Did you know that you could create your own personalized webpage in Gartner? Whether you are a member or not? As an Analyst Relations Consultant I have my own personalized webpage at www.insidegartner.com which gives me free content, webinars and reports. I recommend you set your own up especially if you are just starting out. It will help you get in the mind of the Gartner gorilla or elephant in the room as they call themselves.
Inside Gartner-Your own webpage
January 11th, 2010My take on Forrester’s Purchase of Strategic Oxygen
December 5th, 2009Although this didnt make the splash that Gartner’s of AMR acquisition did- it signals a move towards more go-to-market tools for clients. I believe that this is a move that makes sense to a lot of marketing people who need real tools to quantify their decisions. Unfortunately it will not be a part of Forrester’s membership so it comes at extra cost.. Some answers to your questions on the acquisition by Forrester: http://www.forrester.com/sofaq
How to Influence the Influencers
October 29th, 2009How to influence the Influencers: A great resource for how to influence the influencers: analysts, bloggers, journalists.:
http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/how-to-influence-influencers-bloggers-tweeters-others/
One of the best sources is the Word of Mouth Associations Influencer Handbook: http://womma.org/influencerhandbook/2/
The Integrity of Analysts-and how AR can help
October 22nd, 2009An analysis of another argument about the integrity of analysts: http://technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com/
But the most important point for me is: “We have to accept that the firm with the best technology does not always win (see Betamax vs. VHS) – for a company to be successful, they will need to have a great product that is complemented by a sound go-to-market strategy. Luckily for us this is where AR can help.” and I would add Marketing also..
Check out what Forrester Says about Google’s New SiteWiki Tool
October 1st, 2009As a huge fan of the coolest company in the world, I have downloaded Google’s new SiteWiki Tool. Forrester predicts it will be big…
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/09/dealing-with-googles-sidewiki-land-grab.html
Getting the New Product Launch Right
September 23rd, 2009I found this post on the Frost and Sullivan website with important information and guidelines to use BEFORE launching a new product. This is geared to technology companies and unfortunately is a step that is skipped by too many people. Investing time and money in doing market research first does pay off in the end.
Many new products are launched into the marketplace with little prior planning for targeting the customers, creating a sales strategy, developing a distribution strategy, training the sales force, and integrating the competitive strategy. This mistake significantly reduces or eliminates any potential profit the product may have, and greatly increases the sales development time. These problems must be avoided if a company wants to survive in today’s competitive marketplace.
10 Ways Market Engineering Can Help Make New Product Launches More Successful
- Identifying the best customer segments for penetration
- Positioning the product successfully against competition
- Optimizing impact of sales strategy
- Creating a system to maximize sales leads while minimizing marketing expense
- Basing sales strategy on customer benefits rather than features
- Making the team market-driven rather than technologically-driven
- Setting sales goals based on market potential, not staff’s guesses
- Reducing sales development time and maximizing profit
- Improving market efficiency
- Identifying optimal mix of marketing tools and distribution channels to maximize sales
Market Engineering Checklist for Product Launch
- Market Engineering cross-functional team training
- Determination of Market Engineering Measurements
- Completion of customer survey
- Focus group performance
- Beta sites on product
- Selection of distribution channels analyzed
- Sales targets based on market size and potential
- Design of lead generation programs
- Design of market-based pricing strategy
- Lead tracking systems
- Design of public relations strategy
- Design of sales strategy
- Design of marketing strategy
- Competitive analysis and benchmarking
- Design of customer database
- Development of customer database
- Design of market monitoring system
- Buying, reading, and implementing Customer Engineering
Challenge Questions
- Into what market will the product be launched?
- What customer segments will purchase the product?
- For what applications will the customer use the product?
- Into what geographic segments will be sold?
- What are the benefits for the customers?
- What is the price/performance ratio relative to the competition?
- Who are the principle competitors?
- What will make your product unique in the market?
- What percentage market share is targeted at end of year 1 and year 3?
- What percentage of the customer base currently uses this product?
- From what distribution channels do customers purchase today, by percentage?
- What influences the customer’s decision to buy?
- How will competitors position themselves against this product?
- What is your sales strategy?
- What is your marketing strategy?
- What Measurement of Performance will you use to track success?
Are Analysts Becoming More Pay for Play?
September 15th, 2009I have heard twice in the last week from clients and potential clients that they believe that analysts will only write about you, put you in the Magic Quadrant, Wave, etc. if you are a member. Although I have many examples of clients that were not members of analyst groups and still got great coverage–this opinion still exists out there…What is your opnion on this? Has the economic situation pushed the analysts towards a more agressive selling position?
