Day: March 15, 2005

Industry analysts are covered fairly regularly on this blog.  If you work in the technology business, industry research firms are a very important audience.  In an industry filled with hyperbole and spurious claims on ‘speeds and feeds’, research firms provide end-users with a haven of independent, rational and informed information that strips away the hype to provide solid, understandable and reliable advice – that’s the theory – and in the majority of cases that’s the practice.

When you consider the budgets involved in IT projects across every industry, in every country, you begin to see just how important research firms are to end-users and vendors alike.

Recently David Berlind‘s quest for media transparency turned the spotlight on industry analysts.

He quotes a recent attack on Gartner by NetsEdge Research Group, specifically regarding Gartner’s famed Magic Quadrants. For the uninitated, Gartner’s Magic Quadrants use four boxes to graphically illustrate the relative positions of technology vendors in a given market segment based on the analysis of the relevant Gartner analysts.  These quadrants are hugely influential and poor placement can often adversely influence customer prospects.

Berlind also analyses a recent press release from Check Point Software that touts favorable “independent” research – that of course they paid for.

He offers the following advice:

“First, any pitches by vendors or public relations personnel to the press, analysts, or customers that cite research must absolutely disclose any relationship that those entities have with the provider(s) of the research being cited. Second, there needs to be a review and consensus of what language can be used in these pitches.”

On the one hand I applaud David turning the spotlight on the industry analyst business – it needs to be questioned.  But on the other hand I can’t help but think he’s missing a bigger piece of the puzzle.

Gartner is the largest industry research firm by a country mile and its acquisition of the third largest research firm (META Group) further dwarfs the next largest competitor, namely Forrester. As a result, I accept that as the industry leader they should be questioned and subject to scutiny. However, in my dealings with them over fifteen years I’ve never experienced the sales pitch that he outlines in his post. Indeed in the course of a recent conversation I had with one of Gartner’s senior analysts, he bemoaned the Magic Quadrant issue.  He felt it didn’t provide an accurate picture of the total market – but he felt under pressure from end-users to create one.

Any media industry that has strong influence on high value purchasing decisions will be much sought after.  This influence will also provide money generating opportunities for unscrupulous firms.  Of that there is no question.

But we have to be careful.  We can’t simply categorize a research firm’s bona fides based on their size.  The vast majority of analysts and firms I have dealings with are fair and independent.  Furthermore the analysts are knowledgable and understand the difference between vendor marketing and reality – and communicate that difference to their clients.

Some of the most independent firms that I’ve come across are small boutiques with broad market knowledge. In addition, while David points out dodgy research results which have been paid for by vendors, there are a growing number of research firms that pump the reputation of subscribing vendors without any disclosure that the vendors they’re promoting are also paying them.

This is a more sinister development.  While most medi-savvy individuals will spot a branded research whitepaper as paid-for collateral, when an “independent” report is published only hyping customer vendors – with no disclosure – that’s a far more complex and misleading piece of collateral.

The majority of industry analysts are good, honest and intelligent professionals who do a great job helping end-users find the best technology for their needs.  As with all professions, and PR people need no reminder of this fact, there is a subset who have no scruples making money any way they can.

As long as marketing people are willing to finance the cowboys, they’ll always be with us.

So what’s the answer? It’s a difficult one. 

The problem is that the ecosystem of analyst firms who conduct pay-for-play research have a ready and willing audience of vendors with big budgets. Money talks so don’t expect these people to disapear, they won’t.  Just like PR’s latest affliction, astroturfing, the research industry has its own practitioners of the dark arts.

There has recently been some talk of new research models such as those proposed by Red Monk and the New Rowley Group which aim to re-evaluate the best means of interaction between vendors and end users.

These new approaches may eventually have a positive effect, but in the meantime we should all support David Berlind’s calls for more transparency around analyst reports and advice.  The fastest way to achieve this is to educate end-users about the research business.  They need to ask the questions about which vendors are subscribers, which vendors sponsored a report etc.  When the ultimate customer is asking those questions the business will become self-regulated.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your views on the matter.

Footnote:

• Elizabeth Albrycht on Analyst Transparency
• Open Source Analyst Relations
• Elizabeth Albrycht‘s Analyst Rant
• Consolidation and fragmentation in the Analyst World
• Analyst Relations Redux
• Information Week on who owns Gartner
• More on the industry analyst conundrum
• Silicon.com: Analysing the Analysts: Can independence be bought
• Darwin Magazine: Examining the Analysts
• VNU: IT Analysts on the couch
• Fred Abbott of Valley View Ventures on IT Industry Analyst Objectivity (PDF)
• Tekrati is an excellent resource on industry research firms
• The Knowledge Capital Group provides some great advice on analyst relations

 

• Long-time measurement guru Katie Delahaye Paine has started a blog on PR Measurement – thanks to Andy Lark for the link.

 

• David Rossiter has a new UK Industry blog entitled Analyst Insight – thanks to DrewB for the link.

 Nooked are conducting two online surveys to find out how journalists, analysts, bloggers and marketing communications practitioners are using RSS.  You can find the journalist, analyst, blogger survey here and the Marcoms survey here.

 

 David Berlind was recently interviewed by PR Week on the topic of media transparency. (via Andy Lark)

“Established media is coming under attack as a result of some serious and unfortunate gaffes in credibility. The timing of that coincided with the uprising of an alternative source of information: the blogosphere. Leading up to the WebCred conference at Harvard [where established media and bloggers met], there was a lot of clamor about journalists needing to be more transparent. I took that to heart, and said, “Well, my credibility has not yet been called into question, but it’s probably only a matter of time that it is.” A lot of people were talking about transparency, but not many were practicing it. The only way we were going to move the needle on transparency is if someone starts doing it. The best definition I could come up with for transparency was to un-obscure that which is obscured. Generally speaking, the press obscures the raw material behind the work they do.”

 

 Is the essence of good media relations sending bad news about your client’s competitors to the media?  Some agencies obviously think so.

 

 Philip Young is presenting a paper on Ethics in PR Practice next week.  Philip provides an abstract online.

 

 Jeremy Pepper has published a couple of interesting interviews with Howard Rubenstein and Ronn Torossian.

Howard Rubenstein: “I dropped out of Harvard Law School after 2 months, knowing I did not want to practice law. I opened my business at my mother’s kitchen table with one account that billed at $100/month. My father was the Crime Reporter for New York Herald Tribune and he taught me to write in a newsworthy way, how to place articles; he set me on my career. I stuck with it, and built my agency to what it is today. The second important moment was finishing law school at top of the class, sticking to it and then coming back to PR.”

 

 Jim Horton bemoans the arrival of a new service from PR firm Qorvis Communications that aims to teach journalists and politicians to be better communicators on-air. Interestingly this is a service that has been offered by an Irish PR firm for many many years.  They have been so successful marketing the course that practically every political party uses the service.  The result?  Regardless of political views or the issue involved they all sound remarkably similar.  We’ve become accustomed to hearing every politician mutter “I’m glad you asked me that” in response to any difficult question as they desperately try and collect their thoughts. I think in the long run, these “services” become self-defeating – after all being different and honest is often more memorable.

Jim also points to some recent research that points out that blogs aren’t ubiquitous. The message is don’t believe the hype.

 

 Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson have released two more installments of their excellent PR podcast For Immediate Release: Podcast #15 and Podcast #14. Is it just me or is Steve Rubel the scarlet pimpernel? Poor Shel and Neville seek him here, Shel and Neville seek him there…

 

 Phil Gomes shares a potential client’s desire for some astro-turfing consulting.

 

 Jeremy Pepper discusses how important it is for PR (and marketing) people to get closer to the customer and get an understanding of what they are thinking.

“If you are in a public relations department, here’s a suggestion: work down in customer service for a day. Answer the phones, answer the emails. Do you really know what your customers are saying, or are you too insulated in the PR department? You want to know the real issues for your company, spend a day in the trenches of customer service. Then, work with the head of CS to ensure that messaging is consistent across the board. Should the two departments be connected? Of course not, that’s close to impossible. But, they should work together.”

 

 Steve Rubel links to an interesting story from The Digital Age that looks at the intersection of RSS and newspapers.

 

 Trevor Cook points out a recent survey in Australia that found that 74% of PR practitioners are female. 

 

 Andy Lark points to Tim Bray‘s thesis on why blogging is good for your career.  Andy also adds his own points and in a separate post, highlights some more dubious VNRs.

 

 Although not specifically about Public Relations, can you believe its five years since the last days of the Internet empire?  Like every empire before it, the Internet’s fall followed the usual pattern, slow initial growth, massive opportunities, wild excess and a terrifying fall. Andrew Smith has some great links to coverage of the fifth anniversary of the Internet bubble’s burst. Also Check out Om Malik‘s collection of links.