VMware Uses Third-Party Data To Tell Their Customer Value Story
Gain customer trust and show the value of your solution with independent third-party assets that frame your solution in the context of your industry.
The Situation
VMWare was looking to elevate the awareness, positioning and compelling value of their solutions, with sales and marketing material that was grounded in data. The challenge was they lacked credible, third-party data that could serve as a story to customers about the undeniable value of their product. Also, without research focused on the business value of cloud economics, especially as it related to their product, they did not have a point of view on the market, and their position in it, from a customer perspective.
The company had two objectives: 1. Establish a library of independent third-party research, that conveyed customer success insights and evidenced how successful their new VM cloud product is. 2. Create assets from the research that could be used by Sales and Marketing to elevate the brand’s market position.
The Solution
- Business Value White Paper. IDC conducted an in-depth ROI and business value analysis of VMWare's offerings, based on in-depth interviews of their end-user base. We worked closely with VMWare to create valuable content showing the positive impact of running applications on VMware Cloud on AWS in VMware-based hybrid cloud environments.
- Business Value Snapshot. A data visualization of the efficiencies realized with VM Cloud on AWS, compared to competitors. It provides an easy-to-digest, Sales- and Marketing-friendly distribution asset, with proof points grounded in data.
"The IDC [Business Value] report is one of our most frequently relied-upon pieces of collateral. It provides clear substantiated numbers that shows the value of our product. The IDC team has been great about giving us a quick turn around on our reference requests. I plan to work on similar projects with IDC in the future."
Bill Roth - Director of Cloud Economics
VMWare
The Results
An effective lead generation tool that is the most highly distributed collateral for the entire product.
The ability for the Marketing team to generate targeted campaigns focused on the business outcomes of their personas.
Data-rich sales tools to help the team clearly demonstrate the ROI of VMWare’s product.