Report On Marketing Strategies of DELL Laptops Under Guidance Of Dr.

Mohan B Rao

Submitted By Nikita Kothari M-12-27 M-12-06

Joginder S Chandnani

Nimish Deshmukh M-12-12 Saurabh Sarode M-12-51

Table of Content
Sr No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Topic Introduction to Industry Key Players Pricing Marketing Strategies

Introduction to Industry
Laptops were originally considered to be "a small niche market" and were thought suitable mostly for "specialized field applications" such as "the military, the Internal Revenue Service, accountants and sales representatives". But today, there are already more laptops than desktops in businesses, and laptops are becoming obligatory for student use and more popular for general use. According to the latest report by International Data Corporation (IDC), the PC market in India registered a record growth in the second quarter with an overall PC shipment of 3.53 million units a quarter-on-quarter increase of about 30.2 percent. However, the report also suggests that India has witnessed a noticeable surge in only a few states. The IDC report on Indian states shows that while the worldwide PC market has been witnessing a fall in shipmentsand sales, the PC market in India saw a year-on-year growth of 24 percent. However, this is only due to the currently running special projects in states like UP, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu that have accounted for close to one third of the total PC market size in the last quarter. In terms of the consumer market, there is only a marginal growth. The report also suggests that PC sales in the initial part of the quarter were partially affected due to the popularity of gadgets under buy-back scheme and other discounted offers, which had resulted in slow PC sales. The researchers say that factors like state government-led special projects and new academic sessions-based campaigns for students have led to a subsequent surge in the PC market, but it is only momentary. According to Kiran Kumar, research manager, IDC, State-led manifesto driven spending on notebooks steered commercial investments in the India PC market in Q2 2013. However, the organic demand for PCs in India outside special projects has weakened, which remains a cause of concern for PC vendors. Further, the Rupee slide derailed enterprise spending, as the investment decisions remained seemingly delayed across most of the verticals. As far as vendors are concerned, HP led across all segments in commercial and consumer PC business in India, and accounted for 34.1 percent of market share in the quarter. Dell took the second position with 11 percent of market share in the quarter. The company mainly benefited by its entry-level PCs, efforts in increasing retail visibility, effective channel positioning and marketing campaigns. Acer follows at third with a market share of 10.4 percent, which is mainly driven by its presence in government and education projects across the country.

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS:

Indian Laptop market in now in sync with global market. It was in 2005 that sales of laptops surpassed the sales of desktop computers for the first time in India. The Laptop market is growing at a fast rate because of change in work life of consumers. As the need for "anytime anywhere" access to information is increasing, the sales of Laptops are also increasing. Other factors that are responsible for the hike in sales figure are reduction in prices and affordability. Laptops are now sold at approximately half the price at which they were sold two years ago. Laptops prices are now almost at par with the desktop computer prices. The third most important factor is duty free import of Laptops as a personal baggage that has helped a lot in increasing the penetration level of the product among the consumer population. Awareness about laptops has also increased over the years.

Given the choice of portability, flexibility and ease of use and narrowing of price-performance gap that once existed between portables and desktops, consumers are almost overwhelmingly inclined to buy notebook PCs. Dell retained the top slot with a market share of 27 per cent, while HP occupied the second position with 20 per cent and Sony third with 15 per cent. Environmental Analysis using Porters 5force model Threat of new entrants: Due to aggressive pricing and reducing profit margin, there is a high barrier of entry for new players in the market. Big companies can invest more in the R&D facility. So the product improvement can be done by them easily. This also creates a barrier for the new entrants. Due to standardization in the laptops used, the switching costs are low. Competition is driven both on pricing and product differentiation. Companies like DELL have more emphasis on pricing whereas APPLE is more interested in product differentiation. But both this aspects need good capital investments.All this aspects make the threat for small new entrants low for this industry.

Bargain power of supplier: There are mainly two types of supplier for a laptop industry. One is hardware supplier and another is software supplier. In hardware domain Intel and AMD are the two major microprocessor supplier. So they have some amount of bargain power over the PC companies. For hardware, there are many suppliers like samsung, western digital, seagate etc. For motherboard, Intel, MSI, ASUSTek are the major suppliers. All these companies have limited bargaining power because of their lack of branding

on the finished product. Manufacturers have different supplier for the same component. So, if the prices are not competitive the risk of a supplier to lose to its rivals is very high. All these aspects make the bargaining power low for hardware supplier. In the software side, Microsoft dominates the market with its operating system. Though Linux also has operating system, Google come with the new operating system, they are not able to capture large market share. So in the software side the bargaining power of supplier is relatively higher. Bargain power of buyer: Consumer preference for mobility and wireless connectivity at low cost resulted in the growth of the laptop market compared to desktops. In addition, continued demand for cheaper costs lead to aggressive pricing as well as the creation of new categories such as netbooks. The power of customers is reflected in the change in buying behavior . As many big companies are now present in this market, the switching cost for buyer is very low. All this things make the bargain power of the buyer high.The high bargain power of buyers & changing customers buying behaviour in developing markets influenced Dells decision to sell through retail stores as well. Threat of New Entry: Due to aggressive pricing and reducing profit margins, there is a high barrier to entry for new companies. Since large companies are able to invest more in R&D and more easily hire top management talent, there is greater possibility for more innovation in the products. This further increases the barrier to entry for smaller companies. However, ASUSTeks introduction of netbooks in late 2007 is an example of identifying consumer demand that was not recognized by any of the top industry players and becoming a new competitor. Threat of Substitutes: The laptop industry faces a significant threat from new trends such as cloud computing, which potentially will reduce the need for high computing power in portable laptops. Moreover, advances in computing power and as well as communication technologies (3G, WiMax, etc.) have enabled devices such as smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) to compete with laptops by providing similar capabilities. For instance, iPhone apps reduce the need for laptops by providing similar functionality. So we can say that for this industry, at this point of time, the threat of substitute is moderate.

Key players in the Indian Industry today Hewlett-Packard Company

Hewlett-Packard Company commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States; with offices at the old Compaq Campus in Houston, Texas. HP is the largest technology company in the world and operates in nearly every country. HP specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, storage, and networking hardware, software and services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. Today HP serves more than one billion customers in more than 170 countries on six continents. When HP merged with Compaq in 2002, it took over Compaq's existing naming rights agreement. As a result, HP sells both HP and Compaq-branded machines. Segments of HP: Students Travelers Home and Family Entertainment Technology and Style Models of HP: Mini, Compaq Presario, HP pavilion, Special Edition HP support: HP has a support section on its website, www.welcome.hp.com. The site offers solutions to FAQs. However, the site is not ever user-friendly and navigation can be a bit difficult for the uninitiated. The site offers consumer and business support forums. It also offers an online support call and diagnostic. There is an option to automatically check if the drivers are in need of an update. The site offers help categorically apart from some tips and tricks posted by users on a forum. DELL India Ltd.

Dell, one of the most recalled names when it comes to buying a laptop is undoubtedly retained as the favorite computing partner for users of all generations spanning various regions around the world. A perfect blend of efficiency, performance, elegance, customer service and more makes it the right choice for those thousands of prospective buyers of laptops or notebooks around the world. And now the gigantic notebook maker has spread its wings further with its Laptops now available in one of the world's most potential economy, India. With multifold increase in the IT conscious folks in the country over the years and a mammoth amount of laptop Buyers around

the country at any given point make it "not so bad" decision from Dell. The Dell distribution in India however remains different from that of the other countries. With not so many people inclined onto the online purchase, Dell has adopted a proper channel partner that distributes the Dell Products in the same old fashion that the folks in India are glued to. A treat to the all those users which have been longing to bag one from the vast range of Laptops from the brand, it won't be long before the brand would pose a strong competition for already prominent brand in the country. Dell has most of its series available in India through its online channel or Local resellers. Dell laptops come in several types meant for the various types of users. Dells range of laptops meant for the business class includes Optilex, Latitude and Precision which is meant for such features like reliability, serviceability and long life cycles. The home and consumer class of laptops introduced by Dell includes Inspiron and xpx brands. These laptops emphasize on expandability and performance. High performance, lightweight and highly technology oriented add more value to dell laptop. You can enjoy traveling with your dell laptop in India or globally due to its lightweight nature and manufacturing compatibility for traveling. Adding color to the scenario Dell laptop never lags behind; it is available for all generation. From businessperson, who needs more technological Dell laptop to gamers out there, with faster processor, big screens and high end graphics to students going to school, offering them lightweight dell laptop in India and globally. Dell India makes sure that the laptop/notebook is suitable for the buying generation and should fulfill the market demand. Models of Dell: Vestro Series, latitude series, XPS series, Inspiron series, Studio series, Dell Support: Dell has a website, www.support.dell.com , which offers solutions to a whole host of common as well as not-so-common problems. Its solution database is exhaustive. Moreover, the problems are categorized by topics, making things easier for the customer. The site offers technical support in a language that is comprehensible even to customers who are not technically literate. The site also offers options to download and install drivers. It also offers an update to check on the status of the order placed, or if you have received the order but have a problem with it. Also, there is a Chat with Technical Support which allows users to have a direct online chat with Dells technical support staff and solve the problems. There is another option as Dell Forums which allows users to chat and interact with other Dell users. Acer Incorporated

Acer Incorporated is a Taiwan-based multinational electronics manufacturer. Its product lineup includes desktops and laptops, as well as personal digital assistants (PDAs), serversand storage, displays, peripherals, and e-business services for business, government, education, and home users. Acer's subsidiary in India is Acer India (Pvt) Limited, and was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Acer Computer International, Ltd. in 1999. It is a notable vendor in key

segments such as education, desktop computers and low profile notebooks for education purposes. Its headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Models:Travelmate series, Tablet Pc series, Aspire series, Ferrari series Acer Support: On Acers Indian website, www.acer.co.in, Acer has clearly mentioned their support and service policies. It lists various Toll free numbers for customer care. There is the facility to download drivers according to the model owned. But the biggest drawback is that it does not offer any technical help online. It does not even have a getting started guide or a list of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. Common software related problems can be easily resolved by the user if they follow a step-by-step detailed procedure. But Acer does not seem to realize this. Lenovo Group Limited

Lenovo Group Limited is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures and desktops and notebook PCs, workstations, servers, storage drives, IT management software, and related services. 3000 family notebooks: 3000 lenovo laptops/notebook in India offers innovative notebooks for your worry free access. Compiled with latest technology these laptops/notebooks are suitable for small business houses and usage at home. All the features you need are integrated in the laptop and the best services and support is provided by lenovo India. Three series are available in 3000 family of lenovo laptops/notebook in India. C, V and N series of laptops to give you the best option according to your needs. ThinkPad notebooks: These are the more technology oriented and true value for your money. Design wise these are perfect. Security is the added advantage of these lenovo laptops/notebook. Built to serve more speed and functionalities these can be used for everyday computing, premium performance, thinnest and lightest and convertible tablets. All these are most reliable notebooks/laptops to server your daily needs. Toshiba Corporation

Toshiba Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company's main business is in infrastructure, consumer products, electronic devices and components. Basic Laptops: Basic laptops offered by Toshiba India are designed to meet your general needs. These can be used at home, office or any other business purpose. Basic laptops/notebook in India offered by Toshiba is powerful and configuration wise its appropriate to serve your needs. Toshiba India takes care of the basic configuration of this laptops/notebook to make it appropriate for all generations. Satellite and tecra are the two laptop/notebook family offered by Toshiba which belongs to Basic laptop.

Thin and Light Laptops: Thin and light laptops offered by Toshiba India are best suited for the traveling personnels. The lightweight and thin Toshibalaptops in India makes you feel proud by their sound features. Easy to carry and available in wonderful colors. Satellite and tecra are the two laptop/notebook offered by Toshiba India which can solve your weight problem. High Performance Laptops: High performance laptops in India offered by Toshiba India are best suited for gamers and engineers who need more processing speed to perform their daily work. These Toshiba laptops/notebook are very powerful and high speed. Portege, Satellite and tecra are the three laptop/notebook offered by Toshiba India which are high performance laptops/notebook.

Qosimo is the newer brand of Toshiba laptops/notebook in India. Integrated with all latest technology it provides you all the functionalities and features to serve your purpose. In addition these Toshiba India laptops are ultra portable, lightweight, supporting gaming and multimedia features to the fullest.

Pricing of laptops in India

The comfort level of consumers in India starts from 30,000 Rs. Starting range of laptops: 1. HP Rs 35000 2. Dell Rs 32000 3. Acer Rs 24000

DELL Dell Laptops for Home Users: Dell Inspiron 14 Price 39,500/- to Dell Inspiron 15 Price 36,900/Dell Studio 15 Price 40,900/- to Dell Studio XPS 16 Price 67,900/Dell Laptops For Small Businesses: Dell Vostro A840 31,500/- to Dell Vostro A840 29,000/Dell laptops for performance demanding applications: Dell Latitude 2100 26,750/- to Dell Latitude E5400 63,800/-

ACER For Home users: Acer Aspire 5315 22999/- to Acer Aspire 8920G 80999/For Travelers: Acer TravelMate 4720 45999/- to Acer TravelMate 5720 50999/For niche users: Acer Ferrari 1100 80399/-

HP For professionals: HP Pavilion DV9502AU Price 39,000/- to HP Pavilion DV9731TX Price 67,500/For businesses: HP 530 Business Laptop Price 27500/- to HP 520 Business Laptop Price 28500/-

SONY VIAO The pricing for Vaio notebooks including the X series featuring Kareena Kapoor as its brand ambassadors starts from Rs 64,990 Sony W series Net books are priced at Rs 27,490 and the pricing of Vaio CW series ranges from Rs 52,490 to 57,990.

Marketing Strategies:SWOT Analysis:

Strength:
1. Brand name. Dell has a very strong brand reputation for quality products. Its brand is valued at $ 7.5 billion. 2. Product customization. Dell allows its customers to customize their laptops. Such services were not originally found within any other major computer retailer (and currently only Sony and Toshiba allow that), but add great value to the customers and provides Dell with a competitive advantage. 3. Environmental record. Dell is engaged in many green initiatives and has received many rewards for being an eco-friendly business. This is a benefit when working with public and government agencies. 4. Competency in mergers and acquisitions. Over the last five years Dell has spent $13 billion for successful mergers and acquisitions, which brought patents, new capabilities, assets and skills to the business. 5. Direct selling business model. Dell doesnt sell its products through big-box retail outlets but instead sells directly to consumers and enterprises, keeping their already thin profit margin to themselves.

Weakness:
1. Commodity products. The large stream of Dells revenues comes from computer, especially laptop, sales, which is a commoditized product. Computer hardware (commodity) products are sold with a very low profit margin. 2. Poor customer services. Once praised, Dells customer services deteriorated due to outsourcing its call centers offshore. Dell invested a large sum of money in fixing this, but hasnt yet regained its previous reputation for customer services. 3. Low investments in R&D. The company spends a much lower percentage of its income on R&D that its main competitors and thus, missed an opportunity to develop strong products for smartphones and tablet markets as well as to learn new skill and capabilities. 4. Weak patent portfolio. Due to low spending on R&D Dell hasnt acquired a strong portfolio of patents and is now finds it hard to compete in lucrative smartphones and tablets market. 5. Too few retail locations. Selling products online saves money and allows for product customization but provides less visibility for the products. The consumer finds it hard to trust the products if it cant hold it first in his hands. 6. Low differentiation. Low price was once Dells competitive advantage but the company is no longer able to provide competitive prices. Apart from the price, Dells products are little differentiated from competitors products and are in competitive disadvantage if the price offered by competitor is lower.

Opportunities:
1. Expand services and enterprise solutions divisions. Dell provides various services (cloud, security and infrastructure) and enterprise solutions (servers, networking and storage), which are the most profitable Dells business at the moment. Dell business should focus on growing these divisions as they promise better growth opportunities and higher profit margins. 2. Obtain more patents through acquisitions. If Dell wants to diversify, it needs new technology patents and new ideas. Dell hasnt properly established its R&D facilities to discover new technologies and patents, so the only feasible way to obtain patents and technologies is to acquire other companies. 3. Strengthen their presence in emerging markets. Emerging economies are the fastest growing markets for laptops, tablets and other electronic devices. Dell has a good presence in these markets but should strengthen its position as the company experiences declining market share. 4. Tablet market growth. Tablet market is expected to grow in double digits for the next few years and the company has a great opportunity to release new tablet models and benefit from the market growth.

Threats:
1. Growing demand for smartphones and tablets. With a lower price and strongly improved capabilities, consumers often choose tablets and smartphones over laptops. The growing demand for the previous devices takes a share out of laptops, the main stream of revenue for Dell. 2. Profit margin decline on hardware products. Dells main income is from selling hardware products, which prices will increase in the future due to rising raw material prices. This will add to costs for Dell and will further cut the profit margin. 3. Slowing growth rate of the laptops market. Growth rate of the computer market is slowing down and in the near future the markets will become saturated. It will prove hard for Dell to compete in such market or at least fight back the lost market share. 4. Intense competition. The company faces intense competition in all its business segments. It competes in terms of price, quality, brand, technology, reputation, distribution and range of products, with Acer, Apple, HP, IBM, Lenovo and Toshiba

Strategies in India
Dells Entry in India
In the U.S., Dell originally became a market leader through its online and direct made-to-order sales model. When the computer maker decided to enter India, however, it needed a change of strategy. In the B.D. era -- Before Dell -- India's computer market was ruled by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Chinese computer maker Lenovo (LNVGY). HP had arrived in 1989, when its only competition was IBM -- a business that was later acquired by Lenovo. It quickly established itself as the market leader by focusing on price and after-sales service, and its 2001 merger with Compaq added to its product range. Both HP and Lenovo had factories in India, and their products were available off the shelf through a vast retail network. More importantly, because dealers had huge inventory (the companies supplied machines whether there was demand or not), they offered customers hefty discounts. Sales rose. To buy a Dell in those days, Indian customers had to wait up to a month for delivery while the computers were manufactured in Dell's factory in Penang, Malaysia. Little wonder, then, that Dell sold just 79,244 laptops and desktops in India in 2007, its first year of full-fledged Indian operations. In that same year, HP sold 1 million to Indian consumers. Yet today, Dell has surpassed all the others, selling over 1.1 million desktops, laptops and notebook computers in India in 2010, compared to HP's 1 million and Lenovo's 600,000. According to the International Data Corporation, in the third quarter of 2010, Dell (DELL) led in India with a 15.3% overall market share, ahead of HP with 14.7%. While Dell's India revenue of more than $1 billion is less than 2% of the company's global sales, India is emerging as the fastest-growing market for the company. In the third quarter of 2010, India reported year-on-year growth of 55% -- the highest for any Dell market.

How Dell did it

The first step was to set up a factory in India.Manufacturing locally cut delivery time by almost 50% and improved profitability. It also reduced waiting time to less than eight days. Dell also changed the way it sold computers. While buying online remained an option, the company set up exclusive outlets across the country, la Apple (AAPL) -- the first time it has experimented with the retail model -- and hired a battery of sales affiliates. Dell ensured that these affiliates, or channel partners, were given incentives to sell. The company also made virtually no investment in warehousing and delivering products right to customers' doors upon

demand. Once customers could touch and feel the product, it was easier for Dell to convince them to buy. And buy they did. This wasn't technically Dell's first foray into the country. Dell had quietly entered India back in 2000, focusing on large enterprise and government business. By 2007, Dell's business was worth $250 million in this segment. It also cashed in on the outsourcing wave, and had set up four customer care and tech support centers in India for its global customers. But, of course, Dell wanted a slice of the increasingly lucrative personal computers space.

Manufacturing The first Dell Made in India desktop

The Chennai operation reaffirms the strategic importance of India to Dell, providing significant impetus to our growth plans and prospects here, where we are already among the fastest growing computer systems suppliers.- R Anandan, VP & GM, Dell India In July 2007, Dell began production at its new manufacturing facility in Chennai (Dells third manufacturing location in Asia-Pacific and Japan region and eighth overall). The Sriperumbudur plant (50-acre site with a planned five-year investment of about US$ 30 million) was chosen for manufacturing in September 2006. The planned initial capacity was around 400,000 desktop computers per year. The company has doubled its production capacity since then from 400,000 in 2007 to the 1 million units in June 2008. Infosys, one of Dells largest custo mers in the country, was presented with the first Made in India desktop computer system.

Dells Market Share in India

India is the fastest growing market for Dell worldwide and laptops have emerged as the fastest growing form factor. Rajiv Ahuja, Director Communications of Dell APACS Dell India, that runs largest operation outside the US, expects consumer spending to push it notch double digit growth in sales volume in the laptop market in the next financial year. The company recorded a flat growth in the segment in the period from February 2012 to January 2013 against the industry growth of 7-8% in the domestic market. With no laptops to offer in the affordable category, Dell lost on the volume market offered by various state governments that are offering free laptops to the students. Dell sold around one million laptops in market of six million in the last financial year.The company sustained its 15% market share in the domestic market even though company faced challenging times due to budget cuts by government and slump in consumer spending.

Dells Retail strategy and Direct-only model

Dells innovative direct- sales model with good sales growth had been successful until the mid2000s when the companys profits and share prices began dropping considerably. Dell was selling PCs directly to customers by phone and online. On May 24, 2007, Dell disclosed its plans to sell PCs in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico through Wal-Mart and Sams Club retail stores. This announcement came soon after Michael Dell returned as CEO replacing Rollins. In India, as part of the retail initiative, Dell tied up with Tata Croma (the Tata-owned electronics retail chain) in July 2008 and with select Staples stores. By the end of 2008, Dell planned to increase its presence to100 Indian cities by increasing its channel partners. In October 2008, Dell announced the opening of the first Dell exclusive stores in India at New Delhi and Coimbatore. Dell also tied up with 600 systems integrators all over the country who could take orders on its behalf.

Dells Approach to Supply Chain Management

Imagine a situation where customer demand played a vital role in a companys inventory levels. Now, most of you would assume that this is always the case. Unfortunately, its not quite that simple. In most cases, companies push finished product to customers through an aggressive sales and marketing strategy. However, were discussing a situation where a company combines this aforementioned strategy with one where customers determine what that finished product becomes. Ultimately, its about assembling most of the product, waiting for a customer order and then finishing that product to meet the customers specific requirements. This means the companys financing costs of inventory would reduce, as would its incidences of inventory obsolescence and damage. Instead of focusing solely on pushing inventory at customers, the company would also adopt a strategy predication on customer demand to pull its finished products. This is the basic premise behind Dells push-pull supply chain approach and the most important reason so many companies have tried to emulate Dells success. However, can it work for small to medium sized enterprises?

Before going into the pros and cons of Dells approach, its probably ideal to review how it differentiates from Just in Time, or more commonly referred to as simply, JIT. When thinking of JIT, think of manufacturers who make product from a fixed bill of materials. These manufacturers rely upon constant demand from customers. They typically maintain a small product line, but have tremendous purchasing power spread across that line. They use their volumes and purchasing power to drive down costs and dictate service terms with vendors. Automotive manufacturers were the earliest adopters of JIT. After the Second World War, Japanese businesses couldnt afford to retain high inventory levels. Instead, they relied upon a strategy that purchased exactly the amount of material and parts needed to fulfill orders. In essence, they would time their purchases of material and parts to coincide with customer demand. This reduced their financing costs on inventory and ensured they encountered minimal issues with damage. So how does Dells approach differ from JIT?

Understanding Dells strategy

Dells strategy differs from JIT because the company relies upon a strategy of manufacturing a portion of their computer, and then waiting for customer demand in order to complete the computer. In this case, they assemble most of the product, wait for a customer order and then finish the remaining portion. This reduces their lead times, while still allowing them to provide a customized product. In essence, they push their products to customers with an aggressive sales and marketing campaign. Next, they rely upon customer demand to pull those products. This is the basic principle behind Dells push-pull strategy. It differs from JIT in that it doesnt rely upon a finished product that is then sold to customers. Instead, Dell assembles the majority of the computer, waits for a customer order and then completes the rest.

Dells Marketing Strategy in India

Dell is targeting the small and medium businesses (SMB) in smaller towns in India as its main driver for growth as the company believes this market sector is growing rapidly and is not exposed to global shocks making it a much more stable market. Dell India is focusing on simplification of the business processes (basic areas to improve cost efficiencies) as part of its new rollout plan. It has even tied up with Tally to offer accounting solutions online. For an initial period, customers get a Tally subscription free along with select Dell Vostro systems. Dell has also increased its SMB team to 200 and expanded its presence to about 600 tier-II and tier-III cities. Dell will also introduce a portal titled Dell 360 (with discussion forums) where SMBs can educate themselves on benefits of IT to their businesses.

Dellsadvertising Campaign for SMBs

First launched in India, Dells new advertising campaign is titled Take Your Own Path. The campaign targets Indian SMBs with a new range of laptops. Testimonial Advertising instead of Transactional In December 2007, Dell partnered with WPP (after withdrawing its advertising responsibilities from over 800 different agencies worldwide) which launched its own specialist unit Enfatico with Dell as its only customer. Enfaticos first international campaign for Dell targeted SMBs featured successful Indian faces (like P Rajendran NIITs co-founder and COO, Raman Roy CEO of Quattro among others with their testimonials) and aimed at establishing an emotional connect with brand Dell.

Targeting SMBs
To address the SMB market in India, Dell developed a Direct-to-Dealers strategy. It is a two pronged strategy where Dell deals directly with end-tier of channel partners for Tier 2 and 3 cities bypassing the distributors. However, for the Tier 1 cities, Dell follows the traditional route of selling through distributors. Dell itself does not stock and sell with channel partners but sells on a back-to-back basis. Targeting low-end products for SMBs, Dell is also using the retail channel to sell Vostros, a PC specially created for SMBs. This is key since traditionally vendors have shied away from selling commercial SKUs through predominantly consumer channels. Needless to say, Dell has recognized that the small businesses, especially less than 20 employee size companies use retail channel for their PC purchases. For its lower mid-market customers, Dell is encouraging its channel partners to sell on a solution based approach. New strategies always tend to bring teething problems. With limited experience in dealing directly with the VAR/Dealer channels, signs of frustration are becoming visible, not yet within Dell but among the channels. Account managers are pushing channels to pick-up vendor mandatory stocks even if the inventory is not sold out. At the same time, channels mention that Dell does not provide any price protection nor does it yet understand the buying cycles in India which is different than many of the mature markets. In lieu of price protection, Dell has designed a rebate program for its channel partners and empowers them with white papers and training programs to help them achieve better profitability.Even if channels show some negative sentiments, there may be positives to Dells Partner Direct program, such as provisioning of single point of contact for SMBs to reach channel partners.

Targeting the SMB Market of Tomorrow

Dell is trying to not only target todays SMB but also keep in sight the Future SMB. Besides a distribution channel strategy, Dell is trying to focus on Cloud and Mobility for the SMB market. This itself is a great strategy but is yet lacking on execution. Vendors such as HP may have a much better chance of executing on the Cloud and Mobility front. Both these solution areas require extensive and experienced channel partners. Dell is in the early stages of partner development and majority of them are focused on basic building block products such as PCs and Servers. HP on the other hand has the capability to analyze its partner network and segregate them by expertise levels, creating partnerships among them to design a coherent and executable Cloud and Mobility strategy. On the flipside, since Dells channel ecosystem is relatively new, it has a rare opportunity to build a long-term program based on learnings from its own missteps and partner feedback. Although Cloud Computing in India is on the rise, there is more hype than substance, and there are more free services being used than paid. With a limited bandwidth and internet speeds, it may not be long before cloud services get delivered over wireless. Because of a heavy adoption of Smart phones and other mobile devices, the march towards mobility in India cannot be stopped. However, SMBs mostly want integrated solutions to limit complexity and therefore seek channel partners that are capable of delivering cloud and mobility solutions integrated. Unfortunately, very few channel partners currently do so especially for Dell. Those that do are financially out of reach of a typical SMB customer. And this is making SMBs unsure of overall benefits of Cloud and Mobility and desire to spend. Dell has to identify channel partners that could be ramped up and focused on delivering Cloud based solutions that have higher relevancy to SMBs.

Strategiesfor Mumbai
Dell is all set to reach buyers at every nook and corner of India with its multichannel marketing strategy. The company is still clinging to its original marketing methodology of catering to customers directly from the company. However, it has adopted a strategy of creating as many channels as possible to reach purchasers - not only in metros but also in all remote places.The company has planned for uniform pricing of products all over the country, with full opportunity for product customization, on-site service even at remotest regions, warranty programmes spanning several time frames, and toward passing on the (central) tax benefits to the customers.

1. Dell Adopts Multi-channel Marketing Strategy

Dell is all set to reach buyers at every nook and corner of India with its multichannel marketing strategy. The company is still clinging to its original marketing methodology of catering to customers directly from the company. However, it has adopted a strategy of creating as many channels as possible to reach purchasers not only in metros but also in all remote places.The company has planned for uniform pricing of products all over the country, with full opportunity for product customization, on-site service even at remotest regions, warranty programmes spanning several time frames, and toward passing on the (central) tax benefits to the customers.

2. Direct-plus strategy
The Direct-plus plan is being implemented in multiple ways. In March-end this year, Dell set up its shop-in-shop in Tata Croma, Malad, Mumbai. The company will shortly establish more such outlets in other Croma branches nationally. Any buyer can walk in to the Tata Croma outlet, he/she can see the whole brand of products displayed there, compare and select a Dell model with preferred color, weight, memory size etc., based on his/her budget. The Dell-trained sales representatives are there to understand the customers need, and guide him/her to the right purchase decision.In the case of Tata Croma, what they have done is the shop-in-shop is manned by Dell. If you go to that outlet you do not get a Croma Bill. Customer will get a Dell invoice. It is purely a display and a sales point.

3. Sales-affiliate programme
Dell has planned to appoint its affiliates out of large cities, especially, in the towns where the population is only 50,000 to 1 lakh. The Sales-affiliate programme empowers SIs, resellers and shop owners across the country to offer Dell products to their customers - without having to make huge investment, to take risk of price drop, to bother about the volume-based incentive, to worry that there is a next-door shopkeeper who will give a better discount.

4. The win-win situation.

All the Dells programmes are based on flat incentive or margin structure. The sales-affiliates need not even directly handle the products.They just need to advise customers on the right products, and simply place the order online. This system also brings huge benefit to the customers. They get the freshest technology, pay less for lower supply chain cost, get tax benefit and deal directly with the manufacturer.

Product, Segmentation & Targeting Consumer Target: Household Customer

Laptops & Ultra-books Desktops & All-in-Ones Electronics & Accessories Printers, Monitors etc New Touch PCs & Tablets. Small & Medium Business DELL Precision Workstations and mobile Workstation Vostro and Latitude line of Notebooks and Net-books Servers, Storage and Networking Equipment Services e.g. IT Consulting, Data Protection Large Enterprises Target : Large Co-operations

Blade Server Solution, Server Consolidation, Client Migration solution, Virtual Clients RISK Migration, Storage consolidation, Cloud Computing, Mobility Solutions Business Consulting Public Sector Target: Government, Schools

Digital Forensics, e-Government, Data Center Efficiency Civilian and Defense Agencies, Intelligence Security, Federal health, Consulting and Deployment Services Professional Learning, Connected Classroom, Private Cloud Computing, Wireless Classroom Learning Management systems. Intangible Products Target: All four Segment

Warranties Repair Services Software Services.

GE MATRIX
The 9 cells of ge matrix are grouped on the basis of low to high industry attractiveness and week to strong business strength and competitive position. There are 3 zones indicating 3 different combinations.

1 GO AHEAD

Under these phase the signal is to proceed and take decisions such as Dell has become universally acceptable and now it should go ahead and take up more marketing development and expansion .

2 wait and watch

These is the 2nd zone of ge matrix, this indicates hold and maintain current strategy.

3STOP

Coming to the 3rd zone it gives signal to stop under the product of Dell Corporation Thus to conclude with ge matrix it allows the user to select whatever criteria they feel are more appropriate to their business situations.

Dell Corporation possess highest attraction through its highly innovative and technical products of mobile and computers and stands first in the Ranking of Revenue and hence placed in the category as shown in the above table.

BCG MATRIX MODEL

The third-party products are new emergence for Dell. For example, Dell enter market with new products such as printer, CD-player, storage, digital camera, which are new for Dell. Therefore, Dell is not sure for their potential road for the future(put in question mark position). Services were introduced last year with more power, and now in a growing road to star position. Networking and P Portable Computers have been achieving significant growth in past years(put in star position). Desktop Computers and Enterprise Systems are the main products for Dell bringing a huge amount of profits in years(put in cow position).

GRAND/CORPORATE LEVEL STRATEGIES

Stability Strategy Modest Growth No change Sustainable Growth Profit Strategy Pause Strategy

Growth Expansion
INTERNAL GROWTH Intensification Strategy Market Penetration Market Development Product Development Diversification Strategy
VErtical Integration

Retreat Strategy Turnaround Divestment Liquidation Disinvestment

Combination Strategy
1,2 2,3 1,3 1,2 & 3

Forward integration Backward Integration

HORIZONTAL DIVERSIFICATION CONGLOMERATE

Integration Concentric Integration EXTERNAL GROWTH Merger Acquisition Amalgamation Joint Venture

Grand strategies adopted by Dell corporation are explained below with the help of the above table. Dell adopts the combination of two strategies that is the 1,2; (Stability Strategy and Growth Strategy) In the stability strategy Dell adopts the Sustainable growth Strategy wherby the company wants to get a consistent profit through its products irrespective of any new entrance of companies, Competiton, Technologyetc.

And in the second strategy Dell adopts the Product Development Strategy which fall under Intensification Strategy. This Strategy is concerned with the Internal Growth of the Company. As the Company has a very good strenght in case of market attraction through its innovative and user friendly products and with a great business strenght, the company prefer to enter into more products in the same field. New Products that are introduced by Dell are provided briefly in Chpt-1. Example, dell has come up with some new softwares, started producing new electronic products like Mobiles, High tech Laptops. And hence the dell Corporation adopts the combined Strategy of Stability and growth.

Recommendations for Strategies: Dell should focus more on enterprise solution business i.e offering complete software solutions rather than focusing only on hardware part as the margins from the software sales are much higher than the margins obtained from selling hardware component only. It needs to become an end to end IT solutions provider. Dells multi-channel strategy is working well for Dell and they should continue doing that as in India most of the computers are brought from local retailers and service integrators ( SIs) and they have advantages of geographical reach, post sale problem fixing at the doorstep, better service and price because of the existing customers influence.
The entire Dell team has to work hard to get its messaging and capabilities heard by Indian businesses because Dells end-to-end solutions story has not yet reached the crescendo it deserves. SMBs are the fastest growing IT segment in India. Dell should continue to develop and modify its mid-market design point strategy that serves the SMB customers well. By the looks of it Dell is getting consumed by its enterprise strategy leaving little time for the SMBs Although planning to introduce tablets and smartphones (in an already one-sided market), it should rapidly formulate and articulate its mobile strategy, a segment that is growing faster in countries like India than most mature markets. Build variety of competencies ( build core competencies into diverse product lines)

 Should look for Alliance-mergers and acquisitions that would bring synergic benefits for the company Reduce the attrition rate by Converting visitors into customers(people who visit the Dell site) Focus on developing nations Physical presence of Service centers would add value to their customer service Invest more in Research and Development. Reduce errors in Dells direct Internet ordering system and create a Clearance area on its website Enhance customer support services Increase Company recognition through a national advertising campaign.