Dell Marketing Masters But Not So Much Product Management

Dell is struggling as a business because of their product lines. They haven’t evolved quickly enough to match their target market’s needs. The Dell marketing machine has learned that it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is if the product no longer resonates with its audience or fulfills one of their needs—when that happens your business becomes unstable and potentially unviable.

Large Organization = Less Agility

Dell has had plenty of shaky periods in the past from technology issues through to poor customer service; they’ve acknowledged these, fixed the issues and gotten back on track. The retirement of products is a normal part of the product lifecycle; it just seems that they may have been caught out on this one.

In all likelihood, Dell could not have avoided this issue; they're a vast organization, which makes them less agile. Logistically they have the infrastructure to move fast, but having this ability ties them into contracts that may make it less easy to switch product lines, especially when the market alters course at breakneck speed.

What Can a Small Business Do?

As a small business, you're much more agile. To take advantage of this, it's important to have a product roadmap in place and to make sure that you do regular reviews. The same goes even when you're offering a service and not a physical product.

Take a good look at how Dell marketing approaches their efforts—learn from their social media marketing and their web presence as a whole. The way that they stay in conversation with their entire audience is masterful. You can use the same tools you use to engage your audience to ensure that you're also staying relevant with them.

I'm a fan of both Dell’s and Intel's social media marketing programs; whom do you admire in this space? Share your favorites with us in the Comments section.

And to follow-through on the tips introduced in this short article, be sure to download your free copy of the special report on the Top 10 IT Marketing Strategies For Consistently Attracting New Business Clients to Your Small IT Business.