Marketing plan and strategies for dell

Marketing plan and strategies for Dell Content Executive Summary 1 Situation Analysis 1.1 Macro-Environmental Analysis 1.1.1 Demographic Environment 1.1.2 Political-Legal Environment 1.1.3 Economic Environment 1.1.4 Social-Cultural Environment 1.1.5 Technological Environment 1.2 Competitive Analysis 1.3 Customer Analysis 1.4 Distribution Channels Analysis 1.5 SWOT Analysis 1.5.1 Strengths 1.5.2 Weaknesses 1.5.3 Opportunities 1.5.4 Threats Objectives 10 2.1 Financial Objective 10 2.2 Marketing Objective 10 Marketing Strategies 11 3.1 Segmentation 11 3.2 Positioning 12 Marketing Mix 13 4.1 Product Strategy 13 4.1.1 Definition of Product 13 4.1.2 Core Product 13 4.1.3 Expected Product 14 4.1.4 Augmented Product 14 4.2 Price Strategy 14 4.3 Place Strategy 15 4.4 Promotion Strategy 16 Action Plan 16 Budgets 17 Control 17 Conclusion 17 Reference 18 Executive Summary Dell is a multinational technology corporation that develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell employs more than 82,700 people worldwide Dell grew during the 1980s and 1990s to become the largest seller of PCs and servers As of 2009 it held the second spot in computer-sales within the industry behind HP Every product level must develop a marketing plan for achieving its goals as one of the most important outputs of the marketing process There is a marketing plan for Dell’s laptop has been well prepared and the main objectives of the plan will be explained in details as following: Whether to determine brand awareness within the target market can meet financial budgets Are current customers satisfied with their products or what are customer needs that separate Dell from its competitors？ What features macro and micro environment include? So on, what are Dell’s strengths against its weaknesses? How to capture the entire segment of Dell by drawing an action strategy? Dell’s consumers are no age limited both of the male and female There is a huge market potential Customized design is the key of the company to attract customers Dell laptop belongs to on-line product But as the increasing market maturity, its products can be classified the stage The product meets consumers’ needs and demands to reach a high customer satisfaction Referred to price, administered prices are used for extending Dell’s Internet sales products Due to the high involvement with customers, advertisings and direct response promotion will always be the best ways for Dell to promote its products By those promotions, customers will be showed and explained the reason why Dell laptops will be their best choice Furthermore, in order to make it possible to allow each customer to purchase from Dell factory directly, Dell cuts out the retail sellers as distributors Therefore the customers now have the opportunity to customize their own laptops As consequence, there will be a big improvement of delivery Company operations are totally under controlled by Dell’s rules Such as: managers are required to reduce mistakes and to get more successful to approach better sales analysis; managers are required to compete regularly their performance with other competitors to make better performance analysis; And for marketing cost analysis, they are required to control and distribute the costs by using the useful account With the effective company operations, even if Dell’s competitors become stronger and larger, Dell will not be beaten Compared with Dell’s sales, the costs of the whole company are relatively high For further company operation development, Dell will find a proper way to redistribute and reduce the costs to achieve the final goal, which is higher profit Situation Analysis 1.1 Macro-Environmental Analysis 1.1.1 Demographic Environment Demographic elements are the most important elements of the macro-environment Population, growth rates, and age mix are all included in the demographic environment It is well known that the world population is continuous growing every single second Nowadays, our planet crowded by young people; the age of laptop users’ tends younger and younger each day The users’ age range will be extended It is clear that there will definitely be a very potential and huge market for Dell Also because laptops can provide customer a greater flexibility, so they can take the laptop with them wherever they go The laptop is now highly preferred by businessmen international business environment But to occupy the whole global market, it is not as easy as it seems to be Globalization brings greater choice availability and the customers now can enjoy the advantages of using internet to get information, the difficulties of Dell to enlarge their market share also rises Rather than mass marketing, Dell should focus on micro markets, such as businessman, educators and students Different marketing strategy is needed for different target segmentation 1.1.2 Political-Legal Environment Business is never isolated from political environment all times Dell, as a local company in USA, it contributes a parts of USA economy The future of Dell can be part related to the US politics As known that the political environment in the US has been changing abruptly in the past years, Dell has been highly affected Dell is not able to counter them The US government was trying to revive the PC-related business by changing in the legislation and laws But unfortunately, the results were far away from what was expected Wall Street posted fewer losses by cutting costs to predict that the expectations will be more dip The company has been able to beat it As the conservatism increasing in the consumer spending, Dell’s sale has been affected By speaking of environment policies, due to the old products, Dell is also facing the significant pressure from environmental groups across the US Dell has to obey the ewaste regulations and take responsibility for public environment in terms of environmental policies 1.1.3 Economic Environment International market can bring great opportunity of business, but also brings the high tariff Especially the tariff of IT products is higher Then it will not be that easy for Dell to enter the other markets apart from USA For IT market, the most of the population of the world is young people, who are adaptive to change in technology Dell needs to seize this huge opportunity Dell can manufacture its products with more user friendly and close to fresh young people Not only that, but also the purchasing power is no more narrowed in working population due to the world’s economy is recession and meltdown Therefore, Dell needs to adopt new strategies and new policies to adapt with the changing era On the other hand, inventory and credit management of receivables are also affected by the change of world’s economy Dell now is the change of its core policies Such as: the inventory conversion days need to be reduced to shorten operation cycle and hence reduce the cost 1.1.4 Social-Cultural Environment More and more young population and working population are now the key role in the IT product market The need of computers is growing in a very rapid speed By the technological revolution, the world has changed from industrial age to information age Computer has become an irreplaceable and personal kit As the high speed developing technology of internet and the purchasing habit changing, people prefer to shop online more than go to the traditional retailers Most of young people will “google” the rate of producers or customers’ comments on line before they decide which one to buy Due to “dell.com”, Dell takes an advantage over others In addition, Dell supports projects and medical seminars and so has long term plans: they want to combine senses, people and the computers Dell takes the fruit of these works Of course, Dell makes all of these works for the sake of the humanity 1.1.5 Technological Environment It is exciting that the development of technological is at a high speed, which gives Dell a huge stage to display advanced technology products to its customers Technology is the soul of an industry If there is a development in technology, Dell has also made their product lines adjusted and adapted To keep the old technology can not bring Dell a constant continuing developing production The old technology will be abandoned very soon, especially in IT technology One of the most important affects of technological changes is Dell’s direct business model, which has led to the increasing demand of Dell computers Dell has perfect e-commerce capabilities, which can be seen with the success of the dell.com (O C Ferrell & Michael D Hartline 2008) 1.2 Competitive Analysis Dell’s major competitors in its PC market are HP, Sony, Apple and Toshiba One quarter for PC sales in U.S is showed in Figure The worldwide market decreased 6.5% year-over-year to 66 million units in 2009 Apple’s Mac business leveled out after strong growth last year U.S Mac shipments were down 1% year-over-year, representing 7.4% of the market But that is a significant deceleration after the company grew U.S shipments about 33% year-over-year during a quarter of 2008 Meanwhile, Dell, as its shipments fell 16% to 26.2% of the U.S market And netbook specialist Sony grew its shipments by 49% to 13.6% of the U.S market, third to HP and Dell HP recently posted better financial results than Dell, but has announced around 26,000 redundancies as part of its attempts to cut costs and integrate the ？7.2bn acquisition of EDS Dell rival HP has also suffered in the global recession (Tim Berry & Doug Wilson 2000) Company 1Q 09 Market 1Q 08 market 1Q09 Shipments Share (%) Shipments Share (%) Grow HP 4,228 27.7 3,804 24.8 11.1 Dell 3,996 26.2 4,775 31.2 -16.3 Sony 2,076 13.6 1,389 9.1 49.4 Apple 1,135 7.4 1,148 7.5 -1.1 Toshiba 1,005 6.6 840 5.5 19.6 Other 2,837 18.6 3,371 22.0 -15.8 (Thousands of Units) Figure Figure shows the representation of HP, Dell and Apple on product and service Competitors Customer Product Product Technical Sales Awareness Quality Availability Assistance force HP E G E G G Dell E F G G G Apple E G F G Note: E=Excellent, G=Good, F=Fair, P=Poor Figure 1.3 Customer Analysis Deciding to buy a laptop is not an easy decision for the customers, because the consumer is highly involved in a purchase but sees little difference in brands This is a high involvement decision as the laptops are expensive, bought infrequently, and risky There are many different brands in the laptop market, but few significant differences So this is a dissonance-reducing buying behavior of the customers Therefore, the marketers have to ensure their products no defects, excellent service, cheap spare parts and high performance and differentiate their competitors as well Dell is aware of these and its philosophy is to “improve and make better” rather than “inventing all the time” Now 75% of Dell’ sales revenue is from government organizations and large businesses but only 5% comes from student market According to a new survey, we will understand the reason why Dell lost the student market 91% of university students own laptops; 24% own a Toshiba, followed by 22% who own HP, and 17% Dell; 61% think the appearance of Dell’s laptops is poor; 55% think the size is big; 57% think modification in the laptop appearance would enhance their decision to buying a Dell laptop From the survey, we know that design is greatly important to students 1.4 Distribution Channels Analysis Channels of distribution are critical to the success of a manufacturer A well designed channel creates time, place and ownership utility for the consumer and can augment the manufacturer’s product Distribution channels may move product directly from the manufacturer to the consumer, or make use of intermediaries between the manufacturer and the consumer F Dell uses the direct model to distribute its products There are not retails between Dell and its customers Dell’s customers can order products directly from the factory and receive their computer often within days (William M Luther 2001) 1.5 SWOT Analysis 1.5.1 Strengths Dell is the World’s largest PC marker Profits for the months to July 2009 were in excess of $1.4 billion US, representing a growth of around 28% For the last couple of years it has held its position as market leader The Dell brand is one of the best known and renowned computer brands in the world Dell cuts out the retailer and supplies directly to the customers It uses information technology, and Customer Relationship Management approaches to capture data on its loyal consumers Components are made by suppliers, never by Dell PCs are assembled using relatively cheap labor You can even keep track of your delivery by contacting customer services The finished goods are then dropped off with the customer by courier Dell has total command of the supply chain Dell allows consumers to fully customize their laptops As the market growing more educated, the demand of specific needs is increasing from customers for their own target of laptops In case that each customer can purchase directly from Dell factory with their own customized laptop, Dell cut out the retailer as a distributor Taking advantages from Dell’s direct business model, the latest IT technology is able to be displayed faster on Dell’s computers than the other competitors For those who are running an indirect distribution channels, their inventory will not be able to be turned over frequently to catch up the latest technology In Dell, inventory is turns over for an average of every six days, which also keeps a low cost of inventory Dell is not only good at the developing of their products, but they are also taking great cares about customer services In approximately 90% of the cases can be solved over the telephone by support specialist, which is named as “hot-line that was manned 24 hours a day” For such a high success rate of problem solving, customers were truly satisfied Finally, one of Dell’s great strengths, which have to be mentioned, is defining the target market It is about 75% of all sales revenue is gained from organizations, governments and large businesses It is not difficult to see that Dell has the ability to build a good Public Relationship with governments, large organizations and other businesses As the benefit from this one particular strength, Dell earned most its business from the relationships 1.5.2 Weaknesses Because Dell has a large range of products and components from many different suppliers from various countries, the occasional recall is inevitable, which made Dell embarrassed In 2004 Dell had recalled 4.4 million laptop adapters because they might overheat, leading to electric shocks or fires Dell is a computer maker rather than a compute manufacturer It buys products and components from a number of concentrated hi-tech manufacturers, which is a big advantage in terms of business operations, allowing Dell to pay more attention on marketing and logistics However, Dell relies on a few large suppliers, and to an extent is locked in for periods of time As well known that Dell has the ability to sense its target market, but Dell cannot be always successful The wrong market targeting in educational institution segment can be seen as a fatal weakness of Dell Figure evidence from Dell’s total sales revenue says that only 5% was earned from educational institution segment There can be a strategy for focusing target market, but there should not be such a strategy for neglecting a target market Therefore it seems that it is not ready for Dell being in a position to take advantage of educational institution segment yet Direct business model, which considered as strength of Dell, brings lots of advantages for Dell But everything has two sides From another point of view, direct business model could be seen as one of Dell’s weaknesses For those who are not familiar with computers, it is becoming difficult to purchase the product without seeing and touching it But Dell does not provide retail services, so the customer is not able to make a decision right away This is a limitation of time efficiency 1.5.3 Opportunities As the general trend of globalization, integration of information, business and technology, personal computers as the essential tool are being purchased and used more than ever before Due to the particular portable and movable advantages of laptop, it is becoming more and more popular in IT market The demand of laptop grows much faster than that of desktop computers Laptops can be a new growing opportunity for Dell The business can be targeted in all segments Another great and potential opportunity for Dell is existing customers Young people as one of the Dell’s customer groups is constantly growing, they are more educated about personal computers and they know what they want after the first time purchasing Dell should take great care about those existing customers to keep their loyalty for a constant continues business growing Dell is making and selling low-cost, low-price computers to PC retailers in the US The PC is unbranded and should not be recognized as being Dell when the consumer makes a purchase Rebranding and retagging those low-cost and low-price PCs from Dell for retailers, and this business model bring Dell new market segments to attack with the associated marketing costs (Pinegar 2002) 1.5.4 Threats Competitors will always be the biggest threats from outside The situation for Dell is that the competition of PC market is existed in international market All profitable brands, new entrants to the market and retaliation from competitors can all be Dell’s threats Dell is making PC, but not manufacturing PC The most of Dell’s suppliers are from Far East The labor costs are relatively low than Western labors And this is not a big business secret; Dell’s competitors are all doing the same strategy Dell may share the PC components or similar one from the same or similar suppliers In addition, there is nothing to stop competitors offering the suppliers a better deal to cut out others’ sourcing Another big threat to Dell from external is the price war In IT market, the price difference among brands is getting smaller Dell has a particular business model which makes it stand out in the market The business model is Dell’s Direct Model It attracts customers with a low price compared with other brands But as other companies are working on their supply chain to reduce cost, they can also offer customers a low price With almost identical prices, Dell’s price-conscious growing customer base will be under threats Besides competitors, fluctuation in the World currency is also an unpredictable threat in international marketing It could leave the company to the potential risks of loosing in parts of its supply chain For a further consideration, increasing demand of technology innovation could be a future threat for Dell Dell is occupying big market share now, which means Dell needs to work doubly hard on innovation to differentiate itself from its competitors to be able to continue holding a significant market share (Gwendolyn Cuizon 2009) Objectives 2.1 Financial Objective INCOME STATEMENT OF Dell FROM 2007 TO 2009 2009 2008 2007 Total Revenue ($) 118,364,000 104,286,000 91,658,000 Change of Revenue (%) +12.4 +13.8 Cost of Goods Sold ($) 89,592,000 78,598,000 69,178,000 Gross Profit ($) 28,772,000 25,688,000 22,480,000 Expenses ($) 17,970,000 16,680,000 15,671,000 Net Profit ($) 10,802,000 9,008,000 6,809,000 Change of Net Profit (%) +19.9 +32.3 Figure Figure shows Dell’s income-statement for the last years, its total revenue for the last years has increased year by year In 2010, under the pressure of economic crisis, we are looking forward to the total profit of Dell will not fall Total revenue may decline in the case of maintaining the profit growth One way is to reduce the expenses as shown in figure Therefore, Dell’ financial objective for next month is minimizing its decrease of sales and remaining their net profit by effectively operating their expense cost 2.2 Marketing Objective To attain quantitative and qualitative leadership Maintain constant positive sales growth every year than the other competitor Increase the market share by market development To modify the existing market areas To increase product awareness as well as sales by persuasive promotional activities 3 Marketing Strategies Marketing strategy is built on segmentation, targeting and positioning Nowadays, mass-marketing is not useful as it did past Segmentation gains importance more and more in marketers’ plans Consumers differ greatly in values they bear on and their needs vary their status, lifestyle, geography, occasion etc Market segments can be built up in many ways from income customers dispose to personality they carry One part of the target market of Dell for laptop is business segmentation including large corporate, government, medium and small businesses Another part is individual segmentation including educational customers and home 3.1 Segmentation Business segmentation, similar needs can be categorized into wireless networking, security, performance, battery life and weight For organizations in which computers mainly on tables, performance and price lead firstly Vostro series of Dell designed on these lights of the purposes with affordable price while performing well While Vostro series places in desktop replacement category serving especially government offices, Latitude series appear in ultraportable category in which prides are the most expensive and lightest permitting long business travels with hours of battery life The one that must being explained also is security need Individual segmentation, mainstream category including series of Studio and Inspiron are generally all in on products which are mobile and light but not as commercial as Latitude series Particularly, when we look at segment universities Studio series are more suitable for them, because today many universities provide internet services on wireless networking And what a chance Studio series are the cheapest product providing excellent wireless connection University gamers also can enjoy wireless networking with multiplayer tournaments Students can easily transfer their data among laptops and with powerful display properties they can walk on the board to present their assignments When we think today’s university freshmen as tomorrow’s professional managers, this segment can also gain a good loyalty to Dell aiming in the future with the experience of good service and satisfaction 3.2 Positioning Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market The overall goal is to extend the product’s life and profitability As one of the target markets is young people, Dell and its major competitors: HP, Toshiba, Sony, IBM and Apple’ brand, quality and design have been questioned on the survey that have been made among 24 young people beginning ages from twenty to twenty-six The persons had been asked to evaluate laptop brands in terms of brand strength, quality and design of the laptops In brand strength category, among the laptop brands, Sony has taken the number on place while Toshiba has been second, Apple third and HP and Dell have taken the fourth place The industry analysis of serious research organizations showed that truly Dell’s biggest competitor was HP That’s why more trust towards the survey has rise Toshiba has significant brand image in computer users Not only because of its advertisings also since it was a Japanese brand Consumers mind especially in electronics industry people have a strong relation with Japanese products and quality so on brand If we look at results of the Apple, it is not difficult to realize that Apple’s design rating exceeds its brand, explaining Apple’s positioning strategy emphasizes that its laptop suits for arts and architecture projects Participants of the survey have complained that design of the IBM laptop could be more attractive using metallic colors as other brands did While in brand strength Dell and Hp are same, HP had better design image than Dell in users mind Whether your product is more different than your competitors if you can not occupy enough places according to your product in their minds you are under positioning yourself, like Dell does Sony entering laptop market afterwards, has won significantly good market share against its competitors with the help of its strong brand image in the consumers mind Sony sells products mostly to consumer segment that relatively have big wallets and demand all in one, entertainment devices (Rui Xu 2009) Marketing Mix Dell is one of the leading consumer durables brand The marketing mix of Dell talks about the way in which Dell has improved to gain a competitive position 4.1 Product Strategy 4.1.1 Definition of Product Products are defined as something to satisfy consumers’ needs or wants by offers of companies A product is composed by levels: core product, expected product and augmented product Product attributes is characteristics of products or services It could be divided into two types: tangible, such as physical products and intangible, such as services Product quality shows the ability or function to response consumers’ needs or wants (Elliott 2010) 4.1.2 Core Product The core product comprises the fundamental benefit that consumers purchase products offered by companies The laptop itself will provide customer a platform to access to Internet This is the most important reason why customer needs a computer Internet is becoming a significant role in our life So the top target of a personal computer is to provide Internet for customers anywhere Therefore, the core product of Dell must be portability and flexibility 4.1.3 Expected Product The expected product describes those attributes that actually deliver the benefit that forms the core product, such as characteristics of a product, branding, packaging and quality standards Firstly, the main characteristic of Dell is that Dell designs, develops, manufactures, markets, sells, and supports a wide range of products that in many cases are customized to individual customer requirements Secondly, consumer’s needs and wants can be well explained by product quality Thirdly, packaging is as important as the product itself Packaging is not only responsible for protection, but also assists for product promotion and enhancement Customer service centre is a smart idea for serving better packaging, which has already considered by Dell “Environmental packaging” has also been considered to attract customers Finally, brand-name speaks for the company Dell as a famous IT brand is well-known by customers 4.1.4 Augmented Product The augmented product is additional benefits, which may no require as part of the basic fulfillment of consumers’ needs Augmented product in Dell includes delivery, warranty and after-sales service In terms of commercial and customers, besides product, a warranty provides customer extra guarantee or assurance There are several basic-warranty provided from Dell For instance, on-line support, free-software download, drivers download, email assistance, troubleshooting and one-year coverage for parts Except for the basic warranty, Dell also offers additional warranty with extra charges The additional warranty can even better protect customers’ computers from accidental damages These augmented products of Dell could be beyond consumers’ expectation, compared with other companies and will enhance their brand image 4.2 Price Strategy Pricing strategies usually change as the product passes through its life cycle, because there is constrains on the company’s freedom to price a product at different stage The main objective of Dell is to produce the low price and profitable PC for the customers Dell is undercutting competitors in price to rapidly gain market share IT market is a big market There are a number of competitors are doing the different price strategies Apple and HP will be on the top if the list of Dell’s the main competitors Apple’s price strategy can be called “demand based pricing”, which is a very competitive strategy But Apple and Dell are sharing the different target market Apple is focusing on the designed customers Due to the special customer group they have, Apple production is committing to appearances and the operation system On the other hand, HP applies localization strategy on price They have regional or zone pricing The acceptable price for different place is different In contrast, Dell uses the same price everywhere Dell’s good brand image prestige contributes this price strategy Under the maturity stage of product life cycles, “the same price everywhere” will become a standard price logo for Dell, customers feel easier and more valuable to buy the Dell’s product Same price strategy also gives a more reliable PC brand image to customers 4.3 Place Strategy Place is also known as channel, distribution, or intermediary It is the mechanism through which goods are moved from the manufacturer to the consumer Dell uses direct distribution channel, which is easier for customers buy products from Dell directly, and even with more choices At the meantime, it is very clear that Dell can get more profits from a direct distribution channel model Because of the special technical service from direct distribution channel, customers can receive services for what they need and the marketing functions are more efficient for producers Direct distribution channel can also lead to a result of a cheaper product overall, which can be considered as the part of the strategy Dell has been able to affect the location strategy aspect of its marketing campaign As Dell’s products are always available at the nearest dealer’s customers develop trust for the “local Dell” thereby achieving the objective of gaining their trust in Dell products and services, and forming a large and diversified consumer base 4.4 Promotion Strategy Another one of the P’s is promotion This includes all the tools available to the marketer for ‘marketing communication’ Dell in the past have not concentrated on extensive marketing campaigns but these revolutionaries in 1999 when Dell changed its tactics by engaging in extensive marketing campaigns Dell markets its products primarily by advertising on television and the Internet, advertising in a variety of print media, and mailing or emailing a broad range of direct marketing publications, such as promotional materials, catalogs, and customer newsletters What will be the process for a customer to purchase a laptop? The first thing the customers usually is not to compare the specifications for different types of laptops, but instead, they look at the price and the brand The reason why is because the price of laptop is usually high and the period of using a laptop is usually very long So in order to meet customers’ needs and wants, high level of involvement has been considered in Dell’s promotion strategy To make products closer to consumers is the best marketing promotion Therefore, Dell has recently started promoting its products through retailers like Best Buy, Staples, Wal-Mart, GOME, and Carrefour (Norton Paley 2000) Action Plan Figure 4: Action plan list for the 12 months Tactic Modify the laptop Designers keep track of modification and output perfection Promotion through advertising and promotional strategy Selling the first batch on line Request next order 10 Monitoring, research, development and shipping new order Budgets The table below outlines the expense budget for the next year Marketing Expense Budget 2011 ($) News paper 9,000 Handbills/Leaflets 1,000 Magazines 1,000 Internet 3,000 Billboard 3,625 Total marketing expenses 17,625 (Thousands of Units) Figure Control In order to ensure the accomplishment of the plan, the company will assign certain person who will be responsible for the tactics as well as final review date Tactic Responsibility Re Modify the laptop Design Manager Ma Designers keep track of modification and output perfection Design Manager Ma Promotion through advertising and promotional strategy Marketing Manager Au Selling the first batch on line Sales Manager Oc Request next order Marketing Manager No Monitoring, research, development and shipping new order Marketing Manager Jan Figure Conclusion Dell laptop is successful in global market as a result of best understanding of customers’ needs and their direct sell business model Dell well designs and customizes products and services to the requirements of the organizations and individuals However, after situation analysis, there are two aspects that Dell should improve First, Dell should pay more attention on student market and increase revenues related to students market Second, Dell should modify the appearance of its laptop There is a trend Dell need to be aware: As customers require lighter and thinner laptop, which is simplified version of laptop, will be another profit point Reference Elliott (2010), Marketing, 1, John Wiley, China, pp.204 Gwendolyn Cuizon (2009), SWOT Analysis of Dell Computers, http://strategicbusiness-planning.suite101.com/article.cfm/swot_analysis_of_dell_computers, 20/7/10 Norton Paley (2000), How to develop a strategic marketing plan: a step by step guide, CRC Press, pp.273-307 O C Ferrell & Michael D Hartline (2008), Marketing Strategy, 4, Cengage Learning, pp.102-107 Pinegar (2002), Dell Computer Corporation: Market Trends and SWOT Analysis, http://www.pinegars.com/PDF_Files/Paper%202a.pdf, 20/7/10 Rui Xu (2009), Analysis of Samsung Notebook Strategy, http://bora.nhh.no/bitstream/2330/2340/1/Xu%202009.pdf, 21/7/10 Tim Berry & Doug Wilson (2000), On target, the book on marketing plans: how to develop and implement a successful marketing plan, 2, Palo Alto Software, Inc., pp.79-96 William M Luther (2001), The marketing plan: how to prepare and implement it, 3, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, pp.21