Dell's launch of Della, a website marketing Dell's netbooks to women, isn't giving female consumers a reason to whip out their credit cards. From MSNBC's Let's market PCs like it's 1959 article to Advertising Age's Dell's Della Debacle an Example of Wrong Way to Target Women, Della's approach to targeting female consumers has been widely criticized.
Dell has made changes to Della since it went live May 11. An article on Seven Unexpected Ways a Netbook Can Change Your Life has been changed to 5 Ways to Use a Netbook with references to using your netbook to find recipes online being removed. The Della home page has also been given a makeover with an image of women's clothes matching their laptops being replaced with several other pictures of women lounging around with their netbooks.
Has Dell missed the mark with its Della site?
They’ve got the right idea in focusing marketing efforts for women on social networks and blogging. I’d say they need a more powerful and visible female voice.
Let me be perfectly sexist here: It seems most of these gender specific marketing ideas come from men. What century is this? What year?Did they hold an impartial focus study about this idea before they launched it? Just put the offers out there and let the consumer decide what they want. I am employed at an advertising agency and it’s this kind of backward thinking that makes me ‘just gag.’
(I will step down from my soapbox now. Thank you.)