Dell Computers is one of largest U.S. producers of personal computers, storage devices, business servers and workstations. Emphasizing long life-cycles, serviceability and reliability of their products, Dell Computers use variety of brands, this can be basically classified into Business/Corporate and Home Office/Consumer. The first group includes such brands as Latitude (business-focused laptops), Power Connect (network switches) and Dell Compellent (storage area networks), while desktop computers for home use are produced under Inspiron, Studio and XPS, representing budget, mainstream and high-end classes of products respectively (Dell, 2013). For the purposes of this assignment I would like to analyze branding and packaging of XPS by comparison with Studio XPS, Studio and Inspiron.
In order to analyze branding of the products under study, I would use consider this concept in terms of helping to differentiate products under particular brand from the others, being sold under another brand (Hansen&Christensen, 2003, p.12). Dell XPS brand is designed to introduce a range of performance and gaming computers. Most recent Dell product is XPS One 27”. The computer is introduced as all-in-one model, and the peculiarity of computer’s having 7 inch screen is emphasized, along with extremely quality resolution (2560*1440 pixels), which allows to have a top-quality picture. Quality resolution may be important both for home office activities and gaming. Thus it may be claimed that the product differs from the one, produced under other brand, by screen size and extremely high quality of resolution, as well as the commitment to meet as many needs and wants of consumers as possible by developing the all-in-one product, which is characterized by a variety of technological features, useful both for performance and gaming.
As for packaging, Dell bases its strategy on three Cs, namely the cube (reducing overall packaging volume), the content (suing recyclable or sustainable materials, aiming at simultaneously providing best protection of a product during transportation, and implementing company’s corporate responsibility strategy with respect to environment protection) and the curb (making packaging easily recyclable).
As opposed to the product under study, the peculiarity of Dell Inspiron branding lies in positioning the product line as the ones for entry-level and being characterized by modest price. Dell Inspiron X 200 is designed for performance, its screen has considerably lower resolution than the one of XPS One 27”, so Dell Inspiron X 200 is more affordable than the XPS One 27. Dell’s Studio brand encompasses computers, targeted at mainstream level. They are not positioned as budget products, but both their prices and specifications lie below the ones of XPS. Dell XPS computers still stay below XPS ones, but they offer quite quality specifications (e.g., Studio XPS 16 offers optional Blu-ray optical drive, as well as 1080 p full HD display) (Dell, 2013). Dell adheres to universal strategy in packaging, regardless of brand.
After having analyzed branding and packaging strategies, used by Dell computers for different brands, I can conclude that Dell Computers bases its branding strategy on differentiating between brands, being conducted by target group, thus creating a line from most budget and designed-for-performance computers to the ones, offering wide range of specifications and being sold at aggressive price, so that each consumer can choose a computer accordingly to the work he is going to perform and his financial state. Despite differences in branding, company adheres to universal packaging strategy.
References
Dell (2013). Official website. Retrieved 02 January 2013 from http://www.dell.com/
Hansen, F., Christensen, L.B. (2003). Branding and advertizing. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press
