Marketing Dell

Marketing and its role in the corporation

Marketing deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs. (Kotler 3) In shortest words, marketing is ÐŽomeeting needs profitablyÐŽ±. People have needs for all kinds of stuffs and services, and to find out what people need and then satisfy their needs is what a business do. In exchange for the products and services provided, businesses get profits. According to American Marketing Association, ÐŽomarketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stake holdersÐŽ±. (Kotler 3) Marketing is almost everything.

Marketing plays an important role in each corporation. What a business needs to do is to create customers and satisfy their needs. Management is responsible for control, oversee, and allocate the resource and whole process; however, management can not work without marketing. Marketing is the basic but core function of a business. Marketing helps a business selling its products and service, putting a businessЎЇs name out there, and connecting a business with its customers. Without marketing, a business is meaningless.

Marketing mix

Marketing mix is the combination of all elements a business uses to market its products, and it includes product, price, place, and promotion. Good products market themselves because they benefit customers. Making good products is essential to a business. A good product requires variety, quality, design, features, brand name, packaging, sizes, services, warranties, and returns. Setting a price for the products is another important process. Price includes list price, discounts, allowances, payment period, and credit terms. Promotion helps a business to attract customers, it includes sales promotion, advertising, sales force, public relations, and direct marketing. Place is about where the customers are located and how to deliver products to customers. Place includes channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, and transport.

The company of our team is Dell. Dell has variety of products: notebooks, desktops, service, storage, networking, printers, ink and toner, TVs, software, and accessories. Dell also carries products of other brands, such as Fuji digital cameras, SanDisk MP3 players, etc. Expanding to unprofessional areas like TVs and selling other brands is not favorable for Dell. Dell features online shopping and it allows customers to build their own computers to satisfy their unique personal needs. Dell computers have average quality, not stylish design, fine brand name, below average service, phone-based warranty, and not easy return policy. Dell uses low price strategy, which means its price is lower than other famous brand, such as IBM, HP, Sony, etc. Discounts and financing are also available. Dell offers rebates, free accessories, and other promotions periodically. DellЎЇs advertising expenditure is $1.1 billion in 2005, making it the worldЎЇs #28 advertiser. Dell bypasses reseller channel and make directly sales through internet, phone, and mail order. It usually delivers products to customer within 5-7 days. It keeps high inventory turnover. Central location to all of the U.S. is Texas.

Marketing Strategies and Plans

Corporate mission

An organization exists to accomplish something. An organization develops a mission statement to share with managers, employees, and customers. A clear thoughtful mission statement provides employees with a shared sense of purpose, direction, and opportunity and guides geographically dispersed employees to work independently and collectively toward realizing the organizationЎЇs goals. (Kotler 27) Corporation mission is considered as a daily activity guide for all people in the organization.

Dell's mission is ÐŽoto be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serveÐŽ±. (Dell) In doing so, everyone in Dell needs to work hard to meet customersЎЇ expectations and bring them pleased shopping experience. The ÐŽobest customer experienceÐŽ± includes highest quality, leading technology, competitive price, best service and support, flexible customization capability, superior corporate citizenship, financial stability, etc.

Core competencies

Core competency has three characteristics: it is a source of competitive advantage in that it makes a significant contribution to perceived customer benefits, it has applications in a wide variety of markets, and it is difficult for competitors to imitate. (Kotler 24) In other word, core competencies refer to a companyЎЇs critical and unique capabilities that make the company successful and distinctive from the others.

One of DellЎЇs core competencies, direct sale and build to order, allows Dell to keep high inventory turnover, reduced overhead, and cash conversion. Outsourcing is another competency for Dell. It works closely with external partners to produce its PC products and to offer its customer an array of products and services. Dell coordinates a global product network to manufacture its products, combining in-house final assembling with high reliance on outside suppliers and contract manufacturer. It also relies on outside partners for services, such as system integration, installation, on-site repairs, and consulting. Because of the direct sale model and outsourcing, Dell can lower the cost of products and handling expenses. Therefore Dell is able to provide competitive price and reliable products for its customers.

Strategic business units

A strategic business unit (SBU) has three characteristics: it is a single business or collection of related businesses that can be planned separately from the rest of the company; it has its own set of competitors; and it has a manager responsible for strategic planning and profit performance who controls most of the factors affecting profit. (Kotler 28) SBU is a significant organization segment, and it varies from organization to organization. In large companies, SBU could be a company division, a single product, or a complete product line; in small companies, SBU might be the entire company.

Dell, which defines its business as manufacturer of personal computers would have both individual and business buyer as its customer group; computers and accessories as its customer need; and advanced computers as its technology. DellЎЇs SBUs includes large customer unit and small customer unit. The large customer unit includes large and medium business, and