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by keenerd
5424 days ago
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> Fill the slot that was created when IBM sold thinkpad to Levano. Shame that not many Latitudes have trackpoints these days. You can tell that Dell has been trying to be "almost Thinkpad" for years now with that line. What would they have to add (or ad) to make the jump? |
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If I say "I have a thinkpad", people know what I mean. If I say "I have a latitude" or "a vostro", most people don't. And if I say "I have a Dell", it's such a wide range that it doesn't really say much about what laptop I have.
The other reason for this is confusion. When anyone asks me what Dell laptop I would recomend, I never have a clue. What's the difference between a Vostro and a Lattitude? Fuck knows, until you've actually looked at the different models. I'm a geek, I happen to own a Dell laptop, and I've worked on Dell marketing campaigns. If I can't get my head around their many ranges...
Then they need something destinctive, memorable. Hey, you know thinkpads? Oh you know, the ones with the red nipple. Yeah, those ones. And by something distinctive, I mean something small, and something that doesn't detract from the overall design. I don't mean "we can put a cool pattern on the lid".
Then they need product placement. Good product placement. In the UK, the millionairs on "Dragon's Den" and Alan Sugar on "The Apprentice" (two big TV shows) should use stylish dell laptops. Same in the US. I've been a Blackberry fan for years, and I'm familiar enough with most marketing ideas not to get sucked in by them, but I'll be honest, a small part of me loves the fact that Obama has the same phone as me. I hate myself for caring, but the fact of the matter is that people do care.
And the logic behind product placement works at lower levels too. People used to see a boss with a thinkpad and aspire to have it as a status symbol. (Just like used to be the case for blackberries, before they stopped being "just a phone for businessment".) That's what they need to bring back. It needs to become a status symbol in offices around the world.
I don't know how much the above ideas would help. I'm not sure what other things they should do. The one thing I'm completely sure of is that what they have been doing hasn't been working as well as it could have.