New on Amazon: Industry Analyst Relations – An Extension to PR

Folrose Press has published Industry Analyst Relations – An Extension to PR, a new book on analyst relations by Dr Ralf Leinemann and Duncan Chapple, Lighthouse’s managing director. It’s a step-by-step guide for communication managers who need to develop an AR program. The 108-page large format book retails for £15 (or less) from Amazon and from your local bookstore using the ISBN: 9780906378038. Below is a selection from the introduction.

In today’s world companies in almost all industries depend more and more on a powerful IT infrastructure. Networked computer solutions are no longer just an electronic filing system or an infrastructure for an email system. Today, a company’s superior IT infrastructure can become the most dangerous weapon of a company. It allows for quick adaptation to changing business requirements, it enables an agile corporation, it allows fast access to data to support fast decisions, it can become the most powerful sales tool of the company – rather than just supporting a sales organization. IT vendors who sell mainly to businesses – rather than to consumers – should be interested in industry analysts praising or recommending their products to their clients, i.e. to the vendor’s potential customers. An analyst program is all about becoming a trusted advisor, to use a popular phrase. We will understand later that we actually do not want to influence the influencer, but a good industry analyst program is about building the trusted relations that overcomes the obstacles to informing industry analysts properly. In fact, the influential analysts do not need at all “to be sold to”. They will insist on receiving facts. They will not allow their objectivity and independence to be compromised. But a true industry analyst relations program goes beyond providing information to industry analysts. A true industry analyst relations program consists of several dimensions. It is based on the idea of bringing top industry analysts into a strategic partnership with a company. Once a true partnership is established, a corporation can benefit in multiple ways from the knowledge that sits with the analysts.

Doreen Mwendah

There are 6 comments on this post
  1. September 17, 2008, 6:09 pm

    My name is Erica Driver. I am an independent IT industry analyst who spent 11 years with Forrester Research and am now on my own at ThinkBalm. Wow, I am disappointed to hear that there is a whole book out there that positions analysts as extensions to PR. I strongly disagree with that position. Technology marketers can get a heck of a lot more value out of the money they spend on analysts if they view and treat analysts as an extension of their product and strategy team, not just an extension of PR.

  2. September 23, 2008, 11:01 am

    Hi Erica,

    One common definition is that public relations is the process of communications and interactions between the organization and its external stakeholders. Analysts are part of the public, and this book is aimed at communications managers who want to understand how they can start to communicate with analysts.

    Of course that does not mean that product strategists should not use analysts. However many communications managers work for firms that don’t yet have analysts relations specialists. Often they ignore analysts, and this book says that instead they need to be integrated into the firm’s dialogue with its stakeholders.

    Duncan.

  3. October 03, 2008, 5:51 pm

    I’ll withhold judgment until I’ve read it (expected delivery date 14th Oct) but I agree with Erica that in itself the title is disappointing.

  4. October 03, 2008, 6:05 pm

    Dom, AR is part of PR and extends the core PR activity. There are even some PR companies that have successfully extended into AR, like your own. If you prefer a taxonomy of PR which reduces public relations down to media relations, then that says more about the actual practise of PR than anything else.

  5. October 04, 2008, 12:33 pm

    An AR programme can be deployed in various ways, as you know Duncan. I fully expect that your book will reflect that and am looking forward to reading it, even though the title unquestionably suggests that it is an add-on to PR, which it sometimes is, regrettably.

    I’ll write up a review when I’ve read it. First though, I’m reading this: http://tinyurl.com/45eu9r

  6. October 28, 2014, 5:05 pm

    […] summarises much of the most respected writers on analysts and AR in Germany, including my co-author Ralf Leinemann and DARA, the Deutscher Analyst Relations Arbeitskreis. An introductory paper like this […]