Fake Steve Jobs pointed out today that Dell is spending $4.5B on a three year marketing campaign. It is entrusting the program to one large agency, WPP. But as Seth Godin reminded us this week, the age of the big idea in advertising is over.
Several years ago I was a loyal Dell customer. Computers at the store in those days were pre-configured and the staff was uninformed.
Dell was a refreshing alternative. I could configure my own computer. The pre-sales and post-sales customer support people were friendly and knowledgeable.
Then the company got very large. Both product quality and customer support declined. I stopped buying from Dell about five years ago.
Today the company is struggling. Revenue is flat and earnings are down, primarily due to a huge increase in cost-of-sales. The announcement of their marketing program is an attempt to reverse this decline.
Behind the looking glass
It’s an Alice-in-Wonderland, behind the looking glass feeling. The consumer marketing model since WWII was a manufacturer’s model. “We make stuff, we tell you about it with our advertising, you go out and buy it.” It was a model where the manufacturer had all the power.
Dell was one of the first companies to flip this model and place the focus on the customer. Their message was “You tell us what you want us to build, we’ll build a computer custom for you, we’ll answer any questions you have, and we’ll ship it to you tomorrow.”
Today most buyers, certainly both consumer and corporate buyers of technology, expect to be in charge. They want to drive the buying process. They expect companies to provide them with all the information to make a decision. They are only willing to form a relationship with a company if it is based on trust.
So why is Dell now going to make a huge investment in a marketing approach that Dell itself disrupted and overturned twenty years ago?
No matter how much WPP measures the results of campaigns and their effects on sales figures, Dell isn’t going to fix its problems with better targeting of a broadcast message.
What to do?
Nothing will improve until Dell’s current customers are happy. Fix the problems that these customers have with the company. Most of them have to do with product quality and customer support. If Dell were to fix these problems first, their newly-happy customers would be very willing to tell the company what to do next to attract new customers.
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