TECH CHOICES. December 22, 2005 The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q by Shar VanBoskirk

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1 December 22, 2005 The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q by Shar VanBoskirk TECH CHOICES Helping Business Thrive On Technology Change

2 TECH CHOICES Includes a Forrester Wave December 22, 2005 The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q Evaluation Of Top Marketing Service Providers Across 75 Criteria by Shar VanBoskirk with Chris Charron and Tenley McHarg EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Despite consumer concern over spam and fraud, spending on marketing is still strong. Our review of nine marketing vendors reveals that integration with other applications, dynamic content capabilities, and flexibility of the data model are primary points of differentiation. standalone Responsys shares top honors with Epsilon Interactive. Multichannel capabilities were disappointing, except among B2B application service providers (ASPs) like RightNow Technologies and Premiere Global Services. Forrester encourages users to access the interactive vendor comparison tool included in this report that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings. TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Is Core To The Marketing Mix Vendor Differentiation Is The Challenge 3 How We Evaluated The Vendors Criteria: Offering, Strategy, Market Presence Methodology: Surveys, Demos, References Qualifications: Revenues And Services 5 Providers Score Well Overall How To Conduct Your Own Forrester Wave Analysis 8 Vendor Profiles Leaders Strong Performers Contenders 10 Recommendations 12 Supplemental Material NOTES & RESOURCES Forrester conducted product demonstrations and interviews with the vendors included in this report in October We also interviewed 18 user companies. The vendors include: CheetahMail, An Experian Company; Digital Impact, An Acxiom Company; DoubleClick Solutions; Epsilon Interactive; Harte-Hanks Postfuture; Premiere Global Services; Responsys; RightNow Technologies; and Yesmail. Related Research Documents We Called It: Vendors Get Swallowed Up April 4, 2005, Trends Marketing FAQs For Beginners March 21, 2005, Best Practices The Best Marketing Service Providers June 30, 2004, Tech Choices 2005, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Oval Program, Forrester Wave, Forrester s Ultimate Consumer Panel, WholeView 2, Technographics, TechRankings, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Forrester clients may make one attributed copy or slide of each figure contained herein. Additional reproduction is strictly prohibited. For additional reproduction rights and usage information, go to Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. To purchase reprints of this document, please resourcecenter@forrester.com.

3 2 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q IS CORE TO THE MARKETING MIX is second only to search in companies online marketing budgets today, with 80% of marketers using, piloting, or planning marketing programs and 88% expecting effectiveness to increase in the next three years. 1 This continued emphasis on marketing spells opportunity for marketing service providers and means an expanding collection of veteran and new vendors, despite industry consolidation. To help marketers sort through possible partners, we assembled a list of 41 marketing services companies and selected nine to evaluate in depth based on revenue, market presence, and business strategy. The volume of players in this market and the lengthy evaluation process (which included assessing each vendor offering against 75 criteria, conversations with key executives and customer references, platform demonstrations, and review of supporting documents) limited our capacity to include a broader set of providers in this research. Because many of our clients have interests in this larger collection of vendors, we intend to assess (in a more abbreviated fashion) these other providers in a subsequent report. These vendors include: strategy and analytics experts like e- Dialog and Quris; pure self-service standalones like Silverpop, ExactTarget, and Accucast; and small and medium-size business (SMB) specialists like SubscriberMail and SKYLIST. Vendor Differentiation Is The Challenge The marketing service provider landscape continues to evolve as marketers needs change and more players enter the space. We found that three trends were most influential to our research process: 1. Differentiation. The marketing service provider landscape is cluttered with a myriad of providers, none with revenues of more than $50 million. And as we found in our process of selecting vendors to evaluate in this report, it s becoming harder and harder to differentiate one player from another. In this regard, a key question we sought to answer was: In a market where most providers offer the same functionality and have the same way of describing themselves, what, if anything, differentiates leading providers? 2. Consolidation. The marketing service provider landscape has seen a spate of acquisitions over the past year as database marketing companies purchased vendors to better respond to marketers increasing demand for applications to help them communicate with customers across channels. 2 Here, the key question we explored was: What difference, if any, has consolidation made on marketers ability to execute relevant marketing programs? 3. Multichannel emphasis. Each new marriage between an vendor and a database marketing service provider promises the ability to better facilitate online and offline marketing communications. In our analysis, we asked: Which providers are really offering multichannel solutions today? December 22, , Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

4 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q HOW WE EVALUATED THE VENDORS To assess the state of the marketing service provider market within the context of these three questions, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of nine top marketing vendors. Criteria: Offering, Strategy, Market Presence After examining past research, user need assessments, vendor and expert interviews, and current market trends, we developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria (see Figure 1). We evaluated vendors against 75 criteria, which we grouped into three high-level buckets: Figure 1 Evaluation Criteria CURRENT OFFERING Breadth of offering Functionality Technology platform Services What range of software and services does the vendor offer? How comprehensive is the vendor s functionality for planning, designing, executing, and measuring campaigns? How comprehensive and easy to use is the vendor s technology? How significant is the vendor s services business? How heavily do users rely on its professional services? STRATEGY Strength of management team Executive vision Product road map Vertical strategy Cost What is the strength, depth, and general stability of the vendor s management team? How strong is the executive team s vision for the future of services and long-term growth of the company? How does the company plan to execute on the vision? How clear is the vendor s road map for enhancing the product and services offering? What vertical industries is the vendor specifically targeting? What industry-specific resources, services, expertise, and/or client base does the company offer to this industry? And how do the organization and platform specifically support those industries? How much do the vendor s services cost? MARKET PRESENCE Financial viability Internal resources Customers Partnerships How strong is the vendor s financial position? How strong is the vendor s employee base? How strong and diverse is the vendor s customer base? What is the extent of the vendor s channel and partner relationships? Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 2005, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 22, 2005

5 4 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q Current offering. As in past years, we evaluated the quality of each vendor s products and services, paying particular attention to the campaign management, dynamic content, reporting capabilities, usability, scalability, and compliance functionality of each platform. We also added criteria focused specifically on the vendors multichannel aptitudes, including their abilities to set up segments and campaigns using non- data, to integrate with other applications, and to provide cross-channel analysis. Strategy. We considered the quality and experience of the vendor s executive team and gauged the viability of their vision and product plans against Forrester s expectations for the marketing space. We also looked at vendors presence within their parent organizations, where relevant, to determine how fits into their larger corporate strategies. Market presence. To establish a vendor s market presence, we studied its revenue, growth, employee distribution, and the size and sophistication of its customer base. Because of recent consolidation, we also looked at the financial stability of parent companies, the percent of parent revenues contributed by , and the strength of existing partnerships especially for standalone providers also looking to facilitate multichannel communications. Methodology: Surveys, Demos, References Forrester used a combination of three data sources to inform our analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each solution: Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted interviews with each vendor to gather details of qualifications and product features. Product demos. Each vendor conducted a 2.5-hour, scenario-based demonstration of its product s functionality as it applied to three identical scenarios. We used findings from these product demos to validate details of each vendor s product capabilities. Customer reference calls. To validate product and vendor qualifications, we also conducted reference calls with two of each vendor s current customers. Qualifications: Revenues And Services Forrester graded nine vendors: CheetahMail, An Experian Company; Digital Impact, An Acxiom Company; DoubleClick Solutions; Epsilon Interactive; Harte-Hanks Postfuture; Premiere Global Services; Responsys; RightNow Technologies; and Yesmail. We based our selection on: Revenues. With a few exceptions, the vendors in this research have more than $15 million in annual revenues from enterprise client companies. 3 December 22, , Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

6 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q Multichannel focus. We limited the number of standalone ers in this year s evaluation. Most vendors selected have the ability to manage as part of a multichannel conversation. Innovation. As in years past, we looked for companies that have a particularly creative approach to marketing. We included a few vendors that did not meet one of the above hard criteria but possessed a unique and innovative service capability. PROVIDERS SCORE WELL OVERALL Because of the volume of vendors and the similarity of the functionality they provide, before sending out an RFP, marketers must consider what type of partner will fit their organizations. In our service provider Forrester Wave evaluation, we introduced a framework based on program complexity and internal resources to help marketers select whether a self-service ASP, à la carte ASP, collaborative ASP, or agency works best for them. This model still applies in 2005 (see Figure 2). Figure 2 What Type Of Vendor Works Best For You? High What is the level of your company s internal resources? Low Self-service ASP (e.g., Exact Target, RightNow Technologies) Provides a proprietary delivery platform, but professional services are limited primarily to tech support. Fits marketers who want complete control of program development and execution. Collaborative ASP (e.g., CheetahMail, Harte-Hanks Postfuture, Responsys) Provides ongoing cooperation with client resources around campaign management, analytics, strategy, and creative services. Fits marketers who want some involvement in their program but prefer a partner to manage day-to-day operations and provide high-level strategic input. Less A la carte ASP (e.g., DoubleClick, Premiere Global Services, Silverpop, Zustek) Provides account management and integration or strategy services on an as-needed basis. Fits marketers who want control of their program but may need occasional assistance with strategy or data management. Agency (e.g., Digital Impact, e-dialog, Epsilon Interactive, Yesmail) Provides a fully staffed professional services organization specializing in comprehensive program development and day-to-day operations. Fits marketers who prefer to outsource every aspect of their program. How complicated are your marketing needs? More Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 2005, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 22, 2005

7 6 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q Our evaluation considered capabilities across all four types of providers and revealed some dramatic conclusions. Specifically, Responsys climbed dramatically out of its rut as a lagging contender in 2004 to share the top spot with consistently strong Epsilon Interactive. Other surprises included the average performance of CheetahMail and the continued decline of industry veteran Yesmail. We also discovered that the most momentum around multichannel communications is coming not from any /database marketing pair but rather from B2B ASPs RightNow and Premiere Global Services. Here is how our evaluation shook out (see Figure 3): Responsys and Epsilon Interactive lead the pack. Responsys and Epsilon Interactive cater to advanced marketers sending high-volume, highly dynamic campaigns with easy dynamic content setup, access to nonnative data, and integration with other applications. Epsilon has the more scalable platform, but references indicate that it can be overwhelming for marketers who are not tapping into the vendor s broad professional services expertise. Responsys aggressive corporate overhaul, new interface, and market repositioning make it a solid choice for marketers looking for an ASP. Digital Impact and Harte-Hanks Postfuture make up the second tier of Leaders. A few clicks back but still in the Leader category, Digital Impact is a full-service enterprise agency, while Harte-Hanks Postfuture is a collaborative ASP aimed at enterprise and midmarket clients. Both platforms have a number of advanced features, including dynamic content and the ability to set up multistage, multichannel scenarios. But Digital Impact clients rely heavily on professional services to access its tools, and Harte-Hanks Postfuture provides one of the easiest self-service interfaces in the space. CheetahMail, DoubleClick, and RightNow Technologies offer satisfactory solutions. Collaborative ASP CheetahMail is a capable solution that has not kept pace with the industry Leaders. CheetahMail can deliver dynamic, customized s, but it provides fewer integration and reporting options and is less automated than the Leaders. A la carte ASP DoubleClick provides a few nice-to-haves like one-touch A/B testing and a data formatting template, but its multichannel capabilities are limited to integrating non- data into programs, and it is cloaked in uncertainty, due to its recent restructuring and indeterminate long-term plans. Selfservice ASP RightNow is best in class at multichannel campaign setup and reporting. However, its strategy services and integration with other applications trail behind those of its competitors. Yesmail and Premiere Global Services lack standard functionality. Yesmail s platform is two years out of date missing testing, reporting, and integration capabilities that other providers have which means that the vendor is only useful in a full-service capacity. Premiere Global Services is shifting identities from its batch-and-blast heritage to an à la carte ASP specializing in creating coordinated , fax, and SMS campaigns, so it is also missing some standard features like a Web site analytics partnership and compliance assurance. December 22, , Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

8 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q How To Conduct Your Own Forrester Wave Analysis This evaluation of the marketing service provider market is intended to be a starting point only. To determine what providers best fit your business needs, view the detailed product evaluations by downloading the Excel spreadsheets behind Figure 3 in the online version of this report. Three steps will help you to customize Forrester s analysis: 4 1. Understand the evaluation criteria. The Criteria tab in the spreadsheet includes a description and grading scale for each criterion against which we scored a vendor. Peruse these descriptions and mark the ones that are most important to you. 2. Change weightings as needed. Forrester has weighted the evaluation criteria based on what we feel is most important to meet our clients needs as a whole. But every marketer is different. For example, companies with disparate databases may want to heavily weight both the technology platform s integration functionality and the vendor s technology integration services and decrease functionality and services of lesser priority. 3. Determine your vendor shortlist with your customized Forrester Wave. The Forrester Wave tab will automatically update the Wave graphic and vendor ranking, placing the best fits for your needs in the Leader category. You may also decide to develop your RFP based on our evaluation criteria, as these are the areas where we identified vendor differentiation. 5 Figure 3 Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q4 05 Strong Current offering Risky Bets Contenders Strong Performers Leaders Digital Impact Harte-Hanks Postfuture Responsys DoubleClick Solutions CheetahMail Yesmail Premiere Global Services Epsilon Interactive RightNow Technologies Market presence Full vendor participation Go online to download the Forrester Wave tool for more detailed product evaluations, feature comparisons, and customizable rankings. Weak Weak Strategy Strong Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 2005, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 22, 2005

9 8 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q Figure 3 Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q4 05 (Cont.) Forrester s Weighting CheetahMail Digital Impact DoubleClick Solutions Epsilon Interactive Harte-Hanks Postfuture Premiere Global Services Responsys RightNow Technologies Yesmail CURRENT OFFERING Breadth of offering Functionality Technology platform Services 50% 0% 40% 35% 25% STRATEGY Strength of management team Executive vision Product road map Vertical strategy Cost 50% 25% 50% 15% 10% 0% MARKET PRESENCE Financial viability Internal resources Customers Partnerships 0% 45% 25% 20% 10% All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong). Source: Forrester Research, Inc. VENDOR PROFILES Here are high-level snapshots of what capabilities ranked each vendor in its current position in the Forrester Wave. Detailed scorecards are available in the spreadsheet behind Figure 3. Individual scorecard summaries for each vendor are also available as separate documents, which you can access through the footnote provided at the end of each bullet below. Leaders Responsys. Responsys has emerged as a Leader in the market after completely overhauling its platform and corporate strategy this past year. Its interface, dynamic content, reporting, December 22, , Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

10 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q and integration capabilities are particularly strong, making it an easy choice for enterprise or midmarket users running sophisticated programs. Responsys is better as an ASP than as a full-service solution, so marketers seeking an agency should look elsewhere. Responsys clients include E-Loan, PETCO Animal Supplies, and Intrawest. 6 Epsilon Interactive. Formerly Bigfoot Interactive, Epsilon Interactive has the most scalable platform and one of the most comprehensive feature sets in the industry, making it a solid choice for large companies seeking to execute high-volume, dynamic campaigns. The company s technology and professional services are equally strong. The downside is that client references indicate that its robust functionality can be overwhelming. Marketers selecting Epsilon Interactive should plan to spend some time mastering the platform or using professional services to fully leverage its capabilities. Expedia, Columbia House, and Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive are some Epsilon Interactive clients. 7 Digital Impact. Longtime marketing agency Digital Impact (DI) provides enterpriselevel marketing solutions primarily in a full-service capacity. Although it is capable of supporting most marketers needs through a combination of its capable platform and professional services, DI does not yet provide enterprise-level, multichannel capabilities beyond online services and data appends. DI s clients include Marriott International, Victoria s Secret, and Sprint Nextel. 8 Harte-Hanks Postfuture. Now the small arm of database marketing giant Harte-Hanks, Harte-Hanks Postfuture still provides one of the simplest dynamic content and transaction functionality available. But the vendor is still working through its strategic direction as a new part of Harte-Hanks. Sophisticated marketers will be happy with Harte-Hanks Postfuture as long as they understand that they may feel some bumps as Harte-Hanks irons out the kinks of the acquisition. Best Buy, Microsoft, and Pizza Hut are Harte-Hanks Postfuture clients. 9 Strong Performers DoubleClick Solutions. DoubleClick is still one of the largest vendors in the marketing space, despite a turbulent year structurally. The bubble survivor transitioned this summer into a private company through a sale to equity fund Hellman & Friedman and still provides a number of unique features to midmarket ers. However, DoubleClick is not the sure fit that it once was. Its multichannel capabilities are limited to integrating offline and Web site data into segments, it tends toward operational rather than strategic assistance, and the company s long-term direction is a work in progress. AOL, Pier 1 Imports, and Reed Business all use DoubleClick s DARTmail solution. 10 CheetahMail. CheetahMail has made little progress toward the multichannel marketing ideal that it promised when it was acquired by database marketing company Experian in March The vendor continues to dominate in retail and gets good marks for campaign management. 2005, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 22, 2005

11 10 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q However CheetahMail is less automated than its competitors. Advanced marketers will find that their data management and integration needs require big service engagements and that CheetahMail s multichannel execution is no easier because of its Experian partnership. J. Jill, Sears, and Wachovia represent a few of CheetahMail s clients. 11 RightNow Technologies. CRM vendor RightNow Technologies includes both a hosted and an installed marketing solution in the marketing module of its product suite, which also includes sales force automation and customer service applications. Although RightNow fails in several basic criteria, its multichannel capabilities are best-of-breed. The best fits for this vendor are midmarket or B2B marketers who already use the RightNow suite, sell through a consultative process, or are looking for a purely self-service solution. RightNow s marketing clients include LeapFrog, International Rectifier, and The Right Start. 12 Contenders Yesmail. veteran Yesmail has made no improvements to its platform for at least two years which means that clients who require any nonbasic functionality like multichannel segmentation, dynamic content campaigns, or even integration with Web analytics partners should expect to pay hefty professional services fees. This vendor is only an option for marketers who can pay the vendor to customize its legacy hosted solution. Nine West, Nintendo, and HP represent some of Yesmail s clients. 13 Premiere Global Services. Longtime blaster Premiere Global Services is a contender in the market because of its ability to execute coordinated fax, SMS, and campaigns. However, it trails competitors in some best practices, such as easy dynamic content creation and integration with Web analytics partners. Its clients continue to use it primarily as an execution tool. Based on its ability to manage multichannel scenarios and its suite of related business communications services, this tool is a good fit for autonomous business marketers who don t intend to send highly customized campaigns. Sky Rock Communications, J&L Industrial Supply, and Ariba are a few of Premiere Global Services clients. 14 R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S BUILD INTO AN INTEGRATED CUSTOMER CONVERSATION NOW Our detailed evaluations reveal a mature but still evolving market where the feature race has been replaced by the quest to integrate with other marketing programs. We offer two sets of advice. Marketers should: Make capital investments in . Consumers say they trust permissioned but have no tolerance for irrelevant messages they consider to be spam. 15 Becoming a permissioned er requires that marketers better align their messages with end users. December 22, , Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

12 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q To do so, they need to invest in the staff, platforms, and operational expertise necessary to analyze as part of their database marketing efforts and stop obsessing about finding the lowest cost for message delivery. Use to advocate for customers. Technology-facilitated, consumer-to-consumer conversations are more influential in purchase decisions than traditional marketing messages. 16 Many marketers are interested in new social computing technologies like blogs, RSS, and podcasting, but marketers shouldn t forget about s conversational nature makes it a perfect medium to engage customers in peer-to-peer exchanges. Consider extending your marketing efforts into a customer advocacy program where, after registration, customers can blog to each other, get RSS feeds, or each other through an user group. And vendors should: Integrate delivery into a database marketing platform. Since this still hasn t happened, we ll say it again: Multichannel marketing and the level of analytics needed to make it work can t come about until is part of a marketer s database marketing operations. Not only does this make analytics more affordable, but it also simplifies the number of companies a marketer partners with, streamlines the data sources needed to create a single view of the customer, and justifies scrapping out-of-date delivery platforms, like Yesmail, and rewriting them to support multichannel execution. Choose a side of the vendor spectrum. Marketers are polarizing into two camps: 1) integrated marketers who want to combine with their other marketing programs, and 2) marketers who disregard the consequences and batch-deliver generic s. In either case, there is no need for an intermediate platform. 18 The number of marketing vendors will shrink as vendors find the technology requirements to be an advanced player too expensive and the competition among basic delivery providers too cutthroat. Who will be left standing? At the advanced level, it will be Epsilon Interactive and Responsys after a purchase by Salesforce.com. At the basic level, it will be ExactTarget, Lyris Technologies, and Harte-Hanks Postfuture. 2005, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 22, 2005

13 12 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Online Resource The online version of Figure 3 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings. Forrester Wave Methodology We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated in this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we narrow our final list to those presented here. We choose these vendors based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have limited customer references and products that don t fit the scope of our evaluation. After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria, we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires, demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies. We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies and/or other scenarios as outlined in this document and then score the vendors based on a clearly defined scale. These default weightings are intended only as a starting point, and readers are encouraged to adapt the weighting to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool. The final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and vendor strategies evolve. ENDNOTES 1 In a survey conducted in conjunction with 111 members of the Association of National Advertisers at the end of 2004, Forrester found that 80% of respondents were using, piloting, or planning to use marketing. In Forrester s February 2005 online survey of national marketers, 88% of the 77 who replied to a question about the changing effectiveness of certain marketing channels expected effectiveness to increase or stay the same over the next three years. See the January 6, 2005, Trends The Top Marketing Technologies In 2005 and see the May 2, 2005, Trends US Online Marketing Forecast: 2005 To In 2003, we forecast that database marketing services vendors would acquire their counterparts. Since then, Acxiom, Experian, Harte-Hanks, and InfoUSA have done just that. Expect database suppliers without a strong story, such as Epsilon, Fair Isaac, and Merkle, to buy the remaining agency-oriented suppliers, should they decide not to build the expertise themselves. For these new entities, online marketing services expertise not just technology is the key to a successful offering. See the April 4, 2005, Trends We Called It: Vendors Get Swallowed Up. December 22, , Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

14 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q For the purposes of this research, Forrester defines enterprise clients as those companies with revenues greater than or equal to $1 billion annually. 4 These same three steps and other ways to narrow the field of vendors relevant for you are described in detail in the 2004 Forrester Wave of service providers. See the June 30, 2004, Tech Choices The Best Marketing Service Providers. 5 We published additional guidance on the Forrester Wave evaluation process and instructions on how to customize our vendor comparison tool. See the April 6, 2005, Trends The Forrester Wave View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how Responsys fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: Responsys. 7 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how Epsilon Interactive fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: Epsilon Interactive. 8 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how Digital Impact fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: Digital Impact, An Acxiom Company. 9 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how Harte-Hanks Postfuture fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: Harte-Hanks Postfuture. 10 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how DoubleClick fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: DoubleClick Solutions. 11 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how CheetahMail fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: CheetahMail, An Experian Company. 12 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how RightNow Technologies fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: RightNow Technologies. 13 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how Yesmail fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: Yesmail. 14 View the scorecard summary for more detailed analysis on how Premiere Global Services fared in this evaluation. See the December 22, 2005, Tech Choices Marketing Service Providers Scorecard Summary: Premiere Global Services. 15 According to Forrester s Consumer Technographics Q North American Media & Marketing Online Survey, 39% of North American online consumers purchase products through s somewhat or significantly less frequently than they did one year ago. 2005, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 22, 2005

15 14 Tech Choices The Forrester Wave : Marketing Service Providers, Q An online survey of 470 PlanetFeedback.com members reveled that 89% of respondents trust recommendations from consumers somewhat or completely, compared with slightly more than 40% of consumers saying the same about television. See the May 28, 2004, Trends The Consumer Advertising Backlash. Additionally, DoubleClick s 2005 Consumer Touchpoint III study found that company Web sites are consistently highly influential over consumer purchases, because consumers prefer to research purchases themselves online or through peers, rather than having proactive contact from the firm. Source: DoubleClick, DoubleClick s Touchpoints III: The Internet s Role in the Modern Purchase Process, July 2005 ( pdf). 17 The Forrester Consumer Forum 2005 speech Social Computing: Bubble or Big Deal detailed how new interactive technologies like blogs, podcasts, RSS, social networking sites, and word-of-mouth tools make it possible for marketers to tap into consumer communities if they are willing to cede control to consumers. 18 Marketers who want to integrate their activities, execute them efficiently, and measure results must do so on top of an infrastructure that is itself integrated. But because this is hard to support, scores of marketers will continue to execute basic generic campaigns, providing a market for simple delivery tools. See the September 30, 2004, Forrester Big Idea The Marketing Technology Backbone. December 22, , Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

16 H e l p i n g B u s i n e s s T h r i v e O n T e c h n o l o g y C h a n g e Headquarters Forrester Research, Inc. 400 Technology Square Cambridge, MA USA Tel: / Fax: / forrester@forrester.com Nasdaq symbol: FORR Research and Sales Offices Australia Israel Brazil Japan Canada Korea Denmark The Netherlands France Switzerland Germany United Kingdom Hong Kong United States India For a complete list of worldwide locations, visit For information on hard-copy or electronic reprints, please contact the Client Resource Center at / , / , or resourcecenter@forrester.com. We offer quantity discounts and special pricing for academic and nonprofit institutions. Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent technology and market research company that provides pragmatic and forwardthinking advice about technology s impact on business and consumers. For 22 years, Forrester has been a thought leader and trusted advisor, helping global clients lead in their markets through its research, consulting, events, and peer-topeer executive programs. For more information, visit