketing campaign as well as offering better deals to keep customers. In the long term, I find it hard to believe that newspapers are going to be able to compete with both Craigslist as well as many other online communities.
One of the things I have been wondering about recently is how effective would Craigslist when used by larger companies? We all know if you are selling a sofa or a bike, Craigslist is the place to go, but how about if a company is selling a product or service? Do you think the Craigslist community would be turned off by that? Let me know your thoughts and if you have had any experience marketing on Craigslist.
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Technorati Tags: Craigslist, classified, marketing
I can’t say that these are large businesses, but in a search for vintage furniture, I’ve stumbled across numerous posts by a few different furniture companies selling specific items only to get you into their store. I kind of ride the fence on this. On one point, it’s a free country and as long as Craig doesn’t outlaw big business from his site, then big business has just as much right to those postings as any of us. It’s a fairly level playing field. Or is it? If large companies come into Craigslist and flood the site with their ads, they could push the little guys right out. The problem is that this may have an adverse affect on all.
I’ve since stopped looking for furniture on Craigslist because I’m not finding what I want and the furniture stores sell crap. If I am one of many and we all bail, then the little guy loses, the big business loses and ultimately so does Craig.
Dave, interesting points. Though I guess I would ask is if you are finding only crap on Craigslist, isn’t that partly an issue for Craig? If he is not attracting both the right buyer and sellers, the community will not work in the long run.
I also question why if big businesses started advertising on Craigslist would they push out the little guy? As you said it is a level playing field, it is not like the big business could buy a larger ad than the small business. They will be competing equally and whomever does a better job reaching the users will win.
Let me know your thoughts and thanks for sharing.
In the auto section of the classifieds, Craigslist has “owner” and “dealer” toggle boxes for a search. You could potentially turn off big business from your search. The auto section of Ebay is totally overloaded with dealer entries. Ebay needs to have a toggle to shut off dealer listings.