“For any marketing campaigns, the one critical thing is consumer insight. It's not what we want from our side; it’s what consumers want, in terms of technology, how it's going to help them, and how we are going to help them. We are constantly looking into consumer insights - whether it is students, digital affluent families, or small businesses - and design all our communications around it. We also look at how we to reach consumers through our campaigns, and how do we make them touch and feel our products. That becomes the core and the base for any of our work to start,” says Mayuri Saikia, Director of Marketing - Consumer and Small Business, Dell Technologies India.
Over the last few years, Dell has been very aggressive, particularly at the start of the academic year of schools and colleges, zeroing in on what students seek from their laptops - technology for their studies, passions, hobbies and even for social causes.
Dell released its 'Back to School & College' campaign, that demonstrated how the PC can be a transformative tool that enables students to turn their ideas into reality. This also aligned with Dell's #PC4Education initiative and company's vision of using technology to drive human progress. The first brand film, ‘Lamps’ showcased a young boy who with his friends used Dell's G15 laptop, to create a design for handmade solar lamps. The friends then traveled to the rural community to present the lamps to children, alleviating their worries about studying without light.
The second brand film, ‘Mountains’ highlighted a young girl who understood the power of teamwork to address the waste issue in the mountains. With the help of Dell's Inspiron 14 Plus, she and her friends created a microsite and designed a logo called “Summit Savers” to organise a clean-up drive that draws many participants who come together to make a difference by cleaning the mountain waste. Saikia says, “Talking about consumer insights, we all want to do good to the society. However, when we met some students who have done work for the greater good of the country; we then felt that we need to actually go and do it, and not just talk about it.”
The Customer Journey
Dell looks at the consumer journey for the different audience segments it targets. For example, students purchase a new laptop, or refresh their laptop when they go back to school or college and Dell looks at having a presence on all channels where the students may be present, whenever they are searching for a laptop – be it Google, YouTube, Amazon, Dell exclusive stores or the large format partners.
Saika says, “Students go to various places and we need to be there on all platforms - online and offline, so that they get the product information, offers, everything they are looking for and ask questions. They can talk to our in-store promoters for assistance and after that they can go to dell.com and buy, or they can go to Dell exclusive stores, Amazon, to our large format retail and regional format retail stores, or to multi-brand stores and complete their purchase. Basically, they can go to any platform for information and then buy from any platform. We need to make sure that it's a seamless experience for them, right from exploring to the buying.”
As typical for any marketing campaign, Dell India’s media mix is determined by the campaign objective, TG, the messaging as well as where the consumer is present. Saika says, “Dollars are always limited and we have to make really good use of where the dollars are going. Every media plays a very important part because you have to go where the consumers are. You cannot really force the audience to come to a particular place. We need to ensure that content is customized as per the media. You cannot expect the same content to be running across different platforms. The campaign objective decides what will be the mix of the media. We have got internal tools and a
media mix modeling. So, we go in a very scientific way as to where do we invest and why.” A key format to providing information is by associating with influencers, as they present the product information in a relevant way. What also helps is that this category lends itself well to the unboxing trend where tech influencers show the product in a way that customers will easily understand. Influencers also present the products in the right way by showcasing the product features, how to use the product, how to clean it etc. Also, in focus is ensuring the right visibility and highlighting the right offers. She reiterates, “We just have to make the consumer journey easy. It's
not only for marketing, but it's a complete end-to-end solution for the customer, making sure that marketing helps in showing them the right information and then making sure that they can get the right product and delivery with a great experience.”
Gaming For Gamers
A segment that is key for Dell India is gaming and the technology company provides a range of gaming PCs tailored to gaming-specific needs, like seamless performance and immersive graphics, catering to both hardcore and amateur gamers.
According to a report by Grant Thornton Bharat and the E-Gaming Federation, it is estimated that the number of online gamers in India is at 442 million, making India the second-largest gaming user base globally after China. Saika states “We focus a lot on gaming because we have a fantastic product. We have got Alienware laptops and G series laptops for everyone who wants to play. We have looked deep into the insights of the gamers - what they are looking for, and have created gaming stores in Delhi and Kolkata. We have got gaming store zones across the country in our exclusive stores as we want the gamers to come and play.” She continues, “We do online
activations, weekly activations at the stores where they can come and play the game and experience the product and the game on our products It's not only about just coming and playing. It's about developing a community as gamers love to come together and play, meet gaming influencers. It's community building, and we are very strong in the gaming segment.”
Looking ahead, education, small businesses, digital affluent families and gamers remain a big focus for Dell India. Saika says, “Keeping our audience in mind and the new products to be launched in 2025, such as our AI products, we want our marketing and communication to provide the right customised information and offers, to the right consumer, so that they can decide which is the best product for them to buy, and make sure that the end-to-end consumer buying journey is seamless and they should have a great experience from wherever they buy.”
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