As I worked on the Dell Computer account for a good few years at Chiat, San Francisco, (You can see some of the ads on my web site) I was always an admirer of the "Direct Sales Only" policy. Instead of getting down in the trenches with everyone else selling through retailers and VAR's they perfected both their "Just in Time Manufacturing" model, since copied by many other companies, and more importantly they fine tuned their advertising to the point were it made them the biggest PC company in the world. Don't forget... If you're selling direct, if the ads don't work... You're out of business. But eventually all things change. Today's news that Dell is about to start selling through Wal-Mart is a good indication that not only is the PC market like selling any other commodity, it's also extremely price sensitive. Wal-Mart certainly has the geographical coverage, but it doesn't have the cachet of higher end retailers. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
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George,
I a posed a question on my new KnowMoreMedia blog that I would like to hear your thoughts on. Dell sells at WalMart is the topic of this post.
Dell, what are you saying? After years of custom selling and great service (maybe that was then and this is now) you are now going to change to the Low Price Leader position (Map
5)?
Is this an evolution or devolution?
Is Dell going for more customers or chasing after customers who left them?
Looking forward to your expert opinion.
Posted by: Roger Anderson | May 25, 2007 12:21 PM | Permalink to Comment