Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Realizing perhaps that the female netbook/notebook computer market is steadily growing, Dell decided to launch its own specialized shop called Della. Nothing fancy here. Really, it's just your usual specialty shop highlighting some Dell products designed with the women users in mind.

Product Makeover
And of course, highlighted in the store is Dell's very own Inspiron Mini 10 netbook which sports several girly designs from well-known artists. Expect to see the pink-colored Mini 10 all over the site as well as some fashion accessories that women will surely love to have on their Mini 10.

You can find all sorts of accesories for your Mini 10 at Della. From netbook sleeves, bags, and girly-looking mouse.

But the major highlight of the site is of course the Mini 10 with various girly designs...Or so I thought. Appears they should have consulted more females in this plan.

Under Tech Tips, the site states:

"Seven Unexpected Ways a Netbook Can Change Your Life
Once you get beyond how cute they are, you'll find that netbooks can do a lot more than check your email."

Misreading the Target
Michelle Ameron finds the irony in this, commenting:

They tout that it has enough memory for shopping and can track calories.
 
For real? Maybe they should have just quietly made a pink one like everyone else and left it at that...

When the tone of all of the "Tech Tips" could basically be summarized as "You can even use The Internet on this thing!", it's kind of a low blow to anyone shopping for a new computer...online. I'd guess their target is technically inclined enough to know that you don't buy a laptop just because you can Google recipes on it, but the site sure doesn't speak to that assumption.
 
On such a targeted site, I'd assume I was being offered bare bones options and paying extra for bright colors because they've already established, in a reassuring tone, that I won't know the difference anyway. When checking out the Dell site a while ago, it did seem to limit component options and offers depending on your starting point. On a second look at the Della site, they don't even clearly offer the Mini 9 (least expensive, but most compact). It's buried at the bottom. I guess the ladies deserve an instant upgrade to the Mini 10 at $449?
 
As for the product, it's a useful and fun super-gadget for almost anyone to have around. There are just so many other ways to go with messaging that would even err on the practical side, they really didn't need to sell it, or their audience, short by likening it to OMG, the-best-make-up-compact-ever.

Enticing Interest by Usage
I like how they make the selling point to their demographic by using all those special tips. The twist is that all the apps that are mentioned are actually online tools you could use on just about any computer -- similar to the iPhone commercial advertising tons of apps. So rather than push the product, they push what you could be using it for.

Della has some social networking features. So, if you've got a techie girlfriend or wife, you may want to tell them about Della where they can participate in the discussion and join the site's social networking activities on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook.

But it looks like they may have gone a little too stereotypical with this new endeavor. Did they shift their prospects in the opposite direction with this poor understanding of their target?

Mark Shu
Michelle Ameron