Nothing is the way it used to be..

The world is currently undergoing an incredible transformation due to the speed at which information technology is evolving. Over the last decade, the IT industry has seen the largest amount of job growth, and moreover has created new specialized markets as well. On the other hand, the amount of data collected with the transformation is increasing day by day. As more data gets collected through various methods and tools, new requirements are emerging for the protection and storage of data.

This transformation impacts not only IT managers but also top management, marketing and sales teams, finance departments, and even the security departments. Traditional research methods simply aren’t enough to unveil real insights. Only marketing managers who can adapt to change and see things from a different angle stand out and provide outstanding service to the customers. Based on this perspective, Dell Technologies and Tech Data Turkey Marketing Teams developed the #brainIT project in order to better understand their customers.

Tech Data Turkey Marketing Manager Kaan Bayram stated that they had portrayed the business lives of IT managers, given that they take risks every day and do not compromise the business continuity: “Nothing is the way it used to be. We all need a fresh perspective and a new story, for only those who dream big and can follow innovation win. #brainIT was a vision that proves our commitment to a better understanding of our customers. The research team aimed to model paths out of the decision-making process of IT executives who work industries such as education, manufacturing, and others. These scenarios had involved real customers and did not rely on any positive or negative-leaning guidance. We invited IT managers from different industries and create a natural meeting room.”

The response of IT managers are measured using special techniques

Researchers then assessed how the managers’ brains reacted upon watching the presentation and looked at how their brains interact with what they saw and heard each and every second.

We conducted a completely different kind of study using neuromarketing, a scientific approach in marketing,” said Bayram. “I think that this will go down in history as a first in the IT industry. We conducted the study together with Işıl Aksoylar and Ayça Atabilgin from the marketing team at Dell Technologies Turkey. We measured the IT managers’ level of uncertainty, management difficulty, how they approached traditional architecture, their reactions when happy and towards the presentation about hyperconverged IT architecture and level of attention.”

Special environment is created for #brainIT

Researchers created a standard meeting room with four hidden cameras. They respected the confidentiality of the process and participants during the course of the project. At no point did they share any information with the participants that could potentially have a positive or negative impact the results. Consumers’ data was encrypted. Researchers also made a special effort to analyze the data anonymously in order to protect the participants’ privacy and personal information. In order to reveal customer insight and understand the customer experience, they created an environment where they could take measurements using various scientific methods. Conducing this study allowed them to observe which value propositions peaked the consumers' interest and which topics did not peak IT managers’ interest.

Prior to #brainIT, Bayram stated that they had met with their business partners and asked to select customers based on certain criteria. He added that, “we kept every detail secret until the project completed, including what solution of which brand will be explained. I would like to thank our IT integrator partners Bilişim Bilgisayar, Evant Teknoloji, Netcore Bilişim Çözümleri, Lotus Bilgisayar,Trevi Teknoloji, and Matris Bilişim and their valued customers who supported us in the project. Tech Data is an international IT distributor, operating in more than 100 countries worldwide. In Turkey, it operates in a joint venture with one of the country’s leading companies, SANKO Holding. Tech Data is a competent authorized distributor of Dell Technologies products and solutions both locally and internationally. This collaboration and vision has given us much in the way of inspiration”.

Brainwaves (where ordinary language fail) granted us the chance to better understand what impact(s) the solution had on our customers as well as took at what was important to them.

FEYZA BAŞARANADVISORY DATACENTER PARTNER SYSTEMS ENGINEER AT DELL TECHNOLOGIES

How VxRail has become new standard in #HyperConverged

Feyza Başaran (Advisory DataCenter Partner Systems Engineer at Dell Technologies) had delivered the presentations at #brainIT. She stated that, “During this project, I presented the hyperconverged VxRail, which is one of many innovative approachs in the growing world of information technology—albeit in a different fashion this time around. We collected our customers’ brainwave data during the presentation. During the course of the presentation, I highlighted the gains of the solution under eight main topics. Brainwaves (where ordinary language fail) granted us the chance to better understand what impact(s) the solution had on our customers as well as took at what was important to them.”

The Neuro-mar Danışmanlık founder (neuromarketing consultant and moderator of this project) Seda Genç commented that, “Many companies now use classic research methods such as polling and one-on-one interviews in order to unveil customer insight. However, this approach is often not enough to get to the heart of things. We are well aware that the written and verbal answers we get can be misleading given that they are made consciously. On the other hand, the answers that our brain provides us are true and anything but misleading—and that is exactly where the neuromarketing comes into play! Neuromarketing is a new generation method of understanding the real feelings and thoughts of customers, that is to say, revealing the real insights. In this project, we tried to understand what exactly is going on inside customers’ brains through neuromarketing”.

EEG and special eye monitoring devices are used

Genç added that, “Using EEG and eye tracking devices, we were able to observe what motivated customers, their emotional interests, what they focused on, and how they behaved under stress situations in response to the tasks that we had given to them. We used classic research methods including surveys and one-on-one interviews to moreover complement our research. In doing so, we were able to obtain much more reliable results. What’s more, the cognitive data that we acquired proved to be much more valuable than the data we obtained from popular artificial intelligence and analytic tools. This technology provides us with a rational viewpoint using the available behavioral data; however, it may not be enough when it comes to allowing us to understand their emotions. Therefore, in order unearth true insight, we are required ask ‘why’ and to dig deeper and understand what cognitive processes evoked which behavior. We witnessed different reactions to different stimulants by tracking our participants’ brainwaves. We uncovered what truly motivated and interested them. A marketer couldn’t ask for better!”

#brainIT Results Summary

Dell Technologies and Tech Data Turkey collaborated with the neuromarketing giant Neurons Inc. and conducted a groundbreaking neuromarketing study specific to VxRail in order to understand how their customers approach their products and services, thus revealing their true insights.

Participants were presented with four different scenarios (i.e. “uncertainty”, “stress”, “management difficulty”, and “happiness”) in order to see how they would manage the challenges of the IT world with simple tasks offered by daily life. During each scenario, the researchers looked at the emotional state of the participants by monitoring their brain waves.Afterwards, the subjects were then shown a classic IT architecture presentation as well a VxRail product presentation. This allowed the researchers to understand the subjects’ level of motivation and attention alongside their emotional interactions.The results they had obtained were valuable to say the least.

Research Findings:

The VxRail presentation remained within the sweet spot range and showed a 45% increase in cognitive load. This increase means that the presentation arouses participants’ attention and increases the possibility of their being able to remember VxRail. On the other hand, it is possible to say that the participants became bored with the conventional presentation over time.
Compared to the traditional IT architecture presentation, the VxRail product presentation had more of a positive impact on the participants’ attention, motivation and emotional interest levels. During the traditional presentation, the participant’s attention and motivation levels had decreased over time, whereas they increased whilst watching the VxRail presentation. This 37% difference means that VxRail positively engages with and motivates its participants.
One of the most interesting results of the study was that VxRail’s presentation had had an emotional impact of upwards of 117% compared to the traditional presentation. This impact was higher and more stable for the VxRail presentation, whereas it was lower in traditional IT architecture presentation. The last 5-minute of the presentation where Feyza Başaran had answered the participants’ questions especially had a very high emotional impact. This shows us that participants like the VxRail presentation, and that they are more likely to remember what it is they’ve experienced.
When it came to the gaming scenarios, ‘stress’ and ‘management difficulties’ were found to be the most challenging, at 78.39% and 82.59% respectively. This shows us just how much mental effort the participants poured into solving the game, as well as just how much stress the games had put them under.
As for the comparative results, VxRail created a strong emotional bond among the participants, where as they did not appear respond emotionally in any way to the traditional presentation. In fact, the results show us that it has the same emotional impact on the participants as a ‘good mood game’ simulation scenario.
In order to obtain better results, the neuromarketing research was also supported with classical methods such as surveys and one-to-one interviews. The ENPS (estimated net promoter score) results we obtained also appear to support our neuro-marketing findings. We achieved an ENPS score of 100% for intelligibility and appreciation. In other words, all of the participants liked the VxRail presentation and found it understandable. This shows us how the product attracts participants as well as how successful it is capable of being. The participants also noted that that VxRail might just be the answer they had been looking for to their problems and that they were willing to promote VxRail to their colleagues. Last but not least, we found that the presenter had successfully described the product and its features well enough that participants then became willing to recommend the products to others.

Survey Results:

#brainIT

PROJECT INFORMATION

Dell Technologies VxRail Content and Presentation:

FEYZA BAŞARAN

Advisory DataCenter Partner Systems Engineer at Dell Technologies

Project Idea and Management:

KAAN BAYRAM

Tech Data Bilgisayar Sistemleri, Pazarlama Müdürü

Project and Execution Process:

IŞIL AKSOYLAR

Dell Technologies Türkiye, Kanal Pazarlama Müdürü

AYÇA ATABİLGİN

Dell Technologies Türkiye, Pazarlama Uzmanı

BİLAL KÜRÜM

Tech Data Bilgisayar Sistemleri, Pazarlama Uzmanı

FEYZA BAŞARAN

Advisory DataCenter Partner Systems Engineer at Dell Technologies

HAKAN DUMAN

Tech Data Bilgisayar Sistemleri, Servisler ve Teknik Müdürü

TURGAY ULUDAĞ

Tech Data Bilgisayar Sistemleri, Dell Technologies Satış Müdürü

Director:

TARIK BECEREN

WordSmith, Reklam Direktörü

Project Sponsor Partners:

FERHAT YİĞİT

Bilişim Bilgisayar

AHMET UZEL

Evant Teknoloji

ŞADİ DİNÇEL, ELÇİN AKSU

Netcore Bilişim Çözümleri

LEVENT ÇALIŞKAN

Lotus Bilgi Teknolojileri

AHMET KARASU

Matris Bilişim

BATUHAN BİRTÜRK, SELÇUK GÜNEY

Trevi Teknoloji

IT Managers, Participating in the Project:

ALİ RIZA AYDEMİR, AHMET ÜZÜMCÜ, YAŞAR HAYIR, METİN MUTLU, SAİM UZUN, EROL KARACA, SİNAN ALKAN, GÖKHAN DAĞHAN

Independent Expert Observer:

YUSUF EMRE ÖZENSOY

VMware Kullanıcı Grup Başkanı

Consultant / Project Management Moderation:

SEDA GENÇ

Neuro-mar Danışmanlık, Kurucu & Nöropazarlama Danışmanı

Research Team:

MIKE STORM

COO Neurons Inc

MATHIAS DANNERFJORD

Neurons Inc, Araştırmacı

Event, Supply Chain, Operations Management:

HALUK ALEMDAR VE TURPLUS EKİBİ

Turplus Turizm Organizasyon

Production:

BEAU HIGGINS

WordSmith Advertising / AMIN Turkey

Tech Data and Dell Technologies conduct extraordinary marketing research

Tech Data and Dell Technologies Marketing Teams measured IT managers responses using advanced methods through #brainIT

Our goal is to better understand the IT manager as part of our target audience, and to shape our business processes accordingly. To be honest, we wound up obtaining very interesting results.