Dell's To-Do List: Find New Channels

I came across an article dated February 6th called "Dell's To-Do List: Find New Channels" written by Andy Patrizio from Internet.com. The article talks about how Dell's 'direct to consumer' model has been successful in markets like North America and Europe, but with sales slowing in the aforementioned territories, countries like China and India are where they need to focus. Because credit cards are indeed rare in those markets, they will need alternative channels to distribute their products in order to benefit from the same kind of success.

You can read more here: Dell's To-Do List: Find New Channels

I agree with much of what is being said in the article and it's just proof that a single sales & marketing channel strategy (in this case 'direct to consumer' using credit cards as the form of payment) is not guaranteed to work when expanding in to new markets. With PC penetration reaching very high levels in their core markets, Dell will need to come up with more new products to sell in their core markets and facilitate Partnerships with companies that can bring them customers in the new markets. I would start with why and where Chinese consumers buy PC's and work from there... It's all about behavioural segmentation and effective customer targeting.