Trade media is the most influential way for vendors to talk to telcos

trade media
Image by TeroVesalainen | Bigstockphoto

A report that finds that industry and trade media is the preferred way that telecoms’ technology buyers like to hear about vendors is definitely going to get attention, mainly from industry and trade media.

The report by the canny CC Group, who specialise in tech, surveyed telecoms kit buyers, who put independent trade media at the top of the list and industry events and vendor newsletters at the bottom of the things that influence their decisions.

This is obviously good news for trade media such as, well, Disruptive.Asia (other industry trade media are available, or so we are told), but it is interestingly damning other channels that tout themselves as influential.

You would not be surprised that social media, online advertising and web search are in the middle of influential techniques. Still, it is interesting that, for instance, Gartner, IDC and Forrester, as respected analysts, sit between ‘involvement in a trade association’ and ‘social media’.

Given how much investment is needed to be involved in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant game (based on the pitch that a telco doesn’t sneeze without consulting them), it rather rubs the gold leaf off that particular Cup of Knowledge.

And it is a timely validation of the influence of industry and trade media. We report industry news, run edited company news and have views and opinions on what is going on and where things seem to be going. And we say it how we see it.

More importantly, for vendors faced with this report, it adds weight to our argument that trade media is the platform that allows vendors to start conversations with telcos rather than simply try and sell them a product. In the eyes of telcos, part of a vendor’s job is to invest in looking into the future, not just selling a product because it fits into some industry road map. Telecoms companies want to be part of that conversation.

It is, we admit, pleasing that this survey put industry and trade media 15% ahead of management consultants in the influence stakes, but it validates our argument that joining an independent conversation – or starting one – is the most effective way of engaging customers and partners in what is becoming an increasingly complex and fast-moving world.

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