When Analyst Firms Interfere with Vendor Public Relations
Q&A with an INFLUENTIAL affiliate PR firm

Note: The analyst firm names have been stripped out to protect the offending marketing departments.

Question:

Lately, [Analyst Firm] has taken to tweaking company press release headlines when asked to sign off on drafts, because we're using their event/show dateline or quoting their research. I can think of two recent cases and in both, my clients in no way indicated that [Analyst Firm] said their companies were extending their leadership position with the announcement. Yet for some reason, [Analyst Firm] still believes that they can fiddle with content outside what directly relates to them.

OK, if my client is announcing something that [Analyst Firm] said about them, then fine, we have to go along with the edits. But it's presumptuous that [Analyst Firm] "requires" companies to edit headlines and executive quotes which in no way relate to [Analyst Firm]. So we end up ripping out any reference to [Analyst Firm] so we don't have to deal with the prima donnas. Are you seeing this too? What's our strategy for getting through it?

INFLUENTIAL's Response:

Yes, INFLUENTIAL has run into this in the past as well, but with [other Analyst Firm]. They were trying to pull a fast one saying that the vendor's tagline on "leadership in X segment" did not match their strict taxonomy for the IT industry. This was unreasonable, and may in fact have been motivated by spite, as a competing analyst firm had successfully named the product category and [other Analyst Firm] was sticking to its outdated nomenclature. In this case, the client told [other Analyst Firm] to forget it. Let no analyst firm dictate your positioning! Advise, yes. Dictate, no.

Analyst Firms are pulling this nonsense because their own industry is consolidating, and concentrating power and influence in only a handful of top firms across most IT markets. Lately, they've been feeling their oats more than usual.

Influential's advice:

• First, make an honest attempt to find out the Big Picture reason behind any nit changes. Is it because the vendor isn't using the analyst firm's market terminology? Can compromise language be reached? Enlist the analyst you briefed or consulted to help run interference with their PR department, if a sales rep is not available (i.e. if the vendor is NOT a client).

If not, switch to plan B…

• Ditch their show dateline and just change to the city in question or the vendor's usual dateline.
• Switch from quoting [Analyst Firm's] research to a citation from some other friendlier or smaller firm that would approve more easily, and may even be pleased by the mention!
• Simply mention in the body of the release that the vendor is currently at [Analyst Firm's] show in booth number n. No approvals are necessary for a statement of fact.

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