We recently sat down with Bill Hopkins, president of The Knowledge Capital Group, a software consulting firm specializing in dealing with and understanding the world of high tech analysts, firms such as Gartner, Forrester, Jupiter, IDG, etc and etc. He has a B.S. from Babson College. OK, first things first. First, as The Product Marketing Handbook for Software points out, the press tends to rely on the analyst community for product and technology validation. If I'm a staff reporter for Computerworld and you or your PR firm pitches me on a story angle for your company, one of the first things I'm going to ask you for is the name of an analyst who has looked at your product and industry.
Analysts make products real, at least in the minds of many members of the press.
You should also keep in mind that the information flow in this case is one way. The second reason is that in the enterprise space and for applications selling in the 50K range and up, analyst recommendations have a greater influence on purchase decisions than press reviews. Infoworld may think your 100K content management system is great stuff, but if a Gartner Group report has harsh things to say about your market segment or product you are in very deep trouble. Your PC Magazine's, Worlds, eWeek, etc will have a great deal to do with your sales success with a shrink wrapped product. In the enterprise and B2B market segments, the more expensive your product, the more this ratio almost exactly reverses.