Global Trade and Business Group Award Graded Unit 2.docx

Global Trade and Business: Group Award Graded Unit 2SummaryThe sales strategy of Dell should be decided by the situation of all affect factors. Those factors are the basic of decision in sales strategy, and they can help the Dell to use the suitable in the development of Chinese market.In this report, it would shows that the analysis of the sales strategy in Dell. Firstly, the target customers, it has different level of customer groups, Dell should provide different products to different customers. Secondly, the product positioning, Dells should have a suitable product position in the market and have competitiveness with other brands. Thirdly, the pricing position, the suitable price would attract suitable consumers and price should decide the sales of product. Fourthly, the sales channel, the sales channel is the competitiveness of Dell in the Chinese market, the sales channel would decide the quantity of products in sales. According to those factors, Dell has a suitable sales strategy in Chinese market and gets more benefits and consumers. 1. Background informationDell Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest technological corporations in the world, employing more than 103,300 people worldwide. Dell is listed at #38 on the Fortune 500.Dell has grown by both organic and inorganic means since its inceptionnotable mergers and acquisitions including Alienware (2006) and Perot Systems (2009). As of 2009, the company sold personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, and computer peripherals. Dell also sells HDTVs, cameras, printers, MP3 players and other electronics built by other manufacturers. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce.In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own designthe Turbo PC, sold for US$795. PCs Limited advertised its systems in national computer magazines for sale directly to consumers and custom assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options. The company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading.The company changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation in 1988 and began expanding globallyfirst in Ireland. In June 1988, Dells market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share. In 1992, Fortune magazine included Dell Computer Corporation in its list of the worlds 500 largest companies, making Michael Dell the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company ever.In 1996, Dell began selling computers via its web site, and in 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Dells first acquisition occurred in 1999 with the purchase of ConvergeNet Technologies. In 2003, the company was rebranded as simply Dell Inc. to recognize the companys expansion beyond computers. From 2004 to 2007, Michael Dell stepped aside as CEO, while long-time Dell employee Kevin Rollins took the helm. During that time, Dell acquired Alienware, which introduced several new items to Dell products, including AMD microprocessors. To prevent cross-market products, Dell continues to run Alienware as a separate entity but still a wholly owned subsidiary.Dells major competitors include Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Asus, Lenovo, IBM, Samsung, Apple and Sun Microsystems. Dell and its subsidiary, Alienware, compete in the enthusiast market against AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, VoodooPC (a subsidiary of HP), and other manufacturers. In the second quarter of 2010, Dell had between 18% and 19% share of the worldwide personal computer market, compared to HP with roughly 15%.2. Analysis of sales strategy in DellDell has the successful sales strategy in the Chinese market, they has the detailed investigation of the market. According to the results, they have the decision for the reasonable sales strategy in different factors. The following content is to have analysis and introduction in the influence factors.2.1 Target customersAccording to different level of customer groups and different demand and behavior from the customers, Dell should have the consumers segmentation in the sales and service. This is one of the strategies in the basic of sales. According to the geography, age, gender, income, occupation, education level, psychology, behavior and so on from the consumers, those factors would make the consumers to be divided into the group which has the common characteristic. That would help the company to get the more business opportunities focus on the different customers in production, sales and service. 2.1.1 Geographical factorsIn the Chinese market, the region can be divided into the consumers from the cities and villages.l The consumers from the urban areaThe consumers from the urban area should pay attention to the products in the trend of the times and multi-function. They would choose the appearance and function of the products, and they also keep abreast the development of the society.l The consumers from the suburban areaThe consumers from the suburban area should pay attention to the guileless and honest; they should not consider the appearance and function in the computers.For the different areas, Dell has different strategy and store. Dell has the computers of the new and more functions for the urban area, those would affect the consumers to choose the Dell and meet them for the requirement of the life style. And also Dell has the special store in the suburban area. They should choose the computers of the low price and family version, those would meet the consumers requirement of suburban area and easily to accept for the consumers.2.1.2 Population factorsa) GenderMen and women have different demand of the products; the computer would not be an exception. The women have the high requirement for the appearance of the products, such as the colors, shapes and volume. The men would not focus on product colors; they pay attention to the practical function, such as the games.b) AgeAccording to the consumers in different age and different environment and jobs, they have differentiation in the demand of computers. Due to the age, I will divide consumers into different levels, such as the senior students, the junior students, professionals, general private users, home users and older consumers.7-18 years old18-25 years old23-50 years oldUp 50 years oldThe senior students The junior students The professionalsThe older consumersThe general private usersThe home usersTable 1In the table 1, it shows that Dell has different ages of the consumers in the development.l The senior studentsThe reasons of buying the computer for the senior students are most be consider from their parents, the parents want to help children to study. So the computer for child has good function in study and not focus on other function, the weight of the computers for child is light.l The junior studentsThe age of the junior students is between 18 to 25, they have to buy the computer by themselves or their parents. The demand of this age is large number, because they study in the university and have special consumption characteristics. And they would like to have the fashion, high requirement and be upgraded. Therefore, they should consider the major in the university, such as the engineering drawing, software development, and so on. Those make them to have the high function of computers.l The professionalsThe purpose of buying the computers for the professionals is to the demand of work; most of them should like to buy the laptops. And they also not care about the price; the main attention of them is the performance and quality.l The general private usersThey would not focus on machine which is the desktop or laptop. The different consumers will choose the computer according to their individual.l The home usersThe home users generally prefer desktops, and they will care about the price and effective. In addition, the home users would have the high requirement of service and the upgrading of products is slow.l The older consumersThis group of consumers is the age of 60, the time of studying the computer is not longer. They has the low requirement for the function of the products, they focus on the price and quality.According to the different ages of consumers demand, Dell has the research the different configurations of the computers to meet the different ages of consumers. For the senior student, the home users and the old consumers, Dell provides the different configurations of desktops for them. Because they should have the use the computers in the fix places and also has the low requirements for the computers. For the junior students, the professionals and the general private users, they would choose the laptops in their work. It is easily to carry and use comfortable. Dell has the different shapes of laptops. According to the different consumers, Dell makes the computer have different functions in the computers to meet their requirement. For example, the Alienware M17x, is the type of the computer in Dell, has the fashion shapes and also have the perfect functions in the configurations. It can meet the all the requirements of games now and provide the 17 inches screen. According to the different demands from the consumers, the design group of Dell designs the different computers with different configurations to attract the consumers. 2.1.3 User scaleAccording to the different consumers, Dell has divided the consumers into different group.Table 2In the table 2, it shows that the classification of the consumers in Dell. l The Small groupIt includes the small companies and the general consumers. They have the small quantity of the computers, and they pay attention to the product price. According to the buying habits, consumption ability and consumer preference, they would choose their products and their demand has diversified characteristics.l The large groupIt includes the large companies, the medium-sized companies, and the government and education organizations. They are the large organization which has a large number of computers and always has the buying decision.For the large and medium-sized companies, the economic benefit is the main consideration factors. They would be interested in the factors of price, performance, specifications, characteristics, discounts and after-sales service (repair). And they also buy them through the advertising, review, experience and reputation. According to the factors, Dell has the discounts to the consumers and gets the new consumers. When they would set up the trust, Dell should have the cooperation relationship with the consumers. And also Dell should cultivate the knowledge of the products for the consumers and improve the customers loyalty.For the government, they should not pay attention to the price and notice the reliability of products, strength of sellers and the characteristics of the standardization in the company. And the governments always analyze and test the products in specialization. Dell also has the special method of the payment for the buyers. This can help the Dell to have the long cooperation relationship with the consumers in the credit equivalence and financial support. In Dell, it has the different group to be responsible for the different consumers. For the small group, Dell has the stores and website for them. The consumers can buy the computer from the website, the products of the website is from the warehouse of Dell. For the large group in the sales, Dell provides the group in marketing department to serve and deal with the order, delivery and service. And Dell also can provide different configurations of computers to meet the different departments in the companies. The choices of the companies are more flexible.2.1.4 Psychological factorsDell has the division for the psychological position from the consumers. It includes the direction in the price, quality, service, fashion and brand. Price directionThe consumers pay attention to the price in the buying products, so the price is the first consideration. The price of the computer in accepting for the consumer is 4000 to 6000.Quality directionThe consumers would pay attention to the quality and product performance. They ask the enterprise to have the high quality assurance.Service directionThe consumers take care of the service in pre-sale and after-sale, and they hope that they can get the perfect shopping experience in the whole process.Fashion directionSome of the consumers should care the levels of fashion and trend. They should have the influence easily in the surroundings, so the renewal speed of product is faster.Luxury directionThe consumers seek the high price of products, and they have the satisfaction in buying the product with high price.Table 3In the table 3, it shows that the consumers have different psychological positions.According to the different positions in psychology from the consumers, Dell would have different decisions and strategies for them. When the Dell increases its quality, they would change the different configurations to meet the different consumers, such as the appearance, fashion, service and luxury. Dell has increased overall level in service and quality, they pay attention to the characteristics of the products. According to provide the different products, the more customers would choose the Dell.2.2 Product positioningIn the Chinese market, Dell has some competitors and has the market share with others. According to the development in the Chinese market, Dell has increased its competitiveness and had more market share. this would due to its correct product position.2.2.1 Product characteristics The brand awareness (high)HPLenovoAcerDellAsusPrice (low) Price (high)The brand awareness (low)Table 4In the table 4, it shows that the product position of Dell and other competitors in the price and the brand awareness.From the chart, Lenovo and HP have the high brand awareness and high price in the Chinese market. Dell has product promotion in the market and attracts many potential consumers of moderate brand loyalty and transferred brand loyalty (Those would be introduced in the 2.2.3). The market share for Dell has increase, because the Dell has the correct product position. The high brand awareness and lower price is the strategy of products in Dell, those would help the Dell to build the competition ability.As the increasing of income, the price is not the only factor to affect the behavior in buying. The more customers pay attention to the quality and service. Dell has its product characteristics, such as the low cost of labor, low price route and high quality service. According to attracting the consumers, the price is low in Dell with same configurations of the computer in competitors. This product characteristic is the position of Dell and it would increase the brand awareness for Dell.The quality (high)LenovoDellHPAcerAsusService (low) Service (high)The quality (low)Table 5In the table 5, it shows that the product position of Dell and other competitors in the service and quality.According to comparing in quality and service, Dell has the good position. From the chart, although the product of Dell has less ability in quality, they lose the consumers which have the high requirement in products. In the service, Dell pursues concept about customer is the teacher. In the buyers of government (It would be introduced in 2.1.3), they should not pay attention to the price and notice the reliability of products, strength of sellers and the characteristics of the standardization in the company. Dell increases their production and quality, the government would choose the Dell as their first choice. And also Dell has improved its service; the government would choose the Dell. The government has its authority and buys the products of Dell. It would show the advantage of the product, and help the Dell to have the good advertising. Those should increase the market share for the products of Dell.2.2.2 Product promotionThe promotion for products is the one of the important factors in the sales for the company. 2.2.2.1 Promotion policies Extraordinary only Dell is global promotion policies for the individual consumers in Dell. Dell gives the special experience about multi-channel in pre-sales, product position in after-sales and service coverage in multi-level. Those make the consumers to get their suitable products according to their special requirement. Dell has provided variety of hardware platforms, all kinds of standard accessories and a variety of personalized color design. The experience, unique, precise marketing is the Dells product promotion in special products for the consumers.Those can help the consumer to know more for Dell, and they also know which way to buy Dell, the different in Dell and the characteristics in service. Dell has the accurate marketing position, choice for the consumers and more accurate to buy the products. 2.2.2.2 Advertising The purpose of the advertising in Dell is to hope that more consumers know Dell and understand the products in Dell have parity and high quality. They want to