MBA404: Strategic Analysis of Dell's Consumer Behavior & Marketing

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Dell's market performance, focusing on consumer behavior and the factors influencing it. It examines the consumer buying process, including need recognition, evaluation of alternatives, and post-purchase evaluation, while also considering psychological, social, cultural, and personal factors affecting consumer choices. The report identifies the reasons behind the decline in Dell's sales, attributing it to factors like insufficient product differentiation and competition from brands like Lenovo and Apple. Dell's current marketing strategies, influenced by psychographics and demographics, are evaluated, highlighting the strengths of its e-commerce infrastructure and the weaknesses in product innovation and supply chain management. The report concludes with strategic recommendations for Dell, including innovative marketing strategies, leveraging social media platforms, and enhancing product differentiation to improve its market position and increase customer engagement. Desklib provides similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND ANALYSIS
Consumer Behavior and Analysis
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1Consumer Behavior and Analysis
Executive Summary
The report aims to deal with a thorough analysis of Dell in order to understand its market
performance and growth rate over the years. With the parameter of consumer buying process and
the stages involved with the same, the study will undertake an in-depth understanding of the drop
in the sales rate of Dell’s products. Special emphasis will be given on a consumer’s
psychological, social, cultural and individual factors that have had a significant influence on the
sale of Dell’s products. Ultimately, the report will conclude with a set of feasible strategic
recommendations that would help the company elevate its rate of profit by making its products
desirable to the customers. The set of recommendations would involve a diverse range of factors
that have the potentiality to improve its sales and make Dell one of the professional companies in
the market of electronics.

2Consumer Behavior and Analysis
Table of Contents
Service Overview.............................................................................................................................3
Critical Analysis..............................................................................................................................4
Consumer decision buying process.............................................................................................4
Personal Influences:.....................................................................................................................5
Post purchase evaluation:............................................................................................................5
Social Factors:.............................................................................................................................5
Personal Factors:..........................................................................................................................6
Psychological Factors:.................................................................................................................6
Cultural Factors:..........................................................................................................................6
Strategic Recommendations for Dell...........................................................................................9

3Consumer Behavior and Analysis
Service Overview
Dell, started in 1984,has established itself as a pioneer of the era of technological
innovation and providing the customers with the most competitive pricing products options
equipped with flexible customization options. Dell has striven to introduce some of the most
groundbreaking and innovative ways of creating a niche in a market. For instance, it has plans to
create waste free packaging, generate a large scale waste recycling facility and bringing in
resources to produce resource efficient packaging for its products. Innovation wise, Oracle 10g
grid on Linux is the greatest success that the company has witnessed success in the field of
catering customers with technology and revolution. The users are bestowed with amazing
features like zero system failures or outrages, sustainable performance and reliable products.
Over the years, Dell has situated itself in a well-esteemed position in the field of networking and
business expansion.
Dell is a market oriented company which focuses on catering to the customers’ needs and
produce the products in such a fashion so as it synchronizes with the demands of customers.
They have done excellent so far with the help of a strategic assessment of consumer psychology
and demand pattern, consequently fostering a harmonious relationship with their customers. One
of the awe-inspiring products of Dell has to be the Latitude 7000 which has a detachable
keyboard fashioned for the students and corporate employees to carry their tablet without any
hurdles. It has witnessed a market growth of 46 percent annually.

4Consumer Behavior and Analysis
Critical Analysis
Consumer decision buying process
Consumer has the buying power which denotes the systematic pattern of purchasing a
thing which furthermore enumerate a number of stages that influence the same. Need
recognition, consideration of available alternatives, purchase design, a thorough evaluation of the
product, choice of the product are some of the factors that have a say in influencing people’s
buying pattern. Buying process basically entails the decision behind the purchase of any good or
availing service. Desire and interest of the consumer to identify with the product is crucial in
order to increase consumer involvement (Chander and Raza 2015). The same can be influenced
by the aesthetic and utilitarian pleasure surrounding the product. Understanding the consumer
needs is absolutely necessary in order to make the product desirable to them and trigger the
recognition of the needs for the particular product. Advertising of the product through
differentiating the product from its rival competitors is an effective way of making the consumer
come in terms with their need for the product. Dell has taken the initiative of promoting the
product internally, within the organization and encouraging the employees for sharing their
feedback so that the product can increase its appeal amidst a wider section of customers. Dell has
used mediums like website advertising and consumer ratings.
Dell’s marketing strategies have however failed at product differentiation and customers
have chosen comparatively cheaper products like Lenovo and Compaq (Kotler 2015.). It has
weaken customer involvement which has failed to make them choose the product for hedonistic
or utilitarian purposes. The existence of a number of alternative has made the customer choose
other products after weighing the pros and cons. In this case, Dell has failed to compete with
Lenovo’s product design, price and brand image that Lenovo has created.

5Consumer Behavior and Analysis
Personal Influences:
This consists of the information regarding the product in ways such as it affects the way
buyer evaluates the product. The same is important to ensure that the individual is identifying
with the product that would prompt him/her in buying it. Individuals may emphasize more on the
price than the design, or vice versa which can influence the buying choice (Solomon et al. 2014).
According to market analysis of 2017, Dell has been unexpectedly beaten by Lenovo and Apple
mainly due to product innovation and appeal. The project evaluation sector includes the size,
features and the like. Dell in this aspect is lagging behind Acer and Apple who have
continuously striven to introduce new features in their products like magnesium-alloy surface
and glass touchpad.
Post purchase evaluation:
It is when the customers assess the overall qualities of their newly purchased product
(Solomon et al. 2014). Buyer’s remorse is one of the things that Dell has tried to prevent by
acquiring strategies like third party validation, like promoting positive customer reviews in
websites although product differentiation is still an issue with Dell’s advertising. Consumer
behavior and its understanding is not an easy phenomena as it is rooted deep inside the
consumer’s mind. Social, psychological, cultural and individual factors help marketers to study
current consumer behavioral pattern and analyze future trends.
Social Factors:
Family, references and individual’s status are worth considering important in social
factors (Zhang and Benyoucef 2016). These influences are significant when one considers why
an individual will choose Dell over Hp or Lenovo. Social factors play a convincing role and the

6Consumer Behavior and Analysis
buying tendency is also dependent on the role that an individual plays in the society. Dell has
failed to update itself based on the expectancies of foreign market like Acer and Samsung have.
Personal Factors:
Buyer’s age, profession, financial situation and lifestyle fall under this category and
analyzing the consumer’s lifestyle can give a brief idea about their preferences. Today the brands
have developed character traits so as to align them with the customers’, for instance customers
who are tech savvy and desire to remain up-to-dated have chosen Apple over Dell laptops. Mac
was given first preference by those who preferred sophistication over cost-effectiveness. Lenovo
ThinkPad X1 Carbon was considered the best business laptop because of its excellent battery
backup which lets working people carry out their important meetings over laptops even without
carrying a charger. Dell XPS 13 was left behind mainly because of the poor webcam quality.
Psychological Factors:
Buyer’s motivation, perception and beliefs control their buying pattern. Products are
inherently a symbol of status in the society and therefore while for some Dell laptop could be the
perfect pocket-friendly innovative model, but customers who are more inclined towards the
aesthetic features of a product will choose Apple Macbook Pro, Asus Zenbook or LG Gram.
Cultural Factors:
The basic arrays of shared values and wants that initiate buying choice have a huge role
to play in regulating the sales of laptops. Culture is further divided between sub-culture and
social class where sub-culture is shaped by nation, rare and geographic location. Social class
includes the income rate and both these factors apart from influencing the sales can also affect
how an individual is receiving the advertising of a particular product. To become compatible

7Consumer Behavior and Analysis
with these factors Dell should come up with products that would satisfy a customer’s class,
occupation, background and patterns of media usage and shopping behavior to increase product
sale.

8Consumer Behavior and Analysis
Current Marketing Strategy
Dell’s marketing strategy is influenced by a couple of factors like psychographics and
demographics. Dell believes in being geographically reachable to its customers and has therefore
established market in some of the developed economies of the world, Ireland, China etc.
although dell is facing stiff competition from brands like Hewlett, Packard and Lenovo,
customers have responded well to Dell’s web-enabled infrastructure that gives room for
customization. The e-commerce of Dell is its strongest competitive advantage that has helped
them to function in the market complying with the demands and preferences of the customers.
Dell’s products are segregated according to the class and economic scenario of the customers,
which gets a clear representation through Dell’s sales and marketing. Their current marketing
strategy involves a straight-forward interaction with the customers. In fact, in 2007 Dell
implemented its long impending decision to sell its Inspiron notebooks through Wal-Mart’s
Sam’s Club outlets (Moncrief, Marshall and Rudd 2015). After tumbling down the line and
facing stiff competition from Lenovo, as itstarted to base its marketing strategy by splitting the
customers into two clear distinctions- business and individual customers. As a result, this has
immensely helped them in product innovation and customization.
However, recently Dell’s poor marketing strategy has shown lapses in making the
product innovative and attractive from its rival competitors that have gained entry into the
market and created a niche for itself. It is in fact the driving force behind Dell’s success is
dependent. Dell’s outsourcing strategy has created a fragmented supply chain management and
making room for new competitors. It is therefore that leading electronic companies like Apple
and Google have limited outsourcing which allows them to keep their innovative features and
design internal, improving product differentiation (Kumar et al. 2016). As far as the current

9Consumer Behavior and Analysis
marketing strategy is concerned, Dell’s major failure is to differentiate its products stem from
outsourcing. Dell has recurrently failed to address these issues while creating marketing strategy
and as a result had witnessed a decline in market.
Strategic Recommendations for Dell
Innovative Marketing Strategy- the purpose of re-creating marketing strategy is to ensure better
branding. Branding is a culmination of name, symbol or design which can accentuate the
popularity of the product and differentiate them from immediate competitors (Harashima 2017).
For a better marketing strategy Dell should put ideas that would justify the product price to the
customers. Dell should do the same in the language that would have wide access in the wider
section, for instance the usage of lucid language will make the product appealing even to those
customers who are not as tech savvy as the others. Unnecessary jargon in the language can make
the features look chaotic and can affect those sections of the society who do not have in-depth
knowledge regarding laptops and functioning.
Social Media as a viable Platform- the generation is hugely dependent on social media when it
comes to gathering opinion about a commodity or changing their pre-existing notions regarding
the same. Putting the innovative products on the forefront like on the web forums with the help
of bloggers can help Dell access to a section of consumers like students, marketing professionals
and personal bloggers. Advertising through magazines, television sets or billboards can miss out
those sections of society who are use social media platforms for the better part of day (Sirgy
2015). Dell can use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to engage customers, introduce and
familiarize them with innovative features and shape their awareness. One of the apparent
advantages of using social media as a tool is that it can help Dell to connect up with customers,
increase online traffic and analyzing customer psychology. The online viewers can be most

10Consumer Behavior and Analysis
effectively converted into potential customers in this way. Dell can create a conversation on the
social media platform rather than blindly following the age-old technique of promoting a product
(Luo et al. 2017).
Increase of Retail Locations-Dell’s immediate focus should be on location-based marketing that
would help them to reach out to more number of customers, assess their buying patterns, and
know in-depth about the exiting customers. Location based marketing can also help Dell to
create a new customer base with the strategic administration of innovative product features and
therefore convert their buying impulse to sales. Another most important aspect of setting up
more retail locations is an efficient regulation of buying remorse, by being more responsive and
accessible to them (Birkin, Clarke and Clarke 2017). As it is the buyer need information, product
efficiency to ensure that their post purchase product evaluation is not full of regrets. Location-
based services can furthermore gain Dell an appreciating position on the internet search results,
and influence the consumers in a most significant way.
Segmentation and Targeting of Customers-Segmentation, targeting and positioning the products
can help in the overall growth structure of Dell (Cross, Belich and Rudelius 2015). With the
wise use of customer segmentation and product innovation and differentiation, Dell can come up
with interesting features in their notebooks, desktops or laptops. Pricing of the product should be
done n compliance with the demographic status of the customers, the income patter and
education of the customers. The main strategy of Dell should be to produce low priced products
while at the same time maintaining the profit scale of the company. A smooth relationship with
its suppliers will help Dell with market benefits and a steady supply of products to the customers
(Christopher 2016). Segmentation will help Dell understating behavioral patterns in order to spot
customers wants that can be satiated by the brand Dell. The laptops needs a better

11Consumer Behavior and Analysis
implementation of important customer-friendly features like sleek models weighting low,
improving color gamut and a well responsive touch bar.