Evaluating Dell Technologies Website Design and Target Market Delivery
When studying Dell’s social media strategy, I was surprised to discover the amount of time and money invested into the company’s customer relations. I feel that this is almost symbolic of the company’s success, as they dedicate funding to the activities which are not the primary revenue earners. Dell’s business strategy is centred around the phrase; ‘If content is King, then listening is Queen’ (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016, pp. 346). Dell listens to its customers through their specific website design, while offering promotions aimed at particular consumer groups. This can be seen through Dell’s promotional mix, which has been tailored to suit the buying psychology of the country. The consumers in the UK have a focus on price affordability, Germans are luxury oriented and while the French require the products to be tailored for the French culture.
Site Design Dell’s website is aimed at providing the customer with a positive online experience, with the focus on creating a product they value and trust. The objective of website design is to ensure that customers are offered a unique, engaging and personal experience from the first click. Dell offers symmetrical, two-way communication both within their website and their social media platforms. The transparency the company employs, however, is unique and quite different when compared to Dell’s competitors. This primarily involves the service Dell Premier and an interactive forum called IdeaStorm.
Dell Premier is an extranet offered to large organisations such as the government, health care and education providers, large corporations, small to medium businesses and individual customers (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). It operates as a secure, customisable webpage for users to procure technologies and seek support when required. The site offers an easy ordering system, real-time tracking and control over the customer’s account.
On an individual level, Dell has a site feature called IdeaStorm. This is a unique service that allows people from all over the world to share their technology ideas and collaborate with one another (Dell, 2017). This is an important feature of Dell’s website as it creates a constant flow of communication between Dell and their stakeholders. The online discourse also allows the business to identify their target markets, the potential issues they might be experiencing and the desired technologies.
Furthermore, Dell is creating a more intelligent and engaging site with strategic improvements and tactical initiatives.
Dell is investing in strategic improvements to improve their levers; which are consideration drivers that Dell uses to help better understand their customer’s buying behaviour (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). A strategic improvement to these levers is the implementation of customer ratings and reviews, major ‘paths’, videos or decision support tools to ‘help me choose’.
The tactical initiatives at Dell focus on delivering customers the right message. Dell does this through their features of customisation/personalisation, real estate optimisation and message balancing (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016).
Promotion Dell focuses the promotion of its products towards small to medium businesses and private consumers (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). Here, the company communicates through TV and internet advertising, and mailing of marketing publications and promotional pieces such as catalogues and customer newsletters (print media). However, as this piece pays particular attention to the online aspect of Dell’s promotional mix, I will further discuss how the company promotes itself digitally. Dell’s digital promotion includes tactical initiatives, tactical persuasion, online advertising and reputation management programs.
Dell’s use of tactical persuasion concentrates on targeting their site visitors. This is based on the optimised price position, price moves and the mix of product features. Customers are motivated to purchase because of the promotion ‘end date’, creating a sense of urgency. These promotional offers include:
Money-off discounts,
Free shipping,
Free accessories,
Free upgrades (such as memory),
Served upgrades,
And finance offers.
The digital media channels used by dell in Europe include:
Google AdWords: Dell uses this to promote time-limited value products with key search words.
Display advertising: advertising on other technology websites to reach the corporate market.
Affiliate marketing: Dell utilises this kind of marketing to protect their brand. It enables people to bid on terms such as ‘Dell laptops’ and reach the niche audiences (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016).
Email marketing: existing Dell customers are notified when their hardware may need upgrading.
Finally, as a part of Dell’s reputation management, they have intensive social media marketing activities, aimed at enabling effective customer engagement. This showcases the ways through which the company solves customer problems and the level of commitment to problem solving. In doing so, Dell humanises itself and creates a loyal customer base.
Dell’s social media marketing programs are:
Social media listening command centre: this is a department dedicated to tracking what influential customers are saying, trending Dell topics and their market performances.
Social media governance work flow: a team of people dedicated to converting ranters into ravers.
Online Influencer Relations Program: Dell sends their program to influential personalities to review and share.
Customer Advisory Panel (CAP): this is a complaints centre organised as a collaboration platform where customers post their issues and the trending complaints are addressed.
References:
Chaffey, D & Ellis-Chadwick, F 2016, Digital Marketing, 6th edn, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, UK
Dell, 2017, ‘ABOUT IDEASTORM’, Dell, Online, viewed 14 September 2017, http://www.ideastorm.com/idea2AboutIdeaStorm?v=1505555537004
Techopedia 2017, ‘Electronic Customer Relationship Management (E-CRM)’, Techopedia.Inc, viewed 14 September 2017, https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30914/electronic-customer-relationship-management-e-crm