• by Kate Kaye , April 15, 2004

From investors to reporters to consultants, no matter what the business, research drives decisions. The same goes for the interactive industry, and that's why people like this week's In the Trenches subject, Yael Marmon, director of research at eMarketer, have more influence than they may realize.

Basic Training
Unlike most research firms, eMarketer aggregates data from a broad swath of sources, which means that Yael's graduate degree in Librarian Information Science is indispensable. This--along with a previous position as an academic librarian at New York Institute of Technology and her work at a dotcom involving business and competitive intelligence research--solidified the foundation she needed to deal with the complex task of running eMarketer's eStat Database, which gleans information from more than 1,600 sources.

Daily Drills
Heading up the company's eStat Database project entails "looking at the entire e-business landscape and coming up with the terminology to organize the data," Yael says. She collaborates daily with researchers, editorial staffers, and programmers to ensure that mounds of information are organized and distilled for client use in the most efficient manner possible. Information makes its way from researchers to analysts, and then to the editorial department, where the majority of it is packaged into charts for easy digestion.

From Yael's perspective, the process involves sifting through volumes of emails, meeting with analysts, researchers, and programmers, and addressing client requests via salespeople.

And then there are those ubiquitous stacks of journals, periodicals, and papers demanding her constant attention. By keeping up to speed on all facets of the industry, Yael determines which topics are most worthy of coverage. Lately, subjects like off-shoring, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are in the forefront. And of course, she adds, "search is huge."

While it's important to "keep clients up to date on what's new and what's going on in the overall market landscape," emphasizes Yael, "we can't lose our core competency, which is aggregating metrics from all possible sources."

Tough Battles
Orchestrating the influx of information and client requests is a challenge. "If it weren't for IM (instant messaging), it'd be really difficult," admits Yael, who relies on instant messaging to manage remote workers and even to communicate with co-workers just a desk or two away.

Satisfying clients isn't always easy, either, especially when the information they receive doesn't support their mission. Sometimes, says Yael, "when dealing with market research, the numbers don't always match the cause." That's when she "plays to the strategy of the company" by considering all available information on a particular subject. "How they use it is up to them," she concludes.

Base Camp
Although Yael is still adjusting to the fact that she can no longer walk to work from her home near Manhattan's Union Square, she appreciates the open atmosphere of eMarketer's new downtown digs on Broad Street. "It's a very friendly work environment. ... Everyone can see everyone else," she adds.

Mission Possible
Like less-than-perfect political polls, research study conclusions can have an official quality to them, even when they rely on anecdotal evidence rather than more scientific data. That's why Yael cautions survey readers to always consider the source. "It's not to say that the point isn't always valid, but if it's based on simplistic survey methodology, we like to cite that in the abstract and point it out to the client."

"Online marketing is constantly changing," she adds, emphasizing "don't get caught up in the survey of the moment."

Do you know someone who deserves a salute from MediaPost's In the Trenches? Let us know! Contact Kate Kaye at kate@mediapost.com.