The Success of Dell Computers
Dell computers are one of the leaders within the computer hardware industry. Started in the late 1980s, it was viewed as a small player within the market by powerhouses such as IBM until its proven sales strategy and production mechanism vaulted it to the top of the industry. A careful analysis of its marketing mix will show how it has effectively positioned itself in the market to succeed on a fundamental level. First, an analysis of Dell's overall company strategy and its marketing mix in terms of corporate strategy will take place. Then a further detailed analysis of one of its most successful Desktop PC models will be examined, the Dimension Desktop series. Finally we will examine another line of Dell PCs that have not faired very well in its particular sector, their XPS notebook series. Through a careful analysis of the marketing mix, we will be able to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of the Dell product line and corporate strategy. As an overall company, Dell's primary strength is reliant on its strong supply chain and pricing. Price therefore is the key to their marketing mix because it's both their strongest offering and their branding niche. Dell is known for "top of the line desktops at affordable pr
The result is that even though the XPS line offers the same level of streamlined service, delivery, maintenance and service as all of the Dell offerings, its core strengths go away from why consumers buy Dell computers. Which means that customers are traditionally dealing with vendors that are managed or have relationships with Dell, but not direct Dell employees. The physical environment of Dell is severely lacking, because it does not conduct direct sales, therefore this is a very unimportant part of its marketing mix. Whereas other companies tend to promote their products through particular direct sales efforts (stores, telemarketing, etc. While direct sales companies have the advantage in being able to physically hand over the product via its onsite stores, the 7 to 14 day time period is short enough that customers see this disadvantage as being negligible. However, it is because they provide "respectable" quality products at a very reasonable price that it can get away with not being the leader within the industry on product quality. Its overall promotional strategy is very much dependent on customer loyalty. Moreover, because laptops are much harder to make and adjust due to the need for weight concerns and overall engineering technicalities, they are virtually uncustomizable. For Dell, core technology is developed internally, but every other aspect of the company is offshore and outsourced. Dell understands that most users do not need extremely high quality computers to run their daily lives, and therefore only provide the essential upgrades that users can notice with their desktop. The majority of its sales come from the Internet. This means that promotion is much subtler for Dell than for other companies that depend on building a consumer base for each product independently. Dell instead, uses a strategy of internal promotion to gain a following for its products, which then in turn will keep their current users coming back for all of their hardware needs. The bottom line is that Dell maneuvered itself into creating great value at an affordable price.
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