While there are commonalities in how for example a CIO performs their role, or the outcomes a manufacturing organisation wishes to achieve, these indicators rarely talk to firmographics. That is behaviours, desires, wants or needs that cut across job function or industry. For example, not all Government departments are technology laggards; some are considerably advanced in their digitalisation. Segmenting the market and understanding customer profiles is essential in being able to speak the right language to the right organisation at the right time. Rackspace needed a different approach.

Customers behaviours, wants and needs

A market segmentation delivers on the brief of understanding customer behaviours, wants and needs. In order to identify and quantify the segments in the market, a Max Diff model was used to determine the relative importance of 15 different attributes for deciding on an IT infrastructure/cloud provider. The Max Diff model goes beyond hierarchical ordering of importance; it also quantifies the relative importance placed on different aspects, i.e. Attribute A is more important than Attribute B and how much more important it.

Once the relative importance of the factors is modelled, the data from this question is combined with firmographic variables, including IT spend, company age, industry, etc. and grouped into clusters/segments based on how similarly respondents answer across these questions.

Prior to any research taking place, detailed qualitative interviews took place across a range of stakeholders. From Rackspaces team members, through to media and analysts, current Rackspace customers, as well as ‘nearly’ customers who decided not to pursue a commercial relationship with the business. Gaining a broad cross section of opinions enabled us to truly understand how the market currently perceived Rackspace as well as what they wanted to see from the organisation.