One of the challenges facing high tech marketing is how to update existing analyst relations programs, given the growing importance of more types of influencers. No one wants to lose valuable AR skills. Yet, companies want to realize better returns from these staffs and programs.
This puts AR at risk on 2 fronts. The first is a matter of perception: becoming marginalized as other types of influencers win more share of mind with vendor sales and management.
The second risk is that AR will fall out of step with marketing priorities as new
disciplines displace traditional marketing silos and spend.
I believe that, like the analyst business, the analyst relations profession is not going away anytime soon. However, there are good reasons to start aligning analyst relations with newer
ideas about who’s influencing whom, how to fund influencer programs and how to measure results.
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May 7th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Hi Barbara:
I agree with you 100%. I actually posted a blog about this last year - based on a question posed by Carter Lusher from Sage Circle on LinkedIn. The post is at: http://everydayinfluence.typep.....allen.html.
We made the move at SAP (in 2007) to broaden the scope of our AR program to account for a larger set of ‘IT Influencers’ (individuals, communities, firms and institutions) that were becoming increasingly important to supporting IT purchase decision in our market. As a result, we renamed the team to IT Influencer Relations.
Web 2.0 and Social Media has had a tremendous impact on the business models of traditional analyst and research firms. IT decision makers (for the sake of this discussion) are becoming increasingly dependant on social/peer networks (enabled by Web 2.0) for advice and council on IT strategy decisions and professional development. These same decision makers are also becoming reliant on a wealth of great information via the internet - in the form of credible research and education accessible at low to no cost.
This said, the traditional IT analyst serves a very important purpose and their influence is still strong. The issue is really one of organizational and corporate viability based on how well these research firms adapt their business models (in light of Web2.0 and Social Media) to expand their relevance and influence in an increasingly global and highly competitive landscape for IT research, education and advice.
Don