Dell Ad Campaign

Dell Ad Campaign

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’t 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 marke...

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...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.