Current Marketing Situation:
The base for strategic marketing is basically segmentation, positioning and targeting. The companies these days know that they cannot allure all the customers but they have to recognize the customers they will be able to serve profitably and fulfill their expectations. According to Kotler, "A company must identify the parts of the market that it can serve best and most profitably". The current scenario for Dell is that Dell rose to top the charts in 2013 on the shipment of 5 Million in units with the market share of 14.9%. The regions like United States and Asia Pacific delivered the highest profits for the company with 18.3% and 14.4% quarter over quarter growth. These regions excluded to that of Japan (APEJ). Then Dell was listed on number 51 in the Fortune 500 list in the same year. Over the past couple of years Dell has defeated IBM and HP and gained 20% Demand Strength. Whereas, IBM could gain only 9% and HP lost the Demand Strength by 16%. This completely means that Dell governs the market of computers in US and is trying to come up in the league in the other product categories as well.
Dell’s main marketing strategy is customer segmentation that also includes product segmentation in which Dell targets individual market segments and design products according to individual needs of the customers. Looking at this geographically, Dell has set its grounds in US, EMEA and APJ where there are different marketing and pricing strategies. From the demographic view point there is no gender, race, age bias that particularly Dell has, but depends upon on the education, occupation and income of the people buying various products decides further the selling and purchasing behavior. From the behavioral vi...
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...ng demand for smart phones
Profit margin decline on hardware products
Greater financial strength of competitors
Intense competition in both in tablet and computer industries
Increased International competition
Losing focus over other market segments
Current Marketing Objectives:
These days the world has shifted from production focus to entertainment center. Dell is supposed to launch Latitude 10 and dual Dell XPS 10 tablets for entertainment oriented consumers that would provide awareness about the benefits of both the organizational buyers and the consumers. This is expected to lead to increased sales in the present market and would also establish new market for entertainment oriented technology.
The objectives from this marketing plan may increase the tablet market share by 4% and is also expected to increase the percentage of tablets sold to 100%.
1. How and why did the personal computer industry come to have such low average profitability?
Tablets are effective tools used to improve user’s productivity and online experience, whether they are used for business or life in general. Tablets are smaller than a laptop and larger than a Smartphone, so they are perfect to take on the go. Users can browse the internet, create presentations, stay connected with their boss, download games, watch movies, share photos and much more with their tablets. Just recently tablets have become very popular. Therefore, there are over 47.5 million tablets sold in the United States today. Two of the most popular tablets on the market are the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle Fire. Evaluating their battery life and capacity, screen size, and price, a user will soon figure out which table is best for them. Though each of them had good qualities, I preferred the iPad more than the Kindle.
Why has Dell been so successful despite the low average profitability in the PC industry?
Hewlett-Packard has traditionally focused on manufacturing personal computers but recently jumped into the tablet market by producing a WebOS-enabled TouchPad with several features such as 9.7 inch in size, Wi-Fi connectivity, LED backlit display, and an option of 16GB or 32GB of storage space. The introduction of this device into the consumer-oriented tablet market provided an alternative to the Apple IPad. The main marketing aspect of the WebOS device is the ability to multi-task i.e. open several applications at the same time and then flick back and forth. For business users, this device provides support for data security features, over-the-air management, and Exchange ActiveSync and VPNs. Generally, HP’s first tablet into this consumer-oriented market is not a bad device though cracks begin to emerge when the equipment is compared with others in the market. One of the major strategies the company adopted to sell the product was giving its tablet away almost free through an undercut price in attempts to shake up the market. However, these strategies were not effective since HP was forced to discontinue the product because of sluggish sales.
Dell Inc. weakness was cell manufacturing because their assembled computers were being shipped five to six days after the order was placed. It is an inconvenience for the customers to always send their computer away to have it repaired. First, they are left without internet access. Second, the time it reaches Austin, Texas, have it repaired, and shipped back can take days. The company opportunities were the Dell U.K. that open business in 1987 and in that country it was a lot of companies selling cheap computers. Dell Inc. strides on loyalty among customers and employees, and that could only be derived from having the highest level of service and performing products. Segmentation within the company enables them to measure the efficiency of the business in terms of assets use. Dell Inc. evaluates their return on invested capital in each segment, compare it with other segments, and target what the performance of each should be.
Speaking about the business model of Dell, it has ability to remain on the higher end of the scale for a particular time period. Dell has business model, which primarily focuses on direct selling line of attack. It in a straight line supplies the PCs to the regulars. It does not believe in intermediary, retailers for the business practices. Undeniably, this gives them an edge to serve customer well. Nevertheless, it understood the importance of retailers and start offering products on the premises of retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and so on. Next, Dell administration is certain of the exclusive business of PCs. As time goes on, however, observing the
Dell Inc. has realized that the most efficient path to the customer is through a direct relationship, with no intermediaries to add confusion and cost. With the power of their direct model and their team of talented people, they are able to provide to their customers high-quality, relevant technology, customized systems, superior service and support and products and services that are easy to buy and use.
In examination of Dell’ and Home Depot’ marketing strategy, I’ve determined they both use a market multi-segmenting approach with two totally separate target markets. A company’ target market is defined by Ferrel, Ferrel & Hirt (2016) as “a more specific group of consumers on whose needs and wants a company focuses its marketing efforts” (p.338). With this definition in mind, Dell appears to target consumers in need of personal desktop and laptop computers for home, work and educational endeavors. Based on the website, student and IT professionals between the age of 18 and 49 appear to be the main marketing focus, where as, Home Depot’ appeal is clearly directed to the do it yourself crowd, made of a diverse group of home owners and professionals
...nging technology market, they too have to make more innovative tablets capable of advanced multitasking.
Dell’s initial competitive strategy, when it was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, was to focus mainly on differentiation. Its strategy was to sell customised personal computer systems directly to customers, which was a rapidly emerging market at that time (1). This was done by targeting second-time customers, those that already understand computers and know what they wanted. Meanwhile other companies at the time was selling “’plain brown wrapper’ computers” (2). By offering customisations, Dell gained a better understanding of customers’ needs and wants. This helped the organisation position itself differently against the more popular brands, such as Compaq and IBM.
Dell Computer have recently announced changes to their business strategy and supporting supply chain. They will no longer focus on a made to order direct sales model for their personal computers. Nor will they continue to refine their renowned supply chain model that supported their sales model. Instead, they will be looking to produce personal computers with fixed configurations at lower prices. This essay looks at why Dell have changed their strategy, and then considers the customer value proposition of the new strategy, as well as lessons that other organisations can learn from the Dell experience.
If you spent any time in a toy aisle this past holiday season, you would have noticed a subtle shift starting to occur in toys. The old standby toys are giving way to more modern app-enabled versions. Manufacturers are finding any way they can to update classic toys to engage with modern tablets. Barbie is enabled with cameras that play back via apps, Fisher Price play sets embed them for interactive play, and Lego building sets can be controlled by them. Unless manufacturers embrace and utilize tablets with their products, the tablet will take over the toy market.
ASUS is one of the famous laptop brands among the world but the company still face the marketing issues which need to solve it immediately. In the tablet market, ASUS would have to compete with other tablet manufacturers on both features and price. There are several competitors such as Toshiba, Dell, Jacket, MacBook and other. People will decide buy the products by comparing the prices between ASUS and other laptop brands. Based on the research done by Smith (2011)., a positioning map had been came up and it can refer to the Figure 1. From this map, it can be seen that ASUS is in a very advantageous situation as its products are cheap and good quality compared too many
Tablet computer, which comes with a touch screen interface, wireless and portable personal computer has increased in popularity throughout the years. At the same time, which many salesperson are employ and had already adopted the use of tablets in their daily life and sales. As tablets become more popular with employees worldwide, notice that salespeople are easily the most likely to request a tablet for work purposes. Besides, salespeople are the most connected in the workforce. Most often they tend to make the most phone calls and more often with a need for quick access to information and presentations. Last but not least, tablets are proving to be highly effective selling tools in the market and helpful for travelling
This is a report that will explore the scope of hardware and software that are currently in use within the tablet technology industry and the advances taking place. It will do this by reviewing three different tablets and comparing them with one another from the perspective of the respective hardware and software present on each of the system (specifically tablet computers). It will also show understanding of computer systems and how they help people/owners to effectively carry out the responsibilities in both their business and personal life.