Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang is conducting an interesting survey in What do analysts do?. I encourage everybody to participate. Details:
“Well of course I have my answer, but I’ve come to realize there’s a lot of misconception out in the market as to what we really do.
Rather than me tell you, I’d want to first learn what you think, so perhaps we, as an industry can better explain our value -and place in the market.
So give it a shot, try to first explain what you think our day job is, then explain the business model. I want open and candid responses, but please try to backup your assertion, so we can better learn. This should be interesting, I’m listening.”
Building a Community 
I’m pleasantly surprised that many of the responses are very accurate, yet because the role does so many different things, very few understand it holistically.
HI Jeremiah, The responses are very interesting. Looking forward to reading them as they come in.