Two of our analysts caught wind of this note on LinkedIn this week and it’s a bit startling:

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GARTNER SURVEY

As part of a consulting engagement to understand consumer preferences around mobile PCs (laptop, notebook, netbook); we have launched a web survey across several countries.

In addition, we are inviting Gartner Associates’, their families and their friends to participate in the survey.

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The survey can be found at: http://www.ciwweb.com/~mobilepc/logologn.htm

As a follower of research firms and as one ourselves it struck us as odd that a respected brand and leader in its space would offer up a survey to its alumni network. And for research for a paid consulting engagement? By doing this (planned or unplanned) they made the survey open to anyone on the open web, opening their response pool to virtually anyone. The approach not only introduces bias into the study because of the group chosen, it also mars how any client could potentially feel about how research is done on their behalf, especially with a firm whose tagline on their website reads “world class research and insights to meet your needs.”  In a world where anyone is an analyst or a consultant – this consultant now being armed with SurveyMonkey and an open website and his social network does his client and the Gartner brand a disservice. Given that Gartner is faced with a lawsuit about its research and client ethics practices, it’s especially poor timing.  And they still don’t appear to have a published ethics and integrity policy on their site or one easily findable, something we’ve advocated for years.
Says one member of the Outsell team – “this reminds me of an old market research story from one of my professors at Babson who was discussing sampling and questionnaire wording . Back when Ford was designing the Edsel they sent a bunch of researchers to ask simple questions, one simple framing one was to describe the kind of car you think your brother-in-law would like.” Turns out Edsel bombed and people didn’t think highly of their brother-in-laws.

Gartner is too good for this and it’s a research moment gone awry.  Let’s hope Gartner’s friends and family like the company sponsoring this research and have good views about mobile PCs.  I think I’ll ask the extended-Stratigos clan to answer our next news-user study too.

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This week Facebook launched a new feature called HuffPost Social News which gives Facebook members the ability to see stories friends are taking in and talking about. There’s lots of discussion in the press and blogosphere about Facebook building a universal platform for communication and the notion that third party content like news is becoming part of the ecosystem makes us think about other third party content, especially paid content, and how easy it will be to bring it into a social environment when these users want it. Note we say when, not if. What happens when Facebook becomes the workflow tool of the millenials who spend a decent portion of their “share of day” there and want to use it to collaborate at work. This same generation is dissing Twitter btw (a random sample, non-scientific sample of Outsell teens won’t have anything to do with it. Why they say when you can get that and so much more on Facebook? They also think it’s dumb to simply follow anyone else around). They view Facebook as ubiquitous, seamless, and a place to talk, post pictures, collaborate, read and now comment on the news. Watch for when they start designing products there, creating software code and offering best practices on how to solve problems in their workplace. Third party publishers are going to have to play in this environment and make it seamless with mobile, the other platform of choice for workers entering the workforce. As these workers enter middle management (and likely before) they’ll continue to accelerate the sea change that’s already begun. Ready or not, here publishers go. –

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My little indicator of the economy picking up is the amount of junk mail coming to my home mailbox. Just as I was about to go to the DMA and put my name on the ‘do not send’ list the economy turned south and lo and behold
so did the amount of catalogs, promotions, and credit card solicitations that up to that point had been arriving by the ton.

Last week I realized that tonnage was on the rise again and it increasingly is the only thing Uncle Sam is delivering these days. Our bills have gone paperless. People are emailing a lot more than sending
cards and letters and while many like their magazines they are increasingly being read online OR associated w/ environmental disaster and carbon footprint and people are cutting back on those too.

Which means that increasingly all that’s left is junk. And increasingly publishers who send magazines in print and direct mail in print are going to be associated with junk. In marketing they call this ‘brand association’ and increasingly it’s not a good thing for publishers to be associated with junk mail and the detritrus filling our mail boxes.

Case in point. Last Tuesday here’s what we received: one survey from the Republican Party with lots of questions clearly slanted to the right followed by a donation request, a solicitation from the Sierra Club and
local police officers association, a credit card promotion from Delta Airlines Skymiles program in partnership with American Express, a promotion for Invisalign dental products, coupons for Costco, and one
request to participate in a class action lawsuit (that turned out wasn’t relevant to us.)  This does not make for a happy mailbox or home owner who proceeded to send this all to the recycle bin.  Having magazines arrive in
this heap is, I’m afraid to say, increasingly a brand experience nightmare, waiting to happen.

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The premier issue of Afar launched this summer and its founder Greg Sullivan and co-founder Joe Diaz are working examples of our 2009 theme “No Guts, No Glory.”  They perceived a gap in the travel magazine market and against all odds launched a print-only publication whose website won’t be launched until next year. Yup, a new consumer, print-only magazine in 2009. Gotta love it.

Right up front they target people interested in experiential travel, those who go to new places to “connect you with the authentic essence of the place and its people, deepening your understanding of the world, its cultures, and yourself.” Their founders’ note talks about the spirit of this type of travel and the people who don’t want to “acquire places” but fold into the fabric of them. No more glitzy resorts, fab fountains in flagstone trimmed pools, and candelabras and gilded lobbies in tropical surroundings or golf-course-covered deserts.

They are targeting a psychographic and the advertisers might have a tough time grasping the concept but pick up a copy of the magazine and you’ll realize this is no Travel & Leisure. Their mission statement pretty much encapsulates the spirit of the publication and brings the “MINI lesson” of my earlier post closer to home in publishing. Michela O’Connor Abrams, President & Publisher of Dwell chairs their board of advisors and you can see the Dwell influence in the publication. It is well targeted, well designed and narrow and nichey…the kinds of things that aren’t for everyone but will bring a certain audience and marketer together to everyone’s content.

Self-funded, we’ll be watching and waiting to see how the property does in this environment and no matter what the outcome, there are great lessons for any publisher, starting w/ our mantra, no guts, no glory and marketing experiences and feelings around your content.

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