Market Dell Needs example essay topic

Can't find it here? Try Collegiate Care dell ad campaign By: bill The biggest area of expansion for Dell is the consumer market. In order to develop more sales in this market Dell needs to focus more advertising on the needs and wants of the consumer. Currently Dell promotes its direct model, which is a key factor Dell needs to create a better position for itself in the consumer market. With all of the PCs in the market being more or less equal, Dell needs to focus on what differentiates its products from the competition, namely service and support. The advertising campaign need to focus on the emotions of the PC users as oppose to merely their logical side.

With a strong emotional ad campaign focusing on the anxieties and fears of the consumers when it comes to making the decision for a computer purchase Dell can reassure the consumers that we are there for them. The direct model and more importantly the virtual integration should be the focus of the campaign as oppose to a "teen-age" part-time employee at your local mall. Why would anyone want to go into a super store where the salesperson pitches everything under the sun to you before you finish telling them what it is you need. With the build-to-order direct way Dell operates "you tell us what you want, we don " tell you what you want".

The advertisement campaign will need to be coordinated in print, television, radio and obviously the Internet. Dell can also integrate the direct mail pieces and catalogs with the new pitch to further expand its reach and frequency. Dell can also continue to work towards the small and medium businesses through this strategy using a similar "mirror " campaign in the trade publications and in trade show displays. The idea will be to have the campaign as recognizable and incorporating the "Be Direct" slogan that made Dell what it is. According to the Boston Consulting Matrix a "Star " is in a high growth market such as the PC market and the company has a high market share as in Dell's case. With a "Star" the recommended strategy is to build.

In this case the all of Dell's products, desktops, notebooks, workstations, and servers fall into the "Star" scenario and as such Dell needs to utilize strategies that will build the market. By building the market a company can realize the maximum potential of the product line, if a "Star" is left alone its true potential may never be realized. With the PC market currently in the growth maturity stage and competition is at its highest Dell will need to implement strategies that will continue to maintain their market share and work to develop new markets. There are a few different strategies that can be used in this stage. The first is to enter new segments and to distribute through new channels. A second is to offer new products or services and to diversify the product mix.

A third option strategy is to offer more line extensions on current products, in the case of the PC possibly the AMD chip as opposed to the Intel chip. Fourth, Dell needs to utilize more specific advertising campaigns to promote their products and maintain their position. As the market stands now there are fewer and fewer non-users and with the current life of a PC the replacement time frame is becoming shorter and shorter. Overall, the strongest recommendation is for Dell to focus on winning the competitors' customers.

With Dell's proven satisfaction ratings as seen in the study mentioned above, Dell has the service and support as well as the commitment to fulfill the dissatisfaction of the competitions' customers. Dell should also consider entering new channels. Despite the failure in 1997, the retail market has seen significant changes and may now be ready for a direct solution. With Gateway opening the Gateway Country Stores and the new alliance with OfficeMax, Dell has a possible model to look at. The retail channel could be what Dell needs to improve their representation in the consumer market.

Dell does have a strong brand and with additional advertising can develop the consumer market further. Dell's direct pricing strategy allows them to maintain a competitive edge for the time being in a consumer market most interested in price. With the move of nearly all businesses to the Internet, Dell can take this opportunity to create more e-solutions for its business customers. Currently, Dell sells a variety of servers for all levels of business. An alternative to servers for many companies is a web host.

Dell can expand into web hosting, like HP and the other competitors and offer an alternative to investing in servers. Along with the web hosting service, Dell can further expand into new services by offering expanded IT and e-commerce consulting. The entrance into these new markets can help to proliferate Dell's existing product lines by being able to offer solutions for more businesses based upon their individual needs. As stated in the SWOT analysis, one of Dell's weaknesses is their dependence on a limited number of suppliers. With nearly all of Dell's competitors offering AMD systems, Dell needs to offer an AMD solution.

Dell can either create an extension of its existing product lines and use the same models with a choice of CPUs or it can create a new line of AMD products and expand the number of models in the channels. Recommendation 4- Advertising Campaign Given Dell's market share in the PC market the recommendation for a "Star" is to build with additional advertising. Dell currently uses a strong mix of media including: television, radio, magazines, trade publications, direct mail, and Internet for both the consumer and business markets. The recommendation is for a "pulsing" increase to the current advertising campaign. Included in the current advertising schedule Dell can cycle in the web hosting and AMD product launches. The recommendation for the advertising increase is primarily aimed at the consumer market.

Dell still has a strategic weakness in this channel and while the research for a solution is being done it will be beneficial for Dell to attempt to build its market share with additional advertising. Below is a graph depicting the proposed increase in advertising based upon cumulative gross rating points for all media. Given the current sales trends the primary lead and sales months are April, June through September and November into December. These are the periods in which the increase in the current reach and frequency will be most effective. Based upon the desired increases a new advertising budget will need to be determined to provide funding for the increase. As a part of the recommendation several possible advertisement " themes" have been developed for the consumer market based upon the varied demographic and psycho graphic profiles.

The primary media for the increase will be television, which is more expensive but has a greater reach and can best provide the desired GRP increase. Advertising Strategy Increase to Current Reach and Frequency As a part of the building strategy associated with a"Star", Dell will need to increase its current advertising. By implementing additional advertising to increase the reach and frequency of the current campaign Dell can hope to realize the potential of its product lines. A majority of the increase will be aimed at the consumer market and as such a slight alteration to the current ad campaign will need to be made. The goal of the campaign will be to increase awareness and to expand our brand recognition in the consumer market. The increases, as mentioned above, will be coordinated with forecast ed sales trends for the peak purchase times in order to best use the advertising resources.

As stated earlier, the demographic of PC consumers now cover a very wide portion of the total population and as such the campaign will remain broad with as much reach ass possible. Alternative Campaign Suggestions With a majority of the increases advertising being aimed to the consumer market several possible "themes " have been developed to coincide with the current advertisements. These suggestions are not meant to replace the current "Be Direct" campaign but rather to enhance the effectiveness of the campaigns message.? Family PC Theme In today's homes more and more PCs are being placed for educational and recreational uses on top of the obvious Internet use. Today's children are more versed in computers than there parents in most cases and in some cases parents will purchase PCs for there children and want little to with it afterward.

As this trend continues, Dell can capitalize on this trend and Dell's position in the business market to create a new "theme" to the advertisements. For example, in order to address the concerns of parents making computer purchases with less technical and computer knowledge the service and support Dell offers will be a major selling point on top of price. By using a simile between the purchase of a family PC and a business purchase in which the customer is shown going through the 800 number support and being reassured about their decision by the service representative can be used. The customer can be shown to be increasing in confidence through the commercial and at the climax the customer can say that they need "approval" before committing to the purchase, at which point they turn and a child comes into view with a"thumbs up". The use of levity and slight humor coupled with the representation of ease of use can also be shown in a few variations of ads. Similar "comparisons and relationships" of the family as a corporation and the children as the IT department can be used in print and radio ads as well.?

Stereotypical Superstore Employee Another possible "Be Direct" variation for consumer advertisements can play upon the obvious stereotypes of the " teenage" sales help at a superstore vs. the PC specialist and service Dell offers. The stereotypical "salesperson" theme will play to the fears and insecurities that consumers have about buying technology. By representing a"less-than knowledgeable" sales person selling to a potential customer either using overly technical terminology to confuse the customer or not knowing a thing about computers because this isn't there department. These two scenarios as oppose to the service and answers they could receive with Dell will not only increase awareness but may be able to cover the weakness in the retail channel while solutions are being discussed and investigated. Given the failure Dell had in the retail channel these experiences could be shown to bring more customers to the direct model which would be informative for the consumer. With Dell's "Be Direct" position already commonplace, Dell will be associated with the direct model to cut off the competitors trying to "be like Dell".

Advertising Schedule As stated in our recommendations we will be beginning an advertising campaign to increase Dell's share of mind and share of heart in the market. The campaign will be primarily focused on the consumer and small business segments. A pulsing strategy is recommended, built around our existing sales trends. The campaign will run for nine months from April to December, with three different but related messages. Below is our corresponding sales trend that will allow us to best choose the pulsing strategy. As you can see from the trend line between April and December our peak sales times are April, July and August, and December.

We will schedule our strongest reach and frequencies to correspond to these peaks. By increasing our total GRP during peak months Dell can best use its advertising resources. Word Count: 1926.