Analyze This
Continuing My Occasional Series on PR Strategy and Tactics
Today I step away from the usual healthcare IT issue discussion to explore analyst relations (AR). As I’ve mentioned before, Gartner, Forrester and Health Industry Insights (see links in Blog Roll section) are the big three, followed by boutiques such as Datamonitor, Frost & Sullivan, AC Group, HIMSS Analytics, Manhattan Research and some others.
Forrester’s recent AR e-newsletter (subscription available for free on their site) has some interesting insights worth sharing: “Big AR teams can obviously undertake more work than small ones, but all AR teams, regardless of size, must still use skillful management if they are to achieve their aims. For example, a Forrester survey shows that bigger teams reach out to more analysts and generate more analyst-driven marketing collateral, but achievement of targets for analyst evaluation leaderships, and other positive print, does not come easier as teams get bigger. Meanwhile, single-person teams, which make up more than one-third of global teams and more than half of regional teams, have an additional challenge -- fragility -- because their very survival is at stake.”
“Although most AR teams report through corporate communications or the chief marketing officer (CMO), many drift aimlessly before they get there. Along the way, other bosses exert their self-interest and expect a greater contribution to sales -- even though this is very tough in practice. AR managers can simplify their tenure and maximize the chances of personal success by assessing the pros and cons of each reporting line and migrating AR to either corporate communications or the CMO in a controlled fashion. Once there, they'll find less pressure to deliver sales contribution, which need not mean they avoid it altogether; instead, they can choose the best time to use sales contribution to demonstrate over-delivery against easier targets.”
Posted by Shawn Whalen on July 19, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
