Marketing for Dell Incs Inspiron M101z - Assignment Example

Marketing Plan for Dell Inc’s Inspiron M101z Name Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name Date Executive summary This is a marketing plan for Dell Inspiron M101z. Dell was the fourth largest market shareholder of portable computers if iPad is included in the first quarter of 2011 (Dell, 2012). This marketing plan aims at increasing awareness about Dell Inspiron M101z to about 70% within our target market and attaining 50% interest in the device among the target market that is aware of the product. It also aims at ensuring that Dell Inspiron M101z is the possible choice at least 40% of the time and that customers select it over other laptops at least 30% of the time. Finally, the plan aims building adoption of more than 80% (Dell, 2012). Premium pricing will be used and distribution of the device will be through web selling and through various distributors around the world who will ensure the device is available in most electronic retail outlets around the globe. The strategies to be used to promote Dell Inspiron M101z will include web marketing, sales promotion, direct mail, public relations, trade fairs and exhibitions, advertising and sponsorship. Current Marketing Situation Currently, Dell markets its products mainly through advertisements. This is carried out through newspapers, websites and outdoor advertisements. Even though this strategy is good for increasing the sales of its products no new awareness is created. Thus in this marketing plan, the firm will incorporate promotional activities such as sponsorship to increase awareness among target market. Market Description Personal computer (PC) market is in its maturity stage in most parts of the world. As such, dell’s sales from PCs have been on decline. Dell had price advantage due to its ultra-lean manufacturing for desktops (Dell, 2012). However, in recent times the market has shifted to laptops. Moreover, in recent times, consumers are increasingly visiting electronic retail shops to buy PCs and laptops instead of purchasing them via the web or on the phone (the preferred mode of sales by Dell). Dell is the second largest market shareholder in PC market. In the first quarter of 2011, it accounted for 23.1% of PC shipments to the United States of America and 12.6% worldwide PC shipments (Dell, 2012). However, in the arena of portable computing Apple dominates the notebook market if iPad is included. Based on quarter 2 statistics of 2011, Dell is the fourth largest market shareholder of portable computers if iPad is included. IPad were included in the statistics because tablets seem to be cannibalizing computer sales. If the iPad are not included, the statistics indicated that Dell is the third largest market shareholder. Why Dell Inspiron M101z? Dell Inspiron M101z is one the new products in the market and many people are not aware of it. It is an upgrade from notebook and provides advantages associated with both notebooks and laptops. This marketing plan will enable the firm to create awareness of the product and help in its adoption. Dell is now focusing more on production of laptops as opposed to PCs. This is because the PC market seems to have matured and sales from these products are on decline. Many people are now interested in portable, efficient and affordable laptops and this is the gap that is being filled by Dell Inspiron M101z. As a result, increased sales of the Dell Inspiron M101z will imply that the firm’s revenue will be greatly increased. Product Review Dell Inspiron M101z is 11.6-inch laptops. They offer a tantalizing balance between portability, performance and affordability (Dell, 2012). They reflect a perfect upgrade from a notebook and are the best alternative to consumers who feel that notebooks do not satisfy their needs. It is similar to the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ although the recently released Dell Inspiron M101z offers up stiff competition. Dell Inspiron M101z has a very smart basic design since its dark grey body complements the black screen bezel nicely. The laptop also comes in various colourful options that include Lotus pink, blue and red options. The Dell Inspiron M101z has the K325 chip that has two cores, which run, at 1.3GHz and with 1Mb cache that is shared between them. The Dell Inspiron M101z graphics are supplied by an integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD4225. It also has 4GB of RAM and a fast 7,200-rpm, 320GB hard drive in support. The model comes with Bluetooth 3.0 in newer models. It also includes 802.11n Wi-Fi. However, it only provides a 10/100 Fast Ethernet for wired networking. This is because of its size and the presence of a six-cell, 56-Watt hour battery that when combined with the low voltage processor ensures good battery life. Portability of the Dell Inspiron M101z is also aided by the relatively small and light power supply, which weighs about 300g including cables and the socket. Dell Inspiron M101z also has excellent build quality. It uses plastics of excellent quality in its chassis. It also has a general sense of sturdiness to panel fittings. This excellent build quality gives Dell Inspiron M101z an edge over the Acer, which has a patchy reputation as far, as build quality is concerned. Dell Inspiron M101z also comes with an attractive warranty offering. Unlike its competitors, Dell’s warranty is collect and returns as standard (Dell, 2012). Upgrades to the standard one-year package cost just £19 and £29 for two and three years respectively. Channels Review Currently Dell mainly uses website selling to its customers. However, recent trends indicate that many consumers in recent times prefer visiting electronic retail stores to acquire PCs rather than buying them online. This customer behaviour shift implies that Dell has to follow suit and increase its presence in electronic retail outlets rather than over depending on web based sales. The marketing plan objectives These are the results that a firm intents to accomplish through its promotional program. Consumers usually respond in terms of hierarchy of effects (Baker & Hart, 2007). This is the sequence of stages through which a prospective buyer goes through. The hierarchy of effects includes: Awareness: to increase awareness in global market about Dell Inspiron M101z to about 70% within our target market. Interest: this comes after creation of awareness to enable the customer to build desire for the product. With about 70% of the target market aware of the Dell Inspiron M101z, it is expected that 50% will be interested in the device. Evaluation: With 50% of customers interested in the Dell Inspiron M101z, we want them to evaluate, that is, to compare the Dell Inspiron M101z to other laptops available and our device to make their list of possible choices at least 40% of the time. Trial: this is the most vital stage of purchasing. After evaluating the Dell Inspiron M101z, customers ought to select it over other laptops at least 30% of the time because of its inbuilt high quality, portability and affordability. Adoption: as the consumers use the Dell Inspiron M101z; their friends will be able to experience Dell Inspiron M101z in a real time situation. We intent to built adoption of more than 80%, which will mean that the consumer will buy Dell Inspiron M101z and have positive response to the device. Marketing strategy The marketing strategy of Dell will be aimed at increasing Dell Inspiron M101z shipment volumes to the rest of the world. This will involve increasing awareness among potential customers on the advantages Dell Inspiron M101z. Advertisement will be used to increase preference among customers to buy Dell Inspiron M101z. Target market Students and youngsters around the globe are the target market for this marketing plan. In our case the target market, include all students and youngsters looking for a notebook with good performance and at the same time portable enough to carry around and affordable (Capon, 2008). The target market in this case is usually interested in class and Dell Inspiron M101z has a touch of class desired by this market (Dell, 2012). the laptop also has its soft and firm keys well spaced to ensure comfortable typing that fits these youngsters who spend a lot of time typing their course work or charting with friends. Product positioning The Dell Inspiron M101z will be positioned as a laptop, which allows the user to easily carry around, has high performance and has competitive pricing in addition to having well spaced keys that ensure comfortable typing. Moreover, the Dell Inspiron M101z will be positioned as a classy laptop that has a long battery life (Dell, 2012). Functional benefits of the Dell Inspiron M101z would be ability to play high definition content by directly plugging the device to an HDMI capable device. In comparison with major competitors like the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ, Dell Inspiron M101z has an excellent built quality (Baker & Hart, 2007). For simplicity purposes of the overall position strategy, the following positioning strategy has been developed: For excellent performing, portable and affordable laptop, choose Dell Inspiron M101z that ensures long battery life and comes with a classy touch in addition to surety of comfortable typing. Message strategy Message 1: Dell Inspiron M101z promises to offer excellent performance, portability and affordability Message 2: Dell Inspiron M101z has a classy touch Message 3: Dell Inspiron M101z promises well spaced keys that ensures comfortable typing your social needs and coursework Message 4: The Dell Inspiron M101z has long battery life that will enable you complete your work in case of power interruptions Marketing mix Marketing mix is a product of microeconomic theory. The marketing mix is also known as 4Ps. It is essential for translating marketing plan into action. It also aids in development of long term strategies and short term tactical programs. The mix also helps in differentiating the product from competing products (Baker & Hart, 2007). The functions of marketing mix include making it easy to market products and separating marketing activities from other activities of the firm; allowing delegation of marketing activities to specialists;  making the company competitive and essential for allocation of resources to different devices of marketing mix. In spite the functions played by marketing mix, the 4Ps marketing mix has been under criticism for being internally oriented with no consideration of the consumer’s behaviour. The customer is regarded as a passive player in the 4Ps marketing mix, which discourages interaction that is essential for creation of relationships with customers (Baker & Hart, 2007). The mix also lacks theoretical content and does not allow personification of marketing activities. In spite these limitations; 4Ps marketing mix framework is still very strong tool for marketing (Capon, 2008). For a good and viable decision to be made in relation to a marketing strategy, a combination of 4Ps (product, price, promotion and place) should tally the needs of customers (Capon, 2008). To be able to do this, an analysis of the preferences of customers in terms of attitudes toward competing products, the intensity of product use, product feature and price considerations. a. Product Products must be able to provide benefits, which enhance the situation of users. In our case, Dell Inspiron M101z is able to help students and youngsters to use it anywhere due to its portability. It also ensures high performance and given its affordability, many students can acquire one. Since this group of consumers are interested in classy products, the Dell Inspiron M101z has a classy touch that is very attractive to this segment of consumers (Capon, 2008). Marketing strategies for products include new product lines, innovation, product line extension, changes or improvements of the products that exist, repositioning products and cost reduction (Baker & Hart, 2007). Dell Inspiron M101z is a new product that is an innovative improvement to notebooks and offers excellent performance that makes it to be marketed as a laptop rather than a notebook. b. Price Price is the only flexible element of marketing mix, which can be adjusted at any time. Different ways are used to price products and services (Baker & Hart, 2007). These include premium pricing, penetration pricing, economy pricing, price skimming, psychological pricing, product line pricing, optional product pricing, captive product pricing and product bundle pricing. Premium pricing uses a high price because of the uniqueness of the product or the service. It is mainly used to price products when there is a substantial existence of competitive advantage. It is commonly used in pricing luxury products. Penetration pricing involves setting lower prices for goods and services in order to gain market share. The prices are increased ones the firm penetrates the market. Economy pricing keeps the cost of manufacturing and marketing at a minimum level. Price skimming is where a high price is charged because a firm has a high competitive advantage. This often attracts new competitors in the market, which forces the prices to fall. Psychological pricing is used by marketers to enable consumers to respond on an emotional instead of rational basis. Product line pricing is used where there is a range of products or services on offer and pricing reflect the benefits of parts of the range (Capon, 2008). Optional pricing is where firms attempt to increase the amount spent by consumers once they start to buy. Captive product pricing is where products have complements and hence firms charge a premium price where the consumer is captured. Product bundle pricing is where products are combined in the same package and priced together (Baker & Hart, 2007). Although premium pricing will be used in the marketing of Dell Inspiron M101z due to its uniqueness, its price will be much more affordable than that of many notebooks available in the market (Dell, 2012). c. Promotion Promotional strategies are important in communicating the feature of the product to the target market. It includes all tools, which are at the disposal of the marketer for marketing communication (Baker & Hart, 2007). Promotional mix elements include sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, trade fairs and exhibitions, advertising and sponsorship. Personal selling is essential in effective management of personal customer relationship. It involves hiring of sales people to work on behalf of the firm. However, sales persons are very expensive and should only be deployed in cases where there is genuine return on investment. Sales promotion entails all promotions except advertisement, personal selling and public relations. One should cost sales promotion carefully and compare it with other best alternatives. Public relations are the deliberate, planned and sustained effort geared toward establishing and maintaining mutual understanding between a firm and its publics. It is considered to be relatively cheap (Capon, 2008). Direct mail is a focused promotional tool, which focuses upon target consumers based on the available database. It involves sending mail to potential consumers and responses are carefully monitored. Trade fairs and exhibitions help businesses to make new contacts and to renew old ones. It is mainly used to create awareness and to encourage trial. It gives the firms an opportunity to meet with trade and the consumer (Baker & Hart, 2007). Advertising is a form of paid for communication. It helps in developing attitudes, creating awareness and transmitting information in order to gain a response from the target market. Different media are used for advertisement. They include newspapers, magazines, journals, television, outdoor advertising and cinema (Capon, 2008). Sponsorship involves paying to be associated with a certain event, cause or image. In order to reach all our target market around the globe all these promotional mechanisms will be employed to promote Dell Inspiron M101z (Dell, 2012). d. Place This refers to the physical distribution and marketing channels. It allows goods or services to be moved from the producers to the users. There are several basic channels from which businesses may choose from to distribute their products (Baker & Hart, 2007). They include direct or indirect channels, single or multiple channels, cumulative length of the multiple channels, intermediary channels and companies as intermediary channels (Capon, 2008). To decide on the distributor the firm ought to consider market segment, changes during the product life cycle, producer-distributor fit, qualification assessment and the training and support that the distributor will require. Strategies for place include intensive distribution, exclusive distribution and selective distribution. Dell utilizes its online store to distribute Dell Inspiron M101z. Moreover, the firm will contract various distributors around the globe to distribute Dell Inspiron M101z to electronic retail outlets that are now preferred by most PC and notebook consumers. This will ensure that Dell Inspiron M101z is available to most consumers who need it. Implementation The first step will involve assembling production requirements. This will include creative developments to be used in advertisement and promotional activities, still photography and music artists’ selection to be involved in the marketing campaign. The second step will involve media selection. The advertisement Dell Inspiron M101z will be distributed among weekly newspapers, major television stations and various websites. The papers to be used have 100% market situation and are distributed all over the target country. The TV stations to be employed will be based on their popularity in the target country with the most popular ones being chosen. The three forms of advertisement are chosen because they are more efficient in reaching a large number of people (Baker & Hart, 2007). This will be supported by magazines, and outdoor advertisement. Public relations will also be used since it is more credible source in the consumer’s mind (Capon, 2008). Direct marketing will be employed and this will help in getting immediate feedback since it allows persuasion and selection of audience in addition to providing complex information. It will also allow creation of relationship with customers. Sales promotions will help change the perception among potential consumers of Dell Inspiron M101z (Dell, 2012). For direct marketing purposes, online sales sites will be designed and adverts to be posted on different websites will also be designed (Capon, 2008). The company will also buy key word on Yahoo and Google to allow interactive marketing. Event marketing, deals and discount and event sponsorship will be used as tools for sales promotion (Baker & Hart, 2007). Since price is the most valued element in promotions, the price of Dell Inspiron M101z will be emphasized as being the most competitive in the market. The Dell Inspiron M101z will also be repackaged in more appealing packs to the youthful target market. The message: “enjoy a classy touch with Dell Inspiron M101z” will be printed on the pack to appeal to our target market. Evaluation and control procedures Marketing operation entails thorough and end-to-end operational discipline, which leverages guidance, metrics technology and processes to run the marketing function. This is essential in reinforcing marketing strategy (Drucker, 2006). Many metrics for marketing evaluation exist. They include awareness, preference and customer satisfaction, loyalty purchase intent and repeat purchase rate. These matrixes can either use the bottom up attribution process or the top down attribution process (media mix) which allow comparison of performance of marketing and common performance matrix (Baker & Hart, 2007). The top down attribution process will be used to evaluate the performance of Dell Inspiron M101z in the market. The evaluation process will be based on how well we reach the target market and attain our marketing plan objectives. First, we will analyze the response of consumers to our advertisements through various media to see the effectiveness of our adverts. Surveys at the events that we will be sponsoring and via telephone calls will be used analyze the effectiveness of our marketing plan (Baker & Hart, 2007). The stock turnover of the Dell Inspiron M101z will also be evaluated to analyze whether our sales would have increased during the three months marketing period. This will aid in the understanding of how effective the adverts and the product are. Budget Activity Asia ($) Africa ($) Australia ($) Europe ($) Antarctica ($) Total ($) Web marketing 200,000 200,000 200,000 600,000 200,000 1,400,000 Direct mail 3,000,000 750,000 750,000 1,900,000 200,000 1,400,000 Sales promotion 4,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 6,000,000 500,000 2,800,000 Public relations 2,000,000 500,000 200,000 3,000,000 200,000 5,600,000 Trade fairs and exhibitions 5,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 5,000,000 1,000,000 11,200,000 Audio visual advertising 9,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 7,000,000 2,000,000 22,400,000 Print media advertising 7,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 6,000,000 1,000,000 44,800,000 Corporate sponsorship 4,000,000 6,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 89,600,000 Grant total 179,200,000 References Baker, M. & Hart, S. (2007). Product Strategy and Management (2nd ed). New York: Prentice Hall. Capon, C. (2008). Understanding Strategic Management. London: Pearson Education Limited. Dell. 2012. Dell Computers. Available at www.dell.com Drucker, P. (2006). Managing the Non-Profit Organisation: Practices and Principles. New York: Collins Business. Read More