WSJ - It's easy to Misunderstand

Someone passed along today's WSJ article on Aberdeen Group and the sponsored research model. As you may know, in many ways RSR is competitive to Aberdeen in retail, in that we also offer sponsored research. Of course, like all good free marketers, I like to think we do a better job of it. I also know there were some serious factual errors in the piece, since I was at Aberdeen in 2004, which was after the white paper era ended, prior to purchase by Harte-Hanks. And yes, long before Steven Gold arrived at the company.

But I am not here to blame or praise Aberdeen. I'm here to make one very simple observation. Shouldn't the author have asked some of the consumers of Aberdeen's research if they find value in it? That's the end of the story really.

I know we get lots of thank you's for our research from our retail readers around the world. And we NEVER EVER say that technology can solve a business problem. You have to fix the business, and then technology can help. Oh yes, we also NEVER play "rate the vendors". That's so 20th century.

So that's a personal, Paula observation. The article was incomplete. Again, I'm not an Aberdeen fan - the company has many flaws that I saw first-hand...but I am a proud research analyst.