Dell tries to market to women. Dell royally screws it up. Dell pisses off the customers it’s trying to market to. Dell fixes the problem. But not really.
They tried to save face by posting on the site yesterday “Some of you have read this article over the last several days & will notice a few modifications. You spoke, we listened. Thank you for your ongoing feedback.” And they changed the “Tech Tips” article to include reading eBooks, getting organized and blah, blah, blah. Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman even told MSNBC “There was certainly no intent to offend anyone and if we did, we apologize.”
I’m not sure what’s worse: the fact that Dell was clueless enough to do the patronizing Della site in the first place, or whether they’re so incredibly clueless that they think changing a line or two of copy will fix things.
Dell, let me break this down for you: What you did makes things WORSE. Because it shows you are leading the pack of the most tone deaf companies in America. If you STILL can’t see how sexist the Della site is, then you may as well stop marketing to women altogether.
You should immediately fire whatever ad agency did this for you. You should apologize and double the amount you’re giving to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. And then do a complete overhaul of the site – with computer specs right up front, with copy that talks about women using their computers for gaming and developing their own iPhone apps, and with at least as much emphasis on performance as you have on style.
Oh, and stop taking your advertising cues from Mad Men.
Filed under: Are you kidding me? | 2 Comments
Tags: ridiculous, screw-up, website
wow, someone’s in a fighting mood – good points, however.
now i have to get back to work on my cute Dell Mini – i don’t know anything about its speed, memory or storage – but it’s PINK and it fits in my purse!
Nice Mad Men reference.