Dell Direct and Not-So-Direct Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dell Direct and Not-So-Direct - Case Study Example As a result Dell began to form alliances with retailers around the world to sell Dell products at their stores. Key Marketing Issues Branding – Dell was able to build a strong brand value in the United States, but the company has not been as effective at marketing its brand in other parts of the world. Dell was forced to change its business model to allow retailers to sell its products at retail outlets worldwide. Brand loyalty – The brand loyalty of the company is weak outside of the United States. Dell should increase its spending in advertising and marketing to solidify the brand value of the business entity. Channels of Distribution – Dell was effective at being the sole channel of distribution for its products for many years. As the business matured the company realized that further business growth required increasing its distribution channels. Retailers – Dell is now using retailers as a permanent strategy to achieve growth in market share. The firm has to identify the top retailers that can bring the company the maximum amount of sales. Wholesalers – Dell is using the wholesaling strategy to penetrate the market for business computers as well as governmental contracts. The firm has to adequately identify the required volume of sales and price per lot to ensure the firm maintains profitability. Personal Case Analysis Dell Computers was one of the biggest success stories in the high tech industry during the 1990’s and early part of the 21st century. The direct selling method was innovative because it allowed the customers the ability to customize their computers. The business model was helping the company achieve higher profit margins, while offering very competitive prices due to the fact that Dell eliminated the intermediaries. The strategy was tremendous, but it had an inert flaw that eventually caught up to the company. The strategy was not effective at attracting international clients. Once Dell reached the ma turity stage the firm had to seek expansion outside the United States. It became cheaper for Dell to outsource the selling function to retailers than to sell directly to customers in foreign countries because the company did not have the marketing expertise to target customers outside the United States. Case Questions 1. Is Dell using intensive, selective or exclusive distribution for its market coverage? Dell is using selective distribution is its market coverage of different parts of the world. The company has identified specific retailers they have targeted as business partners. The company has control over which retailers sell the firm’s products. Some of the retailers Dell has selected for distribution of its products include: Wal-Mart, Carphone Warehouse’s U.K. Stores, Bic Camara Japanese Stores, and Gome’s Chinese Store. 2. How does dell's preference for direct channels affect its decisions about physical distribution? The preference of Dell of selling di rectly to customers positively influenced the entire supply chain of the company. Dell was able to centralize its warehouses in strategic positions in the United States to be able to deliver the final product to its customers as fast as possible. The direct sale approach saved the company money because the firm had a lower obsolesce rate than other competitors. 3. What issues in channel conflict might arise from Dell's current distribution arrangements? The new channel approach Dell is using could cause

Information and Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Information and Communications - Essay Example Given that language, music, and images constitute the major forms of symbolic expression, they assume special significance in the sphere of culture. Both processes, media globalization and cultural imperialism, are closely connected with cultural globalization which means expansion of cultural flows across the globe. At the beginning of the 21st century, global media interferes all parts of the world promoting and popularizing western life style and ideas. The exploding network of cultural interconnections and interdependencies in the last decades has led some commentators to suggest that cultural practices lie at the very heart of contemporary globalization (Lee 2002). Yet, cultural globalization did not start with the worldwide dissemination of rock 'n' roll, Coca-Cola, or football. Expansive civilizational exchanges are much older than modernity. Still, the volume and extent of cultural transmissions in the contemporary period have far exceeded those of earlier eras. Facilitated by the Internet and other new technologies, TV shows and mindless advertisements, these corporations increasingly shape people's identities and the structure of desires around the world (Tomlinson 88). During the last two decades, a small group of very large TNCs have come to dominate the global market for entertainme nt, news, television, and film. In 2000, only ten media conglomerates - AT&T, Sony, AOL/Time Warner, Bertelsmann, Liberty Media, Vivendi Universal, Viacom, General Electric, Disney, and News Corporation - accounted for more than two-thirds of the $250-275 billion in annual worldwide revenues generated by the communications industry (Tomlinson 54). In general, cultural imperialism means promotion and spreading of one culture into another. "Cultural imperialism has been conceptualized variously as a strategy on the part of dominant countries, a local policy on the part of receiving countries, and an effect on the people and practices in the latter. Dominant nations have clear strategies concerning the export of cultural products" (Crabtree and Malhotra 364). As recently as 15 years ago, not one of the giant corporations that dominate what Benjamin Barber has appropriately called the 'infotainment telesector' existed in its present form as a media company. In 2001, nearly all of these corporations ranked among the largest 300 non-financial firms in the world. Today, most media analysts concede that the emergence of a global commercial-media market amounts to the creation of a global oligopoly similar to that of the oil and automotive industries in the early part of the 20th century (Tomlinson 74). The crucial cultural innovators of earlier decades - small, independent record labels, radio stations, movie theatres, newspapers, and book publishers - have become virtually extinct as they found themselves incapable of competing with the media giants. The negative consequences of this shotgun marriage of finance and culture are obvious. TV programs turn into global 'gossip markets', presenting viewers and readers of all ages with the vacuous details of the private lives of American celebrities like Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kobe Bryant. Evidence suggests that people all over the world - but especially