South Africa’s largest telephone group Telkom is rebranding and refocusing the Yellow Pages phonebook towards a digital focus to enable the iconic brand to aggressively compete in the market.

As of April the Yellow Pages will have a new look and feel, including a new logo, new brand positioning, and most importantly, a new strategy to increase its foot print with younger and digitally-savvy audience.

This includes existing clients, with offerings of bundled digital products and potential customers with offerings of self-registration and the greater opportunity to be found.

Yellow Pages is owned by Trudon, a business unit which is controlled by Telkom with a 64.9% shareholding. The remaining 35.1% is held by the TruManco consortium.

Trudon is also the brand owner and publisher of the Yellow Pages Phone Book, Internet Yellow Pages, Yellow Pages Mobile and The Talking Yellow Pages, and is the largest supplier of directional information to South African users.

Yellow Pages business was launched in South Africa in 1950.

Itumeleng Matlaila, GM: marketing and business intelligence at Trudon, said on Wednesday that the Yellow Pages is a heritage brand in South Africa and in moving with the times, we made a decision to keep the element of familiarity but further invest in digital search platforms.

“The changing face of consumers has led us to reconsider how they consume the information we provide. By relaunching, we aim to remain relevant in the market.”