UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
MARKETING PLAN OF DELL INC.
Literature: Mr. YIN PHALLY
Course: Marketing Management
Student Name: Yen Sokrithy
Table of Contents
1 Executive Summary...........................................................................................................................................1
2 Situation Analysis ..............................................................................................................................................1
2.1 Macro-Environmental Analysis ................................................................................................................1
2.1.1 Demographic Environment.................................................................................................................1
2.1.2 Political-Legal Environment ...............................................................................................................2
2.1.3 Economic Environment .......................................................................................................................2
2.1.4 Social-Cultural Environment .............................................................................................................2
2.1.5 Technological Environment ................................................................................................................3
2.2 Competitive Analysis ..................................................................................................................................3
2.3 Customer Analysis ......................................................................................................................................4
2.4 Distribution Channels Analysis .................................................................................................................4
2.5 SWOT Analysis ...........................................................................................................................................5
2.5.1 Strengths ...............................................................................................................................................5
2.5.2 Weaknesses ...........................................................................................................................................5
2.5.3 Opportunities .......................................................................................................................................6
2.5.4 Threats ..................................................................................................................................................6
3 Objectives ...........................................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Financial Objective .....................................................................................................................................7
3.2 Marketing Objective...................................................................................................................................7
4 Marketing Strategies .........................................................................................................................................8
4.1 Segmentation ...............................................................................................................................................8
4.2 Positioning ...................................................................................................................................................8
5 Marketing Mix ...................................................................................................................................................9
5.1 Product Strategy .........................................................................................................................................9
5.1.1 Definition of Product ...........................................................................................................................9
5.1.2 Core Product ........................................................................................................................................9
5.1.3 Expected Product .................................................................................................................................9
5.1.4 Augmented Product .......................................................................................................................... 10
5.2 Price Strategy ........................................................................................................................................... 10
5.3 Place Strategy........................................................................................................................................... 10
5.4 Promotion Strategy.................................................................................................................................. 11
6 Budgets ............................................................................................................................................................ 11
7 Control ............................................................................................................................................................. 12
8 Reference...…………………………………………………………………………………………………...
1 Executive Summary
Dell is a multinational technology corporation that develops, manufactures, sells, and
supports personal computers and other computer-related products. Based in Round Rock,
Texas, Dell employs more than 82,700 people worldwide. Dell grew during the 1980s and
1990s to become the largest seller of PCs and servers. As of 2009 it held the second spot in
computer-sales within the industry behind HP.
Every product level must develop a marketing plan for achieving its goals as one of the most
important outputs of the marketing process. There is a marketing plan for Dell’s laptop has
been well prepared and the main objectives of the plan will be explained in details as
following:
1. Whether to determine brand awareness within the target market can meet financial
budgets.
2. Are current customers satisfied with their products or what are customer needs that
separate Dell from its competitors？
3. What features do macro and microenvironment include? So on, what are Dell’s
strengths against its weaknesses?
4. How to capture the entire segment of Dell by drawing an action strategy?
Dell’s consumers are no age limited both male and female. There is a huge market potential.
Customized design is the key to the company to attract customers. Dell laptop belongs to an
on-line product. But as the increasing market maturity, its products can be classified the
stage. The product meets consumers’ needs and demands to achieve high customer
satisfaction. Referred to price, administered prices are used for extending Dell’s Internet
sales products. Due to the high involvement with customers, advertising and direct response
promotion will always be the best ways for Dell to promote its products. By those
promotions, customers will be showed and explained the reason why Dell laptops will be
their best choice. Furthermore, to make it possible to allow each customer to purchase from
Dell factory directly, Dell cuts out the retail sellers as distributors. Therefore, the customers
now have the opportunity to customize their own laptops. As a consequence, there will be a
big improvement of delivery. Company operations are totally under control by Dell’s rules.
Such as: managers are required to reduce mistakes and to get more successful to approach
better sales analysis; managers are required to compete regularly their performance with
other competitors to make better performance analysis; And for marketing cost analysis,
they are required to control and distribute the costs by using the useful account. With
effective company operations, even if Dell’s competitors become stronger and larger, Dell
will not be beaten. Compared with Dell’s sales, the costs of the whole company are relatively
high. For further company operation development, Dell will find a proper way to redistribute
and reduce the costs to achieve the final goal, which is higher profit.
2 Situation Analysis
2.1 Macro-Environmental Analysis
2.1.1 Demographic Environment
Demographic elements are the most important elements of the macro-environment.
Population, growth rates, and age mix are all included in the demographic environment. It
is well known that the world population is continuously growing every single second.
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Nowadays, our planet is crowded with young people; the age of laptop users tends to get
younger and younger each day. The users’ age range will be extended. There will definitely
be a very potential and huge market for Dell. Also because laptops can provide customers
with greater flexibility, they can take the laptop with them wherever they go. The laptop is
now highly preferred by businessmen international business environment. But to occupy the
whole global market, it is not as easy as it seems to be. Globalization brings greater choice
availability, and the customers now can enjoy the advantages of using internet to get
information, the difficulties of Dell to enlarge their market share also rises. Rather than mass
marketing, Dell should focus on micro markets, such as businessman, educators, and
students. Different marketing strategies are needed for different target segmentation.
2.1.2 Political-Legal Environment
Business is never isolated from the political environment at all times. Dell, as a local
company in the USA, contributes a part of the USA economy. The future of Dell can be
partly related to US politics. As known that the political environment in the US has been
changing abruptly in the past years, Dell has been highly affected. Dell is not able to counter
them. The US government was trying to revive the PC-related business by changing the
legislation and laws. But unfortunately, the results were far from what was expected. Wall
Street posted fewer losses by cutting costs to predict that the expectations will be more dip.
The company has been able to beat it. As conservatism increases in consumer spending,
Dell’s sales have been affected. By speaking of environment policies, due to the old
products, Dell is also facing significant pressure from environmental groups across the US.
Dell must obey the e-waste regulations and take responsibility for the public environment in
terms of environmental policies.
2.1.3 Economic Environment
The international market can bring great opportunities for business, but also brings high
tariffs. Especially the tariff of IT products is higher. Then it will not be that easy for Dell to
enter the other markets apart from the USA. For the IT market, most of the population of the
world is young people, who are adaptive to change in technology. Dell needs to seize this
huge opportunity. Dell can manufacture its products with more user friendly and close to
fresh young people. Not only that, but also the purchasing power is no longer narrowed in
working population due to the world’s economy is recession and meltdown. Therefore, Dell
needs to adopt new strategies and new policies to adapt with the changing era. On the other
hand, inventory and credit management of receivables are also affected by the change of
world’s economy. Dell now is the change of its core policies. Such as: the inventory
conversion days need to be reduced to shorten the operation cycle and hence reduce the cost.
2.1.4 Social-Cultural Environment
More and more young population and working population are now the key role in the IT
product market. The need for computers is growing at a very rapid speed. Because of the
technological revolution, the world has changed from an industrial age to an information
age. The computer has become an irreplaceable personal kit. As the high speed developing
technology of internet and the purchasing habit changing, people prefer to shop online more
than go to the traditional retailers. Most young people will “google” the rate of producers or
customers’ comments online before they decide which one to buy. Due to “dell.com”, Dell
has an advantage over others. In addition, Dell supports projects and medical seminars and
so has long-term plans: they want to combine senses, people and computers. Dell takes the
fruit of these works. Of course, Dell makes all these works for the sake of humanity.
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2.1.5 Technological Environment
It is exciting that the development of technology is at a high speed, which gives Dell a huge
stage to display advanced technology products to its customers. Technology is the soul of an
industry. If there is a development in technology, Dell has also made their product lines
adjusted and adapted. To keep the old technology cannot bring Dell a constant continuing
developing production. The old technology will be abandoned very soon, especially in IT
technology. One of the most important effects of technological changes is Dell’s direct
business model, which has led to the increasing demand of Dell computers. Dell has perfect
e-commerce capabilities, which can be seen with the success of dell.com. (O. C. Ferrell &
Michael D. Hartline 2008)
2.2 Competitive Analysis
Dell’s major competitors in its PC market are HP, Sony, Apple and Toshiba. One quarter for
PC sales in U.S. is showed in Figure 1. The worldwide market decreased 6.5% year-overyear to 66 million units in 2009. Apple’s Mac business leveled out after strong growth last
year. U.S. Mac shipments were down 1% year-over-year, representing 7.4% of the market.
But that is a significant deceleration after the company grew U.S. shipments about 33% yearover-year during a quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, Dell, as its shipments fell 16% to 26.2% of
the U.S. market. And netbook specialist Sony grew its shipments by 49% to 13.6% of the
U.S. market, third to HP and Dell. HP recently posted better financial results than Dell, but
has announced around 26,000 redundancies as part of its attempts to cut costs and integrate
the ￡7.2bn acquisition of EDS. Dell, rival HP has also suffered in the global recession. (Tim
Berry & Doug Wilson 2000)
Figure 1
(Thousands of Units)
1Q 09 Market
1Q 08 market
1Q09-1Q08
Company
Shipments
Share (%)
Shipments
Share (%)
Growth (%)
HP
4,228
27.7
3,804
24.8
11.1
Dell
3,996
26.2
4,775
31.2
-16.3
Sony
2,076
13.6
1,389
9.1
49.4
Apple
1,135
7.4
1,148
7.5
-1.1
Toshiba
1,005
6.6
840
5.5
19.6
Other
2,837
18.6
3,371
22.0
-15.8
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Figure 2 shows the representation of HP, Dell and Apple on product and service.
Competitors
Customer
Product
Product
Technical
Sales
Awareness
Quality
Availability
Assistance
force
HP
E
G
E
G
G
Dell
E
F
G
G
G
Apple
E
G
F
G
F
Note: E=Excellent, G=Good, F=Fair, P=Poor
2.3 Customer Analysis
Deciding to buy a laptop is not an easy decision for the customers, because the consumer is
highly involved in a purchase but sees little difference in brands. This is a high involvement
decision as the laptops are expensive, bought infrequently, and risky. There are many
different brands in the laptop market, but few significant differences. So this is a dissonancereducing buying behavior of the customers. Therefore, the marketers have to ensure their
products have no defects, excellent service, cheap spare parts and high performance and
differentiate their competitors as well. Dell is aware of these and its philosophy is to
“improve and make better” rather than “inventing all the time”. Now 75% of Dell’ sales
revenue is from government organizations and large businesses but only 5% comes from
student market. According to a new survey, we will understand the reason why Dell lost the
student market.
91% of university students own laptops.
24% own a Toshiba, followed by 22% who own HP, and 17% Dell;
61% think the appearance of Dell’s laptops is poor;
55% think the size is big.
57% think modification in the laptop appearance would enhance their decision to buy a Dell
laptop.
From the survey, we know that design is greatly important to students.
2.4 Distribution Channels Analysis
Channels of distribution are critical to the success of a manufacturer. A well-designed
channel creates time, place and ownership utility for the consumer and can augment the
manufacturer’s product. Distribution channels may move a product directly from the
manufacturer to the consumer, or make use of intermediaries between the manufacturer and
the consumer.
Dell uses the direct model to distribute its products. There are not retails between Dell and
its customers. Dell’s customers can order products directly from the factory and receive their
computer often within days. (William M. Luther 2001)
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2.5 SWOT Analysis
2.5.1 Strengths
Dell is the World’s largest PC marker. Profits for the 3 months to July 2009 were in excess
of $1.4 billion US, representing a growth of around 28%. For the last couple of years it has
held its position as market leader. The Dell brand is one of the best known and renowned
computer brands in the world.
Dell cuts out the retailer and supplies directly to the customers. It uses information
technology, and Customer Relationship Management approaches to capture data on its loyal
consumers. Components are made by suppliers, never by Dell. PCs are assembled using
relatively cheap labor. You can even keep track of your delivery by contacting customer
services. The finished goods are then dropped off to the customer by courier. Dell has total
command of the supply chain.
Dell allows consumers to fully customize their laptops. As the market grows more educated,
the demand for specific needs is increasing from customers for their own target of laptops.
In case that each customer can buy directly from Dell factory with their own customized
laptop, Dell cut out the retailer as a distributor.
Taking advantages from Dell’s direct business model, the latest IT technology is able to be
displayed faster on Dell’s computers than the other competitors. For those who are running
indirect distribution channels, their inventory will not be able to be turned over frequently
to catch up the latest technology. In Dell, inventory is turns over for an average of every six
days, which also keeps a low cost of inventory.
Dell is not only good at developing their products, but they are also taking great cares about
customer services. In approximately 90% of the cases can be solved over the telephone by
support specialist, which is named as “hot-line that was manned 24 hours a day”. For such
a high success rate of problem solving, customers were truly satisfied.
Finally, one of Dell’s great strengths, which have to be mentioned, is defining the target
market. It is about 75% of all sales revenue is gained from organizations, governments and
large businesses. It is not difficult to see that Dell has the ability to build a good Public
Relationship with governments, large organizations and other businesses. As the benefit
from this one particular strength, Dell earned most of its business from the relationships.
2.5.2 Weaknesses
Because Dell has a large range of products and components from many different suppliers
from various countries, the occasional recall is inevitable, which made Dell embarrassed. In
2004 Dell recalled 4.4 million laptop adapters because they might overheat, leading to
electric shocks or fires.
Dell is a computer maker rather than a computer manufacturer. It buys products and
components from a number of concentrated hi-tech manufacturers, which is a big advantage
in terms of business operations, allowing Dell to pay more attention on marketing and
logistics. However, Dell relies on a few large suppliers, and to an extent is locked in for
periods of time.
As well known that Dell has the ability to sense its target market, but Dell cannot always be
successful. The wrong market targeting in the educational institution segment can be seen
as a fatal weakness of Dell. Figure evidence from Dell’s total sales revenue says that only
5% was earned from the educational institution segment. There can be a strategy for focusing
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on the target market, but there should not be such a strategy for neglecting a target market.
Therefore it seems that it is not ready for Dell to be in a position to take advantage of
educational institution segment yet.
Direct business model, which is considered as strength of Dell, brings lots of advantages for
Dell. But everything has two sides. From another point of view, the direct business model
could be seen as one of Dell’s weaknesses. For those who are not familiar with computers,
it is becoming difficult to purchase the product without seeing and touching it. But Dell does
not provide retail services, so the customer is not able to make a decision right away. This is
a limitation of time efficiency.
2.5.3 Opportunities
As the general trend of globalization, integration of information, business and technology,
personal computers as the essential tool are being purchased and used more than ever before.
Due to the particular portable and movable advantages of laptops, it is becoming more and
more popular in IT market. The demand for laptop grows much faster than that of desktop
computers. Laptops can be a new growing opportunity for Dell. The business can be targeted
in all segments.
Another great and potential opportunity for Dell is existing customers. Young people as one
of Dell’s customer groups is constantly growing, they are more educated about personal
computers and they know what they want after the first time purchasing. Dell should take
great care of those existing customers to keep their loyalty for a constant continues business
growing.
Dell makes and selling low-cost, low-price computers to PC retailers in the US. The PC is
unbranded and should not be recognized as being Dell when the consumer makes a purchase.
Rebranding and retagging those low-cost and low-price PCs from Dell for retailers, and this
business model brings Dell new market segments to attack with the associated marketing
costs. (Pinegar 2002)
2.5.4 Threats
Competitors will always be the biggest threats from outside. The situation for Dell is that
the competition of PC market exists in international market. All profitable brands, new
entrants to the market and retaliation from competitors can all be Dell’s threats.
Dell is making PC, but not manufacturing PC. The most of Dell’s suppliers are from Far
East. The labor costs are relatively low compared to Western labor. And this is not a big
business secret; Dell’s competitors are all doing the same strategy. Dell may share the PC
components or similar one from the same or similar suppliers. In addition, there is nothing
to stop competitors offering the suppliers a better deal to cut out others’ sourcing.
Another big threat to Dell from external is the price war. In the IT market, the price difference
among brands is getting smaller. Dell has a particular business model which makes it stand
out in the market. The business model is Dell’s Direct Model. It attracts customers with a
low price compared with other brands. But as other companies are working on their supply
chain to reduce costs, they can also offer customers a low price. With almost identical prices,
Dell’s price-conscious growing customer base will be under threat. Besides competitors,
fluctuation in the World currency is also an unpredictable threat in international marketing.
It could leave the company with the potential risks of losing parts of its supply chain.
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For further consideration, increasing demand for technology innovation could be a future
threat for Dell. Dell is occupying big market share now, which means Dell needs to work
doubly hard on innovation to differentiate itself from its competitors to be able to continue
holding a significant market share. (Gwendolyn Cuizon 2009)
3 Objectives
3.1 Financial Objective
Figure 3: INCOME STATEMENT OF Dell FROM 2007 TO 2009
2009
2008
2007
Total Revenue ($)
118,364,000
104,286,000
91,658,000
Change of Revenue (%)
+12.4
+13.8
Cost of Goods Sold ($)
89,592,000
78,598,000
69,178,000
Gross Profit ($)
28,772,000
25,688,000
22,480,000
Expenses ($)
17,970,000
16,680,000
15,671,000
Net Profit ($)
10,802,000
9,008,000
6,809,000
Change of Net Profit (%)
+19.9
+32.3
Figure 3 shows Dell’s income-statement for the last 3 years, its total revenue for the last 3
years has increased year by year. In 2010, under the pressure of economic crisis, we are
looking forward to the total profit of Dell will not fall. Total revenue may decline in the case
of maintaining the profit growth. One way is to reduce the expenses as shown in figure 3.
Therefore, Dell’ financial objective for next 6 month is minimizing its decrease of sales and
remaining their net profit by effectively operating their expense cost.
3.2 Marketing Objective
1. To attain quantitative and qualitative leadership.
2. Maintain constant positive sales growth every year than the other competitor.
3. Increase the market share through market development.
4. To modify the existing market areas.
5. To increase product awareness as well as sales through persuasive promotional activities.
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4 Marketing Strategies
Marketing strategy is built on segmentation, targeting and positioning. Nowadays, massmarketing is not useful as it was in the past. Segmentation gains importance increasingly in
marketers’ plans. Consumers differ greatly in values they bear on and their needs vary their
status, lifestyle, geography, occasion etc. Market segments can be built up in many ways
from income customers dispose to personality they carry.
One part of the target market of Dell for laptops is business segmentation including large
corporate, government, medium and small businesses. Another part is individual
segmentation including educational customers and home.
4.1 Segmentation
Business segmentation, similar needs can be categorized into wireless networking, security,
performance, battery life and weight. For organizations in which computers mainly on
tables, performance and price lead firstly. The Vostro series of Dell designed on these lights
of the purposes with affordable price while performing well. While Vostro series places in
desktop replacement category serving especially government offices, Latitude series appear
in ultraportable category in which prides are the most expensive and lightest permitting long
business travels with 6 hours of battery life. The one that must being explained also is the
security need.
Individual segmentation, mainstream category including series of Studio and Inspiron are
generally all in on products which are mobile and light but not as commercial as Latitude
series. Particularly, when we look at segment universities Studio series are more suitable for
them, because today many universities provide internet services on wireless networking.
And what a chance Studio series are the cheapest product providing excellent wireless
connection. University gamers also can enjoy wireless networking with multiplayer
tournaments. Students can easily transfer their data among laptops and with powerful display
properties they can walk on the board to present their assignments. When we think today’s
university freshmen as tomorrow’s professional managers, this segment can also gain a good
loyalty to Dell aiming in the future with the experience of good service and satisfaction.
4.2 Positioning
Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive
place in the mind of the target market. The overall goal is to extend the product’s life and
profitability. As one of the target markets is young people, Dell and its major competitors:
HP, Toshiba, Sony, IBM and Apple’ brand, quality and design have been questioned on the
survey that have been made among 24 young people beginning ages from twenty to twentysix.
The people had been asked to evaluate laptop brands in terms of brand strength, quality and
design of the laptops. In brand strength category, among the 6 laptop brands, Sony has taken
the number on place while Toshiba has been second, Apple third and HP and Dell have taken
the fourth place. The industry analysis of serious research organizations showed that truly
Dell’s biggest competitor was HP. That’s why more trust in the survey has risen.
Toshiba has a significant brand image in computer users. Not only because of its advertisings
also since it was a Japanese brand. Consumers mind especially in electronics industry people
have a strong relation with Japanese products and quality so on brand.
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If we look at the results of the Apple, it is not difficult to realize that Apple’s design rating
exceeds its brand, explaining Apple’s positioning strategy emphasizes that its laptop suits
for arts and architecture projects.
Participants of the survey have complained that design of the IBM laptop could be more
attractive using metallic colors as other brands did.
While in brand strength Dell and Hp are same, HP had better design image than Dell in users
mind. Whether your product is more different than your competitors’ if you cannot occupy
enough places according to your product in their minds you are under positioning yourself,
like Dell does.
Sony, entering laptop market afterwards, has won significantly good market share against
its competitors with the help of its strong brand image in the consumers mind. Sony sells
products mostly to consumer segments that have relatively big wallets and demand all in
one, entertainment devices. (Rui Xu 2009)
5 Marketing Mix
Dell is one of the leading consumer durables brands. The marketing mix of Dell talks about
the way in which Dell has improved to gain a competitive position.
5.1 Product Strategy
5.1.1 Definition of Product
Products are defined as something to satisfy consumers’ needs or wants by offers of
companies. A product is composed of 3 levels: core product, expected product and
augmented product. Product attributes are characteristics of products or services. It could be
divided into two types: tangible, such as physical products and intangible, such as services.
Product quality shows the ability or function to respond to consumers’ needs or wants.
(Elliott 2010)
5.1.2 Core Product
The core product comprises the fundamental benefit that consumers purchase products
offered by companies. The laptop itself will provide the customer with a platform to access
to Internet. This is the most important reason why customers need a computer. The Internet
is becoming a significant role in our life. So the top target of a personal computer is to
provide Internet for customers anywhere. Therefore, the core product of Dell must be
portability and flexibility.
5.1.3 Expected Product
The expected product describes those attributes that actually deliver the benefit that forms
the core product, such as characteristics of a product, branding, packaging and quality
standards. Firstly, the main characteristic of Dell is that Dell designs, develops,
manufactures, markets, sells, and supports a wide range of products that in many cases are
customized to individual customer requirements. Secondly, consumer’s needs and wants can
be well explained by product quality. Thirdly, packaging is as important as the product itself.
Packaging is not only responsible for protection, but also assists for product promotion and
enhancement. The customer service Centre is a smart idea for serving better packaging,
which has already considered by Dell. “Environmental packaging” has also been considered
to attract customers. Finally, brand name speaks for the company. Dell, as a famous IT brand
is well-known by customers.
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5.1.4 Augmented Product
The augmented product has additional benefits, which may not require as part of the basic
fulfillment of consumers’ needs. Augmented product in Dell includes delivery, warranty and
after-sales service.
In terms of commercial and customers, besides product, a warranty provides customer extra
guarantee or assurance. There are several basic-warranty provided by Dell. For instance, online support, free-software download, drivers download, email assistance, troubleshooting
and one-year coverage for parts. Except for the basic warranty, Dell also offers an additional
warranty with extra charges. The other warranty can even better protect customers’
computers from accidental damage. These augmented products of Dell could be beyond
consumers’ expectation, compared with other companies and will enhance their brand
image.
5.2 Price Strategy
Pricing strategies usually change as the product passes through its life cycle, because there
are constraints on the company’s freedom to price a product at different stage. The main
objective of Dell is to produce a low price and profitable PC for the customers. Dell is
undercutting competitors in price to rapidly gain market share.
The IT market is a big market. There are a number of competitors are doing the different
price strategies. Apple and HP will be on the top if the list of Dell’s the main competitors.
Apple’s price strategy can be called “demand based pricing”, which is a very competitive
strategy. But Apple and Dell are sharing different target markets. Apple is focusing on the
designed customers. Due to the special customer group they have, Apple production is
committing to appearances and the operation system. On the other hand, HP applies
localization strategy on price. They have regional or zone pricing. The acceptable price for
different places is different. In contrast, Dell uses the same price everywhere. Dell’s good
brand image prestige contributes to this price strategy. Under the maturity stage of product
life cycles, “the same price everywhere” will become a standard price logo for Dell,
customers feel easier and more valuable to buy the Dell’s product. Same price strategy also
gives a more reliable PC brand image to customers.
5.3 Place Strategy
Place is also known as channel, distribution, or intermediary. It is the mechanism through
which goods are moved from the manufacturer to the consumer.
Dell uses a direct distribution channel, which is easier for customers buy products from Dell
directly, and even with more choices. At the meantime, it is very clear that Dell can get more
profits from a direct distribution channel model. Because of the special technical service
from direct distribution channel, customers can receive services for what they need and the
marketing functions are more efficient for producers. Direct distribution channel can also
lead to a result of a cheaper product overall, which can be considered as part of the strategy.
Dell has been able to affect the location strategy aspect of its marketing campaign. As Dell’s
products are always available at the nearest dealer’s customers develop trust for the “local
Dell” thereby achieving the objective of gaining their trust in Dell products and services,
and forming a large and diversified consumer base.
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5.4 Promotion Strategy
Another one of the 4 P’s is promotion. This includes all the tools available to the marketer
for ‘marketing communication’.
Dell in the past have not concentrated on extensive marketing campaigns but these
revolutionaries in 1999 when Dell changed its tactics by engaging in extensive marketing
campaigns. Dell markets its products primarily by advertising on television and the Internet,
advertising in a variety of print media, and mailing or emailing a broad range of direct
marketing publications, such as promotional materials, catalogs, and customer newsletters.
What will be the process for a customer to purchase a laptop? The first thing the customers
usually do is not to compare the specifications for different types of laptops, but instead,
they look at the price and the brand. The reason why is because the price of laptop is usually
high and the period of using a laptop is usually very long. So in order to meet customers’
needs and wants, high level of involvement has been considered in Dell’s promotion
strategy. To make products closer to consumers is the best marketing promotion. Therefore,
Dell has recently started promoting its products through retailers like Best Buy, Staples, WalMart, GOME, and Carrefour. (Norton Paley 2000)
6 Budgets
Figure 5: The table below outlines the expense budget for the next year.
(Thousands of Units)
Marketing Expense Budget
2011 ($)
News paper
9,000
Handbills/Leaflets
1,000
Magazines
1,000
Internet
3,000
Billboard
3,625
Total marketing expenses
17,625
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7 Control
In order to ensure the accomplishment of the plan, the company will assign a certain person
who will be responsible for the tactics as well as final review date.
(Figure 6)
Tactic
Responsibility
Review date
Modify the laptop
Design Manager
Mar 2011
Designers keep track of modification and output
perfection
Design Manager
May 2011
Promotion through advertising and promotional
strategy
Marketing
Manager
Aug 2011
Selling the first batch on line
Sales Manager
Oct 2011
Request next order
Marketing
Manager
Nov 2011
Monitoring, research, development and shipping
new order
Marketing
Manager
Jan 2012
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