Marketing plan and strategies for Dell

Content

Executive Summary 1

1 Situation Analysis 2

1.1 Macro-Environmental Analysis 2

1.1.1 Demographic Environment 2

1.1.2 Political-Legal Environment 3

1.1.3 Economic Environment 3

1.1.4 Social-Cultural Environment 4

1.1.5 Technological Environment 4

1.2 Competitive Analysis 4

1.3 Customer Analysis 5

1.4 Distribution Channels Analysis 6

1.5 SWOT Analysis 6

1.5.1 Strengths 6

1.5.2 Weaknesses 8

1.5.3 Opportunities 8

1.5.4 Threats 9

2 Objectives 10

2.1 Financial Objective 10

2.2 Marketing Objective 10

3 Marketing Strategies 11
3.1 Segmentation 11

3.2 Positioning 12

4 Marketing Mix 13

4.1 Product Strategy 13

4.1.1 Definition of Product 13

4.1.2 Core Product 13

4.1.3 Expected Product 14

4.1.4 Augmented Product 14

4.2 Price Strategy 14

4.3 Place Strategy 15

4.4 Promotion Strategy 16

5 Action Plan 16

6 Budgets 17

7 Control 17

8 Conclusion 17

Reference 18

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 micro environment 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?
5.

Dell’s consumers are no age limited both of the male and female. There is a huge
market potential. Customized design is the key of the company to attract customers.
Dell laptop belongs to on-line product. But as the increasing market maturity, its
products can be classified the stage. The product meets consumers’ needs and
demands to reach a high customer satisfaction. Referred to price, administered prices
are used for extending Dell’s Internet sales products. Due to the high involvement
with customers, advertisings 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, in
order 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 consequence, there will be a
big improvement of delivery. Company operations are totally under controlled 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 the 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.

1 Situation Analysis

1.1 Macro-Environmental Analysis

1.1.1 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 continuous growing every
single second. Nowadays, our planet crowded by young people; the age of laptop
users’ tends younger and younger each day. The users’ age range will be extended. It
is clear that there will definitely be a very potential and huge market for Dell. Also
because laptops can provide customer a greater flexibility, so 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 strategy is needed for different target segmentation.

1.1.2 Political-Legal Environment

Business is never isolated from political environment all times. Dell, as a local
company in USA, it contributes a parts of USA economy. The future of Dell can be
part related to the 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 in the legislation and laws. But unfortunately, the results were far away
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 the
conservatism increasing in the consumer spending, Dell’s sale has been affected. By
speaking of environment policies, due to the old products, Dell is also facing the
significant pressure from environmental groups across the US. Dell has to obey the e-
waste regulations and take responsibility for public environment in terms of
environmental policies.

1.1.3 Economic Environment

International market can bring great opportunity of business, but also brings the high
tariff. Especially the tariff of IT products is higher. Then it will not be that easy for
Dell to enter the other markets apart from USA. For IT market, the 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 more 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 operation cycle and hence reduce the cost.

1.1.4 Social-Cultural Environment

More and more young population and working population are now the key role in the
IT product market. The need of computers is growing in a very rapid speed. By the
technological revolution, the world has changed from industrial age to information
age. Computer has become an irreplaceable and 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 of young people will
“google” the rate of producers or customers’ comments on line before they decide
which one to buy. Due to “dell.com”, Dell takes 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 the computers. Dell takes the fruit of these works. Of
course, Dell makes all of these works for the sake of the humanity.

1.1.5 Technological Environment

It is exciting that the development of technological 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
can not bring Dell a constant continuing developing production. The old technology
will be abandoned very soon, especially in IT technology. One of the most important
affects 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 the dell.com. (O. C. Ferrell & Michael D.
Hartline 2008)

1.2 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-over-year 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% year-over-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)

Company 1Q 09 Market 1Q 08 market 1Q0

Shipments Share (%) Shipments Share (%) Gro

HP 4,228 27.7 3,804 24.8 11.1

Dell 3,996 26.2 4,775 31.2 -16.

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.

(Thousands of Units)

Figure 1

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

Figure 2

1.3 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 dissonance-reducing buying behavior of the customers.
Therefore, the marketers have to ensure their products 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
buying a Dell laptop.

From the survey, we know that design is greatly important to students.

1.4 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 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)

1.5 SWOT Analysis

1.5.1 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 with the
customer by courier. Dell has total command of the supply chain.

Dell allows consumers to fully customize their laptops. As the market growing more
educated, the demand of specific needs is increasing from customers for their own
target of laptops. In case that each customer can purchase 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 an 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 the developing of 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 its
business from the relationships.

1.5.2 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 had recalled 4.4 million laptop adapters because they might
overheat, leading to electric shocks or fires.

Dell is a computer maker rather than a compute 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 be
always successful. The wrong market targeting in 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 educational institution segment. There can be a
strategy for focusing 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 being in a
position to take advantage of educational institution segment yet.

Direct business model, which considered as strength of Dell, brings lots of advantages
for Dell. But everything has two sides. From another point of view, 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.

1.5.3 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
laptop, it is becoming more and more popular in IT market. The demand of 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 the 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 about those existing customers to keep their
loyalty for a constant continues business growing.

Dell is making 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 bring Dell new market segments to attack
with the associated marketing costs. (Pinegar 2002)

1.5.4 Threats

Competitors will always be the biggest threats from outside. The situation for Dell is
that the competition of PC market is existed 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 than Western labors. 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 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 cost, they can also offer
customers a low price. With almost identical prices, Dell’s price-conscious growing
customer base will be under threats. Besides competitors, fluctuation in the World
currency is also an unpredictable threat in international marketing. It could leave the
company to the potential risks of loosing in parts of its supply chain.

For a further consideration, increasing demand of 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)

2 Objectives

2.1 Financial Objective

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

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.

2.2 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 by market development.

4. To modify the existing market areas.

5. To increase product awareness as well as sales by persuasive promotional activities.

3 Marketing Strategies
Marketing strategy is built on segmentation, targeting and positioning. Nowadays,
mass-marketing is not useful as it did past. Segmentation gains importance more and
more 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 laptop is business segmentation including
large corporate, government, medium and small businesses. Another part is individual
segmentation including educational customers and home.

3.1 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. 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 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.

3.2 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 twenty-six.
The persons 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 towards the survey has rise.

Toshiba has 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.

If we look at 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
can not 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 segment that relatively have big wallets and
demand all in one, entertainment devices. (Rui Xu 2009)

4 Marketing Mix

Dell is one of the leading consumer durables brand. The marketing mix of Dell talks
about the way in which Dell has improved to gain a competitive position.

4.1 Product Strategy

4.1.1 Definition of Product

Products are defined as something to satisfy consumers’ needs or wants by offers of

companies. A product is composed by 3 levels: core product, expected product and
augmented product. Product attributes is 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 response consumers’
needs or wants. (Elliott 2010)

4.1.2 Core Product

The core product comprises the fundamental benefit that consumers purchase products
offered by companies. The laptop itself will provide customer a platform to access to
Internet. This is the most important reason why customer needs a computer. 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.

4.1.3 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. 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.

4.1.4 Augmented Product

The augmented product is additional benefits, which may no 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 from Dell.
For instance, on-line support, free-software download, drivers download, email
assistance, troubleshooting and one-year coverage for parts. Except for the basic
warranty, Dell also offers additional warranty with extra charges. The additional
warranty can even better protect customers’ computers from accidental damages.
These augmented products of Dell could be beyond consumers’ expectation,
compared with other companies and will enhance their brand image.
4.2 Price Strategy

Pricing strategies usually change as the product passes through its life cycle, because
there is constrains on the company’s freedom to price a product at different stage. The
main objective of Dell is to produce the low price and profitable PC for the customers.
Dell is undercutting competitors in price to rapidly gain market share.

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 the different target market.
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 place is different. In contrast, Dell uses the
same price everywhere. Dell’s good brand image prestige contributes 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.

4.3 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 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 the 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.

4.4 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, Wal-
Mart, GOME, and Carrefour. (Norton Paley 2000)

5 Action Plan

Figure 4: Action plan list for the 12 months

Tactic 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Modify the laptop

Designers keep track of modification

and output perfection

Promotion through advertising and

promotional strategy

Selling the first batch on line

Request next order

Monitoring, research, development and

shipping new order

6 Budgets
The table below outlines the expense budget for the next year.

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

(Thousands of Units)

Figure 5

7 Control

In order to ensure the accomplishment of the plan, the company will assign certain
person who will be responsible for the tactics as well as final review date.

Tactic Responsibility R

Modify the laptop Design Manager M

Designers keep track of modification and output perfection Design Manager M

Promotion through advertising and promotional strategy Marketing Manager A

Selling the first batch on line Sales Manager O

Request next order Marketing Manager N

Monitoring, research, development and shipping new order Marketing Manager Ja

Figure 6

8 Conclusion

Dell laptop is successful in global market as a result of best understanding of

customers’ needs and their direct sell business model. Dell well designs and
customizes products and services to the requirements of the organizations and
individuals. However, after situation analysis, there are two aspects that Dell should
improve. First, Dell should pay more attention on student market and increase
revenues related to students market. Second, Dell should modify the appearance of its
laptop. There is a trend Dell need to be aware: As customers require lighter and
thinner laptop, which is simplified version of laptop, will be another profit point.

Reference

Elliott (2010), Marketing, 1, John Wiley, China, pp.204.

Gwendolyn Cuizon (2009), SWOT Analysis of Dell Computers, http://strategic-

business-planning.suite101.com/article.cfm/swot_analysis_of_dell_computers,
20/7/10

Norton Paley (2000), How to develop a strategic marketing plan: a step by step guide,
CRC Press, pp.273-307.

O. C. Ferrell & Michael D. Hartline (2008), Marketing Strategy, 4, Cengage Learning,

pp.102-107.

Pinegar (2002), Dell Computer Corporation: Market Trends and SWOT Analysis,
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