Who Buys These Things???

August 27, 2015 by Dave Haynes

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Google Alerts is a little tool I use to pay attention to the various news wires and sent me regular digests of stuff that moves on digital signage and other key phrases. Among the regular news items that come up are reports from research companies I’ve never heard of, that definitively say how the signage industry is going to grow in the next several years.

Like this:

PRESS RELEASE
Global Digital Signage Market Anticipated to Grow Exponentially From 2012 to 2020: Hexa Research

Published: Aug 27, 2015 9:15 a.m. ET

The report is yours for only $4,500.

So first, I’m really impressed how the analysts have anticipated how things will go for the last 3.5 years. Maybe there’s money in predicting  the 2014-5 NFL season?

More to the point, the seemingly many companies that push out these reports (and I’m starting to think it’s a few, using several impressive-looking names) appear to be research factories.

As I have noted in the past, do you really want to get your market intelligence on an industry focused on media software, computers and monitors from companies that push out endless reports on anything that moves, like the Organic Personal Care Market By Product?

I wouldn’t think so.

So what promoted this post? I looked at the office address, and wondered, “Where’s Felton, California?”

Hexa Research Inc. Felton Office Plaza 6265 Highway 9 Felton, California 95018

It’s outer, outer, outer Silicon Valley, up a country road a few miles from Santa Cruz, and Hexa Research is evidently in the above strip mall. This, by the way, is the GLOBAL HQ of the company.

This and another company with a very similar sounding report both have offices in Pune, India, which is likely where these things originate.

I’ll happily hear from someone who has bought one of these reports, and will also happily be corrected if these things are worth even $450, never mind $4,500. All I can wonder, until then, is “Who buys these things???”

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