From the department of harvesting navel lint:

Last year, companies included “Gartner Magic Quadrant” in more than 425 press releases distributed via BusinessWire.

By contrast, companies included “Forrester Wave” in more than 170 press releases distributed via BusinessWire last year.

I’m just saying… there’s a lot less change in the world than one might think.

Only one IT industry analyst company could usurp rumors of a 3G iPhone with the hottest Apple story-of-the-hour among business, tech and consumer press and bloggers worldwide. That would be Forrester Research. They have proven once again that issuing a well-timed (and well promoted) vision will score more market attention than a rigorous reckoning of the here-and-now.

The viral news coverage centers on the report, “The Future Of Apple Inc. - By 2013, Apple’s Product Mix Will Make It A Credible Hub Of The Digital Home”, by J.P. Gownder and James McQuivey.

The swarm of press and blog coverage in the last 48 hours ranges from /. and CrunchGear, to the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. A few of my favorites:

Wall Street Journal: Apple Daydreaming: Report Predicts Move Toward Home Devices (tch, Mossberg was out of the office)

Computerworld: “Apple will rule the living room by 2013, Forrester says”

IT News: “Apple to ‘rule the home’ by 2013″ (hat tip to Slashdot)

Some reporters — such as iTWire’s Alex Zaharov-Reutt — have concluded that no one will buy the report. After all, the contents have been dissected thoroughly in the freely available press.

My take is that Forrester was much more interested in leveraging this analysis for publicity and branding, than for sales of a $249 report. The combination of topic, timing, and media relations is flawless. All in all, another impressive bit of marketing savvy from Forrester.

I look closely at ICT industry research marketing tactics. Sometimes, I’m not sure how to react to what I see. For instance, one ICT research company says it offers superior content because it produces “forecasts,” not “predictions.” The clear implication is that its competitors issue hollow predictions pretty much plucked out of thin air.

I’m not sure what to think about that claim or the research organization using it.

The only way this claim works is if the audience knows of a competitive research company producing nothing but predictions. Hmmm. What firms produce no analysis, no scenarios, no what-ifs, no range of possible outcomes — nothing but predictions? And how do you spot them? By their one-line research reports and one-sentence webcasts?

Research buyers don’t want to watch you split hairs between forecasts and predictions. They want compelling marketing materials. They want to see proof points about the quality of your research — expertise, methods, accuracy, objectivity, consistency. Increasingly, they also want some insight into your business culture and values.

The days of getting away with obscure, unsubstantiated marketing claims are drawing to a close. That’s not a forecast or a prediction… merely an observation.

Brian Clark, who writes Copyblogger, put together a great post on The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging. It’s good advice. It reminds us that there’s more to an influential blog than a famous author or a Technorati ranking.

Brian also touches on a point about persuasion that deserves attention: whether the style of writing prompts action.

By tradition, analysts who address best practices write copy intended to prompt action. Analysts focused on market and technology analysis are less likely to do so. Instead, these analysts write copy designed to educate readers or persuade readers to agree with their opinion, be it positive, negative, or neutral. Both types can be influential. The difference is the outcome.

Blogs eliminate many traditions, including analyst writing styles. Like everyone else, analysts can exercise greater personal choice in how they express themselves in their blogs. Their blogging voice is not determined by their employer or their other publication channels. There’s only one way to figure out what kind of persuasion — if any — is at work in an analyst blog: you read it.

For more on persuasive writing techniques, check out Clark’s other post, Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques. It summarizes techniques associated with personality as much as style.

What do you think? I’d like to develop this idea further. I’ll come back from the New Communications Forum (April 22-25 in Sonoma) with more on this idea. Catch up with me there (contact me for special Tekrati discounts), or link/share your thoughts here.

Here’s an interesting survey for PR and marketing pro’s at analyst firms and other management/IT professional services providers. Marketing consultancy Bloom Group produced a survey and report on marketing effectiveness among U.S. professional services firms. Turns out strong intellectual capital (IC) is the most important ingredient of effective marketing. The participating services firms rated IC as more important than having a compelling brand, big marketing budget, a sound marketing strategy or capable sales force. Take the 20-minute online survey for a free copy of the full report. (Hat tip to Kennedy Information’s ConsultingWire.)

Bloom Group believes this is common sense. Professional services firms are in the business of providing expertise, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they feel the key to generating marketplace interest in their services is capturing and marketing strong intellectual capital.

Bloom Group report authors Robert S. Buday, Bernie Thiel, and Susan Buddenbaum note that the survey results do not suggest abandoning other forms and components of marketing. The survey simply indicates that marketing the ideas of a professional services firm through educational, rather than promotional, marketing channels is much more important.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yankee Group public relations boarded a roller coaster last week. On the upside, their *former* PR agency of record won an award — for facilitating 1,400 mentions of Yankee and/or its analysts in the business press. On the downside, Yankee issued a press release on operating system reliability that was sure to fan flames among its Linux detractors. Imagine their glee — the detractors’ glee, that is — on discovering factual errors in the release.

To get a sense of the tallies here, the press release on Yankee’s OS reliability study resulted in more than 700 derogatory reader comments at Slashdot in less than 24 hours. And, that was just on Slashdot…

Read the rest of this entry »