The Assassination of Zagat Guide by the Power Yelp.com
Monday, November 10, 2008 at 11:10PM 
36 Months. That's all it took to essentially devestate the 25 year business that the Zagat brand has built. The main reason? They ignored the platform that eyeballs were shifting to. Yelp is available readily and quickly. I can access it from work at my computer before I go out, I can access it from my iPhone essentially anywhere. I do own a Zagat Guide book but it sits on my coffee table as more of a decoration than anything else. No one can argue that the content is more valuable within either product. One brings out the value of peer reviews while the other maintains the importance of "professional" opinion. Both could serve the specific niche they are after except for one major and fatal flaw that Zagat has chosen to ignore, it has not followed the market (and it's future customers) into the medium(s) that they play in.
So what can the CEO of Zagat Guide to take back some of the market share from the likes of Yelp?
1. If possible...Buy Yelp. I cannot imagine that Zagat has the capital to do this but this would probably be the easiest way to catapult their brand into the digital age. Combining their professional reviews with peer reviews would be a formidable force in the restaurant reviews category.
2. Build a killer FREE mobile application. Yelp's iphone application is pretty good, but if Zagat were able to blow away what Yelp has done with more functionality and options it would certainly bring more eyeballs to their site.
3. Go Where Yelp has not gone. As far as I could tell, Yelp is not on Twitter. If that is the case there are most likely many other avenues that their brand hasn't built up their social profile. Jump into those spaces IMMEDIATELY and build a following that will help promote your brand for you.
4. Strengthen grip on luxury market. If you can't beat them in terms of sheer volume, beat them on margin. What kind of incentive can you provide to luxury diners that a Yelp cannot compete with? As a 25 year old brand there must be relationships that have been forged and can be expanded on. There is a reason that people by Starbucks over Dunkin, BMW over Hyundai. What is the reason that makes the Zagat emblem more valuable that the 5 pointed orange blotch?
Some kind of change in business strategy is absolutely vital. Otherwise the below flatline will eventually fade away.
