The costs are too high for information on Web behavior

Sep/24/2008 04:04
eyeglasses
This week I went to both Forrester Research and eMarketer to see what was new and although they had a lot of great information it was of course pay for report or per client access. When I checked with several colleagues at pharma companies I was surprised to learn how many did NOT have access to this information or purchased these reports. When I asked why it was the same response "too expensive". It seems that pharma is cutting back big time on everything to do with "e" including research that could provide some great insights.


Every once in a while I used to purchase a Forrester or eMarketer report if it was relevant to my business and every time I submitted an expense report for the report my boss would question the expense which was anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars and up. I would always here the same thing "do we really need to spend this money and what will the information be used for". More times than not my request to purchase the reports was denied and from talking to colleagues this seems to be happening more and more. But why?

If you purchase 6 or more reports a year it cost $2K or more and right now that is a lot of money from the DTC budget. eMarketing people need to ensure that every dollar they spend goes to drive business. Agencies which should be subscribing to these services are also passing on the cost of these reports. eMarketing people have to get information from "free" sources. In addition reports purchased today will be outdated in a matter of days as the landscape in eMarketing is changing rapidly. Why spend $275 for a report that won't be worth anything in 90 days?

Why spend dollars on eMarketing research? Well, for one it provides insights as to what is happening on the Web, however if that data is not actionable then it is pretty much worthless. Take Foresters insights into segmentation for social media: it might be relevant today but the social media landscape is changing so rapidly that the report will be outdated in a matter of days or months. 95% of the reports that I purchased are now garbage as far as providing insights and stats on what is happening online.

eMarketer at least issues daily newsletters to keep marketers informed as to what is happening online. Forrester issues press releases in hopes of getting people to bite but in the era of declining budgets this may not work anymore. Manhattan Research can also provide some great insights but I have found that they only provide a piece of the puzzle and marketers should not take their research as a whole.

There is a wide variety of research out there for pharma eMarketing people but unfortunately it all costs money that they may not have right now or in the near future.
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