Forrester Research

We hear about Forrester Research ... often.  You might feel like a fossilized trilobite after spending time reading their content!

How does Forrester Research market to their customers?  Is it all digital, all omnichannel, as we're told we have to be?  Or is it a different and potentially more effective strategy?

Click here and check out the 10-K from the year ended December 31, 2011.  They'll tell us what they do!

First, you come away with the realization that this is a well-run business.  Who wouldn't want to earn 13% pre-tax profit?  Kudos to Forrester for running a profitable, healthy business.

The 10-K tells us that "Forrester inspires customers to live in the future." 

Here's a few tidbits from their 10-K, about the way they view the future.

• Jim Collins' book, Good to Great, has been their bible since 2007.  It's not some modern whiz-bang text by a social media expert, is it?

• Did you know that 36% of Forrester employees are sales people?  438 out of 1,208.  They employ more sales people than researchers.  Or digital strategists.

• Did you know that Forrester wants to grow their sales force by 15% to 20% a year?  They do not talk much about their digital / omnichannel future.  They talk a lot about growing by adding to their sales force.

• Digital / Omnichannel activities are largely for lead generation, not immediate sales generation.  Think about that for a few moments.

• Four tactics are listed to promote brand awareness ... website, events, worldwide press relations, and direct mail (gasp) campaigns. 

Their analog-focused strategy works.  Net sales are growing at a 7.5% compound annual rate.

• 2011 = $283.6 million.
• 2010 = $250.7 million.
• 2009 = $233.4 million.
• 2008 = $240.9 million.
• 2007 = $212.1 million.

And pre-tax profit?  Growing at a 4.9% compound annual rate.

• 2011 = $37.0 million, 13.0%.
• 2010 = $30.8 million, 12.2%.
• 2009 = $32.4 million, 13.9%.
• 2008 = $38.0 million, 15.8%.
• 2007 = $22.7 million, 10.7%.

Nice numbers, huh?  Not stunning growth, but better than many of us, right?

Forrester sells us a digital / omnichannel vision of the future.  As they say in the 10-K,  "Forrester inspires customers to live in the future."   

Forrester's future, however, looks bright due to an analog strategy fueled by a large, human-centric sales force.

Fascinating!

We know why this happens, right?  Forrester isn't stupid, they're employing smart people.  Executives and CEOs tend to be in "Judy's Generation" ... baby boomers, by and large.  You reach these folks via relationships ... actual in-person relationships.

Keep this in mind the next time somebody belittles your business model for being old-school, analog, and relationship focused.  Use Forrester as a role model!

Forrester Research Survey On Green Direct Marketing

Last fall, you asked me to cover "green" issues in cataloging. We've had many good discussions, haven't we?

Today, Forrester Research analyst Dave Frankland asked direct marketers to participate in a survey on green direct marketing. Here is a link to the Forrester blog post, and here is a link to the survey. Let your voice be heard!

Hologram Marketing and Multichannel Marketing in 2015

A loyal reader sent us this article about Target using Hologram Marketing.

Fast forward to 2015, when we'll read an article that goes something like this:


NEW RESEARCH INDICATES THAT E-COMMERCE AND HOLOGRAM MARKETING WORK TOGETHER TO FACILITATE THE OPTIMAL CUSTOMER MULTICHANNEL EXPERIENCE

October 29, 2015: A new study, commissioned by Google, Yahoo!, Shop.org, Marketing Sherpa, Forrester Research, E-Tailer and Internet Retailer indicates that "multichannel customers", customers who shop via e-mail marketing, paid search marketing, website research, social media, e-commerce and hologram marketing, are five times more valuable than customers shopping via just the hologram marketing channel.

"These results validate what we've been preaching to clients since the early days of hologram marketing ... you simply cannot dive headfirst into hologram marketing without realizing that the customer demands a multichannel experience." stated Leonard Thigginsworth, President of Shop.org, the venerable e-commerce advocacy firm. "Firms that fail to tightly integrate the world of e-commerce with the benefits of hologram marketing are unlikely to thrive in this hyper competitive marketplace. Furthermore, the suggestion that today's experienced online marketers will soon be standing in soup lines is simply premature. Online marketing skills are essential in this highly complicated age of hologram marketing." concluded Thigginsworth.

The study indicated that 61% of customers were "very likely", "likely", or "somewhat likely" to use old fashioned tools like Google and Yahoo! to search for products and services. These customers indicated that they spent 5.3 times as much money on hologram marketing as did customers who abandoned e-commerce in favor of hologram marketing technology from "Holo", the San Jose based brand that utterly disrupted e-commerce in 2013 with innovative "personal holograms" that manage everyday consumer tasks via simple voice commands.

39% of survey respondents said that they were "very likely", "likely", or "somewhat likely" to use promotional e-mail campaigns to facilitate searches on Google or Yahoo!, searches that resulted in customers researching products and services on old-fashioned e-commerce websites, before ultimately giving purchase instructions to their personal hologram.

Darren Manning, President of Internet Retailer, believes these results validate the need for a holistic multichannel customer shopping experience. "We all know that late at night, shoppers wearing pajamas, sitting in front of the fireplace, love to hold their notebook computers on their lap, reading promotional e-mail campaigns and researching products and services in the friendly, safe and encrypted blanket known as e-commerce. This behavior simply isn't going to change because a startup company creates a personal hologram who does menial tasks and chores for you." stated Mr. Manning.

"In addition, do you trust handing over your credit card number or thumbprint to a hologram? I don't! I trust the encrypted environment offered by e-commerce." added Mr. Manning.

The study is good news for Google, a beleaguered old-school brand who lost a third of their search market share to Holo during the past thirty six months, resulting in an 80% drop in share price.

The study is also good news for online advocacy organization Shop.org, which is struggling to stay in business in this ultra-competitive marketplace. "We strongly believe that multichannel marketing is best experienced when customers use a combination of e-mail marketing, paid search, and e-commerce websites to research products and services. Traditional e-commerce-based research drives purchases via tools such as Holo. Research indicates that up to 80% of purchases via Holo are driven by e-mail marketing, paid search marketing, and e-commerce websites. Multichannel marketing, e-mail marketing, and paid search are here to stay. Take away e-commerce, and you take away the e-commerce potential of Holo" stated Ben Morrison, President of Shop.org.

Still, there are fundamental changes in customer behavior being exhibited by "Generation Z", 13-25 year olds who are children of the non-descript "Generation X" cohort of consumers. A recent study commissioned by Holo indicated that only 7% of these consumers subscribe to e-mail marketing programs, or use paid search.

"We believe that when Generation Z become full-fledged members of the "participation economy", (a phrase jointly coined by President Jeb Bush and Speaker of the House Michael Moore), they will appreciate and fully utilize the myriad of benefits offered by a multichannel marketing experience that tightly integrates e-mail marketing, paid search, social media, e-commerce and hologram marketing." stated recently appointed Marketing Sherpa President Sarah Rogers.

How Does Your Organization Use Research Information?

Toward the end of my tenure at Nordstrom, we had a meeting about multichannel marketing with Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research. This bright individual knew the challenges facing a multichannel retailer, demonstrating superior subject matter expertise.

These days, it seems trendy to use external subject matter experts to help leadership understand important business issues. I've attended many a presentation where the Director or Vice President gives research information more "presentation time" than actual customer behavior and company metrics. In other words, the presenter may feel that the research company has more credibility with executives than internal database marketers have.

How does your organization use research information? Do you use it to complement internal database marketing metrics and marketing research information? Do you use outside research information as the primary source of credible information? If the latter is the case, why does research information trump internal understanding of customer behavior, an understanding based on actual customer purchase activity?