Running head BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CAPSTONE 1BUSINESS ADMINI.docx

Running head: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CAPSTONE 1
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CAPSTONE 8
Business-Level And Corporate-Level Strategies
Student’s Full Name
BUS499 Business Administration Capstone
Professor’s Name
Date
Introduction
When the name Dell is mentioned, what comes to the mind of
many people is personal computers since the name is widely
known for its link to computers. However, since its founding,
the company has continued to grow and expand beyond the
personal computers market to engage in other products and
services such as IT (Swab & Gentry, 2018). The company now
has stake in servers, networking, storage and data protection
alongside its products such as monitors, PCs, and printers. The
company went public in 1988 as Dell Computer Corp, and began
a stiff competition with Compaq later in 2001. The company
faced tough times from 2013 when smartphones and tablets
became widely accepted, prompting the company to initiate

privatization process (Swab & Gentry, 2018). This paper aims at
discussing strategies used by the company to operate both at
business and corporate level.
Business level strategies
Business-level strategy aims at meeting customers’ needs and
satisfying them through offering high-quality goods and
services to meet the needs and increasing operating profits (Hitt
& Hoskisson, 2020). The focus is to position the company
against its competitors in order to stay at the cutting edge and
influence market and technology trends in the long-run.
The three core values of Dell Inc. are Listen, Learn and Deliver.
These values have made the company successful in the IT sector
through offering its products and services to meet customer
needs. The success of the company has been pegged on unique
customization, cost proposition and delivery. The company was
forced to upgrade its strategies in order to meet the changing
environment in the sector (Swab & Gentry, 2018). The business
strategy has always centered on several core elements which
include mass customization, direct sales, partnership with
suppliers, build-to-order manufacturing, customer service, just-
in-time inventories, market segmentation, and information
sharing and extensive data with both customers and suppliers.
Dell now has strategies that focus on individual customer needs
unlike before where the focus was on government and
commercial customers (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). This is
because the PC trend has been shifting towards smaller and
more communications-oriented and integrated products. The
market has experienced high demand for portable devices such
as laptops, smartphones and notebooks. This has forced the
company to adopt a strategy of manufacturing computer
products which meet this need (Swab & Gentry, 2018).
The core competencies used by the company to meet specific
product markets have been instrumental for the company.
Growth in technology and advancement in product
differentiation make customers to have more expectations of
high –quality and advanced products albeit at low process (Lee

& Barney, 2016). To meet these demands, Dell has focused on
its cost leadership skills and customers’ buying behavior as well
as differentiated products in order to create value for the
customers. the cost leadership-differentiated strategy enables
the company to make goods and services with emphasis on low
cost and high differentiation (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). This
means the company has to lower its costs and produce products
which are high differentiated than its competitors. Through this
strategy, the company has been able to build skills that can
adopt quickly to rapid changes in the market and new
technologies in both internal and external environments (Swab
& Gentry, 2018).
In order to balance its objectives, the company has three
initiatives which include manufacturing systems, quality
management and information networks. These initiatives have
been instrumental in continuous enhancement of products and
cost reductions. Such initiatives have also enabled employees to
improve communication and work flow, as well as identifying
and resolving problems. Information management has helped the
company improve customer services through customized
assembly process (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). The flexibility of
this process aims at meeting customers’ orders through faster
manufacturing process. Total quality management is a strategy
used by the company to run innovation that emphasizes on
commitment to its customers as well as continuous improvement
of processes through problem-solving and data-driven
approaches usually based on empowerment of employees (Lee &
Barney, 2016). The strategy eliminates inefficiencies in
manufacturing and lowering costs hence allowing the company
to offer products and service at low prices as expected by
customers.
Corporate-level Strategies
Corporate strategies of any business focuses on success through
a mix of business units that allow the company to remain
competitive. It aims at making a business more than just a unit
through development of important relationships for sharing

resources and avoiding duplication of efforts. The computer
industry today is one of the most important and unpredictable
industry across the world. It forms the foundation of all
information technologies, accounting for more than 5 percent of
global GDP (Chang, 2010). Computers are crucial across many
industries for telecommunication, automobiles, consumer
electronics and medical research among others. Although there
was recorded growth in computer purchases until 2008, today
computer markets have changed immensely unlike 20 years ago
(Lee & Barney, 2016). There have been innovative and
technological trends in the industry, forcing companies in this
sector to keep in touch with latest movements and trends
technologically.
Dell company has also established multiple factories across the
world in order to meet their customers’ needs at a local level
and ensure products are received over a short time. The
company also partnered with its suppliers to set their stores next
to Dell factories to reduce transportation costs and also provide
the company with quick inventory levels (Swab & Gentry,
2018). Additionally, the company is making acquisitions of new
related companies in order to provide the company with services
that the company does not offer (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). This
entails acquiring companies which manufacture smartphones
and tablets in order to remain afloat with technology. The
company is also acquiring smaller companies which are into
software and networking in order to diversify its products and
services.
Dell Inc. has remained at the top of the market despite
technological and innovative trends in the whole industry. The
main driving force in computer industry in the recent years has
been internet and applications forcing Dell to adopt a strategy
of simplified PCs or computers with specific applications (Swab
& Gentry, 2018). Additionally, companies are purchasing
computers based on processing power and server visualization.
For instance, Dell began offering Linux notebook systems to fit
into the demands of the market, becoming the first company to

offer such a product line. The company has also been striving to
offer products with high data storage, data transfer as well as
products that offer functions of connecting appliances to PCs
(Chang, 2010). The company has also focused on offering
computers and electronics at low prices through direct sales.
In the past few years, Dell Inc. began to focus on social media
and e-commerce strategies in order to reach out to potential as
well as its loyal customers (Chang, 2010). The strategy has been
working for the company through transmission of its messages
and products lines trough Twitter, FaceBook, among others. The
strategy was adopted because of the changing nature of
communication in the recent times where companies are
choosing to use social media and e-commerce to reach directly
to their customers . In order to improve efficiency and remain
the leading company in the information technology sector, the
company had to adopt ways in which it will ensure the company
remain present across the world through social media.
Competitive Environment
Dell has faced intensive competition from companies in the
computer sector who have tried to set distribution retain stores
around the globe in order to drive Dell from the market. This
forced Dell to respond by partnering with suppliers to set their
stores near Dell factories in order to increase efficiency and
convenience to its loyal customers (Swab & Gentry, 2018). The
competition has been stiff, with Compaq edging out Dell in
2013 as the leading suppliers of computers. This was because
Compaq simplified its product delivery process in order to
allow customers buy its products rather than Dell’s products.
Competition in this industry has been tough because the
companies use the same differentiation/cost-leadership strategy.
Dell has not been struggling in this strategy and this made it
face decline in demand of its products because of price.
Companies which are involved in computer manufacture include
Apple, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Compaq, and Toshiba, among others.
Apple has been successful in differentiation while companies
like Acer, Lenovo, HP and Toshiba have succeeded in cost

leadership (Chang, 2010). Dell’s differentiation strategy has
been copied by its competitors, sending the company to the
drawing board in order to remain unique. The cost-leadership
used by Dell has not been strong because other companies have
been able to offer products of similar quality at low prices than
Dell. As such, the company depends on other aspects of running
the company in order to gain competitive advantage in the
recent years. HP has had advantage in selling its PCs in other
countries while Dell has been US-Centric in its approach (Swab
& Gentry, 2018). This has enabled HP to gain popularity
overseas although Dell responded to such competition by
acquiring smaller upcoming companies which are based in
different countries in order to diversify its production and gain
larger market share.
Market cycles
Slow-market cycles refer to markets where resources are
protected and companies maintain competitive advantage or
monopoly in the market in a way that competitive pressures
cannot affect the markets. These kind of markets are rare to find
unlike fast-cycle and standard cycle markets. Fast-cycle markets
are markets with high competition, forcing companies to
continuously innovate new ways of marketing and new
products, as well as counter attack new strategies used by other
competitors in order to remain relevant in the market (Lee &
Barney, 2016). As such, companies may not rely on singular
resources because the market cycles are very fast. The needs of
customers usually change fast and therefore companies should
be in the look out to identify any arising gaps and new trends in
order to design products that can meet the customer demands.
Competitive environment for Dell Inc. would be different if the
company existed in these types of markets. In a slow-cycle
market, Dell would be using the cost-leadership/differentiated
strategy in order to reduce its products because of less or no
competition. The company would also not see the need to
differentiate its products to match them with new technologies
since it would be the only existing or leader in computer

technology. As such, its products would be expensive and not
able to fit in the current technological age (Chang, 2010). On
the other hand, in a fast-cycle market, Dell has been able to go
out of its way in order to offer products which match this era of
technology, as well as manufacture products that fit the
demands of customers. Competition allows companies to offer
the latest designs of products and services at low cost to the
benefit of customers (Lee & Barney, 2016).
References
Chang, H. F. (2010). Analysis of the innovation strategy of
technical‐intensive industries: scenario analysis
viewpoint. Business Strategy Series, 11(3), 152–157. doi:
10.1108/17515631011043813
Hitt, I. & Hoskisson. (2020). Strategic management: Concepts
and cases: Competitiveness and globalization (13th ed.). Mason,
OH: South-Western Cengage Learning
Lee, Y., & Barney, J. B. (2016). Strategic Factor Markets. The
Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management, 1–2. doi:
10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_519-1
Swab, R. G., & Gentry, R. J. (2018). Vision. Drive. Stamina:
How Dell Became the Company with the Power to Do More.
doi: 10.4135/9781526437921
Principles of Marketing Version 2.0
By
John F. Tanner, Jr. and Mary Anne Raymond
687922
Principles of Marketing Version 2.0

John F. Tanner, Jr. and Mary Anne Raymond
Published by:
Flat World Knowledge, Inc.
One Bridge Street
Irvington, NY 10533
This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Unported License.
To view a copy of this license,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send
a letter to
Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San
Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
Printed in North America
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13

Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Brief Contents
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
Preface
What Is Marketing?
Strategic Planning
Consumer Behavior: How People Make Buying Decisions
Business Buying Behavior
Market Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning
Creating Offerings
Developing and Managing Offerings
Using Marketing Channels to Create Value for Customers
Using Supply Chains to Create Value for Customers
Gathering and Using Information: Marketing Research and
Market
Intelligence
Integrated Marketing Communications and the Changing Media
Landscape
Public Relations, Social Media, and Sponsorships
Professional Selling
Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Empowerment
Price, the Only Revenue Generator
The Marketing Plan
Index

1
2
3
5Chapter 1
5
11
13
15
20
22
23Chapter 2
23
25
34
38
40
43
44
45Chapter 3
46
60
65
67
69Chapter 4
69

72
77
80
84
88
91
93
95Chapter 5
95
99
Contents
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
Preface
What Is Marketing?
Defining Marketing
Who Does Marketing?
Why Study Marketing?
Themes and Organization of This Book
Discussion Questions and Activities
Endnotes
Strategic Planning
The Value Proposition
Components of the Strategic Planning Process
Developing Organizational Objectives and Formulating
Strategies

Where Strategic Planning Occurs within Firms
Strategic Portfolio Planning Approaches
Endnotes
Consumer Behavior: How People Make Buying Decisions
Factors That Influence Consumers’ Buying Behavior
Low-Involvement Versus High-Involvement Buying Decisions
and the
Consumer’s Decision-Making Process
Endnotes
Business Buying Behavior
The Characteristics of Business-to-Business (B2B) Markets
Types of B2B Buyers
Buying Centers
Stages in the B2B Buying Process and B2B Buying Situations
International B2B Markets and E-commerce
Ethics in B2B Markets
Endnotes
Market Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning
Targeted Marketing versus Mass Marketing
How Markets Are Segmented
110
114
116
118

119Chapter 6
119
125
128
131
135
136
139Chapter 7
140
146
155
156
157Chapter 8
157
164
169
173
176
180
182
183Chapter 9
185
189
194
198
201
202

203Chapter 10
205
212
229
231
233Chapter 11
233
238
Selecting Target Markets and Target-Market Strategies
Positioning and Repositioning Offerings
Endnotes
Creating Offerings
What Composes an Offering?
Types of Consumer Offerings
Types of Business-to-Business (B2B) Offerings
Branding, Labeling, and Packaging
Managing the Offering
Developing and Managing Offerings
The New Offering Development Process
Managing New Products: The Product Life Cycle
Endnotes
Using Marketing Channels to Create Value for Customers
Marketing Channels and Channel Partners

Typical Marketing Channels
Functions Performed by Channel Partners
Marketing Channel Strategies
Channel Dynamics
Endnotes
Using Supply Chains to Create Value for Customers
Sourcing and Procurement
Demand Planning and Inventory Control
Warehousing and Transportation
Track and Trace Systems and Reverse Logistics
Endnotes
Gathering and Using Information: Marketing Research and
Market
Intelligence
Marketing Information Systems
Steps in the Marketing Research Process
Endnotes
Integrated Marketing Communications and the Changing Media
Landscape
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
The Promotion (Communication) Mix
240
243

245
252
254
259
260
261Chapter 12
262
267
269
270
271Chapter 13
271
277
282
287
290
295
298
299Chapter 14
299
304
310
315
320
321
323Chapter 15
323
326

330
337
338
339Chapter 16
339
341
350
355
358
359
Factors Influencing the Promotion Mix, Communication
Process, and
Message Problems
Advertising and Direct Marketing
Message Strategies
The Promotion Budget
Sales Promotions
Endnotes
Public Relations, Social Media, and Sponsorships
Public Relations Activities and Tools
Social Media
Endnotes
Professional Selling
The Role Professional Salespeople Play
Customer Relationships and Selling Strategies
Sales Metrics (Measures)
Ethics in Sales and Sales Management

Integrating Sales and Marketing
Outsourcing the Sales Function
Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Empowerment
Customer Communities
Loyalty Management
Customer Satisfaction
Ethics, Laws, and Customer Empowerment
Endnotes
Price, the Only Revenue Generator
The Pricing Framework and a Firm’s Pricing Objectives
Factors That Affect Pricing Decisions
Pricing Strategies
Endnotes
The Marketing Plan
Marketing Planning Roles
Functions of the Marketing Plan
Forecasting
Ongoing Marketing Planning and Evaluation
Endnotes
361Index

Source: Photo by Lilly Tanner, used with permission.
About the Authors
JEFF TANNER
John F. (Jeff) Tanner, Jr., is professor of marketing at the
Hankamer School of Business,
Baylor University. He is an internationally recognized expert in
sales and sales manage-
ment. He is the author or coauthor of twelve books, including
two best-selling text-
books with McGraw-Hill—Selling: Building Partnerships and
Business Marketing: Con-
necting Strategy, Relationships and Learning. His books have
been translated into sever-
al languages and distributed in over thirty countries.
Dr. Tanner spent eight years in marketing and sales with
Rockwell International
and Xerox Corporation. In 1988, he earned his PhD from the
University of Georgia and
joined the faculty at Baylor University, where he currently
serves as the research direct-
or of the Center for Professional Selling.
In addition to writing and research, Dr. Tanner maintains an
active consulting and
training practice. Recent clients include IBM, Hillcrest Medical
System, and others. He
is the managing partner of Team Fulcrum, which conducts sales
training and market-
ing research, and he is a founder and research director of BPT
Partners, the premier
training and education company focused on advancing the skills
and competency of
professionals in the customer relationship management industry.

MARY ANNE RAYMOND
Mary Anne Raymond is a professor and chair of marketing at
Clemson University. Pri-
or to joining the faculty at Clemson, she served on the faculty at
American University
in Washington, DC, and helped coordinate the graduate
marketing program at Johns
Hopkins University. Previously, she was an invited Fulbright
Professor of Marketing at
Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea.
Dr. Raymond received her PhD from the University of Georgia.
She has extensive
industry experience doing strategic planning and acquisition
analysis, marketing re-
search, and investment analysis for Holiday Inns, Inc.; Freeport
Sulphur; and Howard,
Weil, Labouisse, Friedrichs. Dr. Raymond also does consulting,
seminars, and market-
ing training for multinational companies, which have included
organizations such as
Merit Communications in Seoul, Korea; the Conference Center
and Inn at Clemson
University; and Sangyong Group.
Her research focuses on strategy in domestic and international
markets, public
policy issues, and social marketing. Dr. Raymond has published
over one hundred pa-
pers appearing in journals such as International Marketing
Review, the Journal of Ad-
vertising Research, the Journal of Marketing Education, the
Journal of Personal Selling
and Sales Management, and the Journal of Public Policy and
Marketing, as well as nu-

merous other journals and international conference proceedings.
Dr. Raymond has also
received numerous awards and recognition for her teaching and
research. She received
the Professor of the Year Award from Clemson University
Panhellenic Association, the
Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award from the College of
Business and Behavior-
al Science at Clemson three times, the Eli Lilly Faculty
Excellence Awards for Outstand-
ing Research and Outstanding Teaching, and the Eli Lilly
Partnership Awards, and re-
cognition for Leadership in Student Development from the Dow
Chemical Company.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the following reviewers for
their feedback, which helped shape the second edition:
< Stephen M. Berry, Anne Arundel Community College
< Bob Conrad, Ph.D., APR, Conrad Communications, LLC.
< Ted Lapekas, SUNY/Empire State College
< Donald G. Purdy, University at Albany
< Elizabeth F. Purinton, Marist College
< Kelly Sell, Bucks County Community College
< Richard L. Sharman, Lone Star College-Montgomery
< Gary Tucker, Northwestern Oklahoma State University
< Gregory R. Wood, Canisius College
< Anne Zahradnik, Marist College
The authors would like to thank Camille Schuster for her input,
examples, and feedback on the first edition chapters. The
authors
would also like to thank the following colleagues who have

reviewed the first edition text and provided comprehensive
feedback and
suggestions for improving the material:
< Christie Amaot, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
< Andrew Baker, Georgia State University
< Jennifer Barr, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
< George Bernard, Seminole Community College
< Patrick Bishop, Ferris State University
< Donna Crane, Northern Kentucky University
< Lawrence Duke, Drexel University
< Mary Ann Edwards, College of Mount St. Joseph
< Paulette Faggiano, Southern New Hampshire University
< Bob Farris, Mt. San Antonio College
< Leisa Flynn, Florida State University
< Renee Foster, Delta State University
< Alfredo Gomez, Broward College
< Jianwei Hou, Minnesota State University, Mankato
< Craig Kelley, California State University, Sacramento
< Marilyn Liebrenz-Himes, George Washington University
< Alicia Lupinacci, Tarrant County College
< John Miller, Pima Community College, Downtown
< Melissa Moore, Mississippi State University
< Kathy Rathbone, Tri-County Community College
< Michelle Reiss, Spalding University
< Tom Schmidt, Simpson College
< Richard Sharman, Lonestar College
< Karen Stewart, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
< Victoria Szerko, Dominican College
< Robert Winsor, Loyola Marymount University
Preface
Principles of Marketing 2.0 by Tanner and Raymond teaches the
experience and process of actually doing marketing—not just

the
vocabulary. It carries five dominant themes throughout in order
to expose students to marketing in today’s environment:
1. Service-dominant logic—This textbook employs the term
“offering” instead of the more traditional first P—product. That
is
because consumers don’t sacrifice value when alternating
between a product and a service. They are evaluating the entire
ex-
perience, whether they interact with a product, a service, or a
combination. So the fundamental focus is providing value
throughout the value chain, whether that value chain
encompasses a product, a service, or both.
2. Sustainability—Increasingly, companies are interested in
their impact on their local community as well as on the overall
en-
vironment. This is often referred to as the “triple bottom line”
of financial, social, and environment performance.
3. Ethics and social responsibility—Following on the
sustainability notion is the broader importance of ethics and
social re-
sponsibility in creating successful organizations. The authors
make consistent references to ethical situations throughout
chapter coverage, and end-of-chapter material in many chapters
will encompass ethical situations.
4. Global coverage—Whether it is today’s price of gasoline, the
current U.S. presidential race, or midwestern U.S. farming, al-
most every industry and company needs strong global
awareness. And today’s marketing professionals must
understand the
world in which they and their companies operate. Examples of
decisions relative to the global marketplace are discussed

throughout the text.
5. Metrics—Firms today have the potential to gather more
information than ever before about their current and potential
cus-
tomers. That information gathering can be costly, but it can also
be very revealing. With the potential to capture so much
more detail about micro transactions, firms should now be more
able to answer, “Was this marketing strategy really worth
it?” and “What is the marketing ROI?” and finally, “What is
this customer or set of customers worth to us over their
lifetime?”
In this second edition, you’ll also find more emphasis on omni-
channel marketing, social media in marketing, and the other
com-
ponents of the digital media revolution that are changing
marketing so rapidly. Examples, videos, illustrations, and more
reflect the
latest in how marketing gets done.
4 PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING VERSION 2.0
marketing
“The activity, set of
institutions, and processes for
creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for
customers, clients, partners,
and society at large.”

creating
In marketing, a term that
involves collaboration with
suppliers and customers in
order to generate offerings of
value to customers.
exchanging
The act of transacting value
between a buyer and a seller.
C H A P T E R 1
What Is Marketing?
What makes a business idea work? Does it only take money?
Why are some products a huge success and similar
products a dismal failure? How was Apple, a computer
company, able to create and launch the wildly successful
iPod, yet Microsoft’s first foray into MP3 players was a total
disaster? If the size of the company and the money
behind a product’s launch were the difference, Microsoft would
have won. But for Microsoft to have won, it would
have needed something it’s not had in a while—good marketing
so it can produce and sell products that
consumers want.
So how does good marketing get done?
1. DEFINING MARKETING

L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E
1. Define marketing and outline its components.
Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as
“the activity, set of institutions, and
processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging offerings that have value for cus-
tomers, clients, partners, and society at large.”[1] If you read
the definition closely, you see that there are
four activities, or components, of marketing:
1. Creating. The process of collaborating with suppliers and
customers to create offerings that have
value.
2. Communicating. Broadly, describing those offerings, as well
as learning from customers.
3. Delivering. Getting those offerings to the consumer in a way
that optimizes value.
4. Exchanging. Trading value for those offerings.
The traditional way of viewing the components of marketing is
via the four Ps:
1. Product. Goods and services (creating offerings).
2. Promotion. Communication.
3. Place. Getting the product to a point at which the customer
can purchase it (delivering).
4. Price. The monetary amount charged for the product
(exchanging).
Introduced in the early 1950s, the four Ps were called the
marketing mix, meaning that a marketing
plan is a mix of these four components.

If the four Ps are the same as creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging, you might be
wondering why there was a change. The answer is that they are
not exactly the same. Product, price,
place, and promotion are nouns. As such, these words fail to
capture all the activities of marketing. For
example, exchanging requires mechanisms for a transaction,
which consist of more than simply a price
or place. Exchanging requires, among other things, the transfer
of ownership. For example, when you
buy a car, you sign documents that transfer the car’s title from
the seller to you. That’s part of the ex-
change process.
Even the term product, which seems pretty obvious, is limited.
Does the product include services
that come with your new car purchase (such as free maintenance
for a certain period of time on some
models)? Or does the product mean only the car itself?
Finally, none of the four Ps describes particularly well what
marketing people do. However, one of
the goals of this book is to focus on exactly what it is that
marketing professionals do.
value
Total sum of benefits
received that meet a buyer’s
needs. See personal value
equation.
personal value equation

The net benefit a consumer
receives from a product less
the price paid for it and the
hassle or effort expended to
acquire it.
marketing concept
A philosophy underlying all
that marketers do, driven by
satisfying customer wants
and needs.
market oriented
The degree to which a
company follows the
marketing concept.
1.1 Value
Value is at the center of everything marketing does (Figure 1.1).
What does value mean?
F I G U R E 1 . 1
Marketing is composed of four activities centered on customer
value: creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging value.
When we use the term value, we mean the benefits buyers
receive that meet their needs. In other
words, value is what the customer gets by purchasing and
consuming a company’s offering. So, al-
though the offering is created by the company, the value is
determined by the customer.

Furthermore, our goal as marketers is to create a profitable
exchange for consumers. By profitable,
we mean that the consumer’s personal value equation is
positive. The personal value equation is
value = benefits received – [price + hassle]
Hassle is the time and effort the consumer puts into the
shopping process. The equation is a personal
one because how each consumer judges the benefits of a product
will vary, as will the time and effort he
or she puts into shopping. Value, then, varies for each
consumer.
One way to think of value is to think of a meal in a restaurant.
If you and three friends go to a res-
taurant and order the same dish, each of you will like it more or
less depending on your own personal
tastes. Yet the dish was exactly the same, priced the same, and
served exactly the same way. Because
your tastes varied, the benefits you received varied. Therefore
the value varied for each of you. That’s
why we call it a personal value equation.
Value varies from customer to customer based on each
customer’s needs. The marketing
concept, a philosophy underlying all that marketers do, requires
that marketers seek to satisfy custom-
er wants and needs. Firms operating with that philosophy are
said to be market oriented. At the same
time, market-oriented firms recognize that exchange must be
profitable for the company to be success-
ful. A marketing orientation is not an excuse to fail to make
profit.

production orientation
A belief that the way to
compete is a function of
product innovation and
reducing production costs, as
good products appropriately
priced sell themselves.
production era
A period beginning with the
Industrial Revolution and
concluding in the 1920s in
which production-orientation
thinking dominated the way
in which firms competed.
selling orientation
A philosophy that products
must be pushed through
selling and advertising in
order for a firm to compete
successfully.
selling era
A period running from the
1920s to until after World War
II in which the selling
orientation dominated the
way firms competed.

product orientation
A philosophy that focuses on
competing through product
innovation.
marketing era
From 1950 to at least 1990
(see service-dominant logic
era, value era, and one-to-one
era), the dominant
philosophy among
businesses is the marketing
concept.
value era
From the 1990s to the
present, some argue that
firms moved into the value
era, competing on the basis
of value; others contend that
the value era is simply an
extension of the marketing
era and is not a separate era.
one-to-one era
From the 1990s to the
present, the idea of
competing by building
relationships with customers
one at a time and seeking to
serve each customer’s needs

individually.
Firms don’t always embrace the marketing concept and a market
orientation. Beginning with the
Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, companies were
production orientation. They believed that
the best way to compete was by reducing production costs. In
other words, companies thought that
good products would sell themselves. Perhaps the best example
of such a product was Henry Ford’s
Model A automobile, the first product of his production line
innovation. Ford’s production line made
the automobile cheap and affordable for just about everyone.
The production era lasted until the
1920s, when production-capacity growth began to outpace
demand growth and new strategies were
called for. There are, however, companies that still focus on
production as the way to compete.
From the 1920s until after World War II, companies tended to
be selling orientation, meaning
they believed it was necessary to push their products by heavily
emphasizing advertising and selling.
Consumers during the Great Depression and World War II did
not have as much money, so the com-
petition for their available dollars was stiff. The result was this
push approach during the selling era.
Companies like the Fuller Brush Company and Hoover Vacuum
began selling door-to-door and the
vacuum-cleaner salesman (they were always men) was created.
Just as with production, some compan-
ies still operate with a push focus.
In the post–World War II environment, demand for goods
increased as the economy soared.
Some products, limited in supply during World War II, were

now plentiful to the point of surplus.
Companies believed that a way to compete was to create
products different from the competition, so
many focused on product innovation. This focus on product
innovation is called the product orient-
ation. Companies like Procter & Gamble created many products
that served the same basic function
but with a slight twist or difference in order to appeal to a
different consumer, and as a result products
proliferated. But as consumers had many choices available to
them, companies had to find new ways to
compete. Which products were best to create? Why create them?
The answer was to create what cus-
tomers wanted, leading to the development of the marketing
concept. During this time, the marketing
concept was developed, and from about 1950 to 1990,
businesses operated in the marketing era.
So what era would you say we’re in now? Some call it the value
era: a time when companies em-
phasize creating value for customers. Is that really different
from the marketing era, in which the em-
phasis was on fulfilling the marketing concept? Maybe not.
Others call today’s business environment
the one-to-one era, meaning that the way to compete is to build
relationships with customers one at a
time and seek to serve each customer’s needs individually. For
example, the longer you are customer of
Amazon, the more detail they gain in your purchasing habits
and the better they can target you with
offers of new products. With the advent of social media and the
empowerment of consumers through
ubiquitous information that includes consumer reviews, there is
clearly greater emphasis on meeting
customer needs. Yet is that substantially different from the
marketing concept?

CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS MARKETING? 7
service-dominant logic
An approach to business that
recognizes that customers do
not distinguish between the
tangible and the intangible
aspects of a good or service,
but rather see a product in
terms of its total value.
service-dominant logic era
The period from 1990 to the
present in which some
believe that the philosophy
of service-dominant logic
dominates the way firms
compete.
offering
The entire bundle of a
tangible good, intangible
service, and price that
composes what a company
offers to customers.
communicating
In marketing, a broad term
meaning describing the

offering and its value to
potential customers, as well
as learning from customers.
Still others argue that this is the time of service-dominant logic
and that we are in the service-
dominant logic era. Service-dominant logic is an approach to
business that recognizes that con-
sumers want value no matter how it is delivered, whether it’s
via a product, a service, or a combination
of the two. Although there is merit in this belief, there is also
merit to the value approach and the one-
to-one approach. As you will see throughout this book, all three
are intertwined. Perhaps, then, the
name for this era has yet to be devised.
Whatever era we’re in now, most historians would agree that
defining and labeling it is difficult.
Value and one-to-one are both natural extensions of the
marketing concept, so we may still be in the
marketing era. To make matters more confusing, not all
companies adopt the philosophy of the era.
For example, in the 1800s Singer and National Cash Register
adopted strategies rooted in sales, so they
operated in the selling era forty years before it existed. Some
companies are still in the selling era. Re-
cently, many considered automobile manufacturers to be in the
trouble they were in because they work
too hard to sell or push product and not hard enough on
delivering value.
Creating Offerings That Have Value
Marketing creates those goods and services that the company
offers at a price to its customers or cli-
ents. That entire bundle consisting of the tangible good, the

intangible service, and the price is the
company’s offering. When you compare one car to another, for
example, you can evaluate each of
these dimensions—the tangible, the intangible, and the price—
separately. However, you can’t buy one
manufacturer’s car, another manufacturer’s service, and a third
manufacturer’s price when you actually
make a choice. Together, the three make up a single firm’s
offer.
Marketing people do not create the offering alone. For example,
when the iPad was created,
Apple’s engineers were also involved in its design. Apple’s
financial personnel had to review the costs
of producing the offering and provide input on how it should be
priced. Apple’s operations group
needed to evaluate the manufacturing requirements the iPad
would need. The company’s logistics
managers had to evaluate the cost and timing of getting the
offering to retailers and consumers. Apple’s
dealers also likely provided input regarding the iPad’s service
policies and warranty structure. Market-
ing, however, has the biggest responsibility because it is
marketing’s responsibility to ensure that the
new product delivers value.
Communicating Offerings
Communicating is a broad term in marketing that means
describing the offering and its value to
your potential and current customers, as well as learning from
customers what it is they want and like.
Sometimes communicating means educating potential customers
about the value of an offering, and
sometimes it means simply making customers aware of where
they can find a product. Communicating

also means that customers get a chance to tell the company what
they think. Today companies are find-
ing that to be successful, they need a more interactive dialogue
with their customers. For example,
Comcast customer service representatives monitor Twitter.
When they observe consumers tweeting
problems with Comcast, the customer service reps will post
resolutions to their problems. Similarly,
JCPenney has created consumer groups that talk among
themselves on JCPenney-monitored Web
sites. The company might post questions, send samples, or
engage in other activities designed to solicit
feedback from customers.
Mobile devices, like iPads and Droid smartphones, make mobile
marketing possible too. For ex-
ample, if consumers check-in at a shopping mall on Foursquare
or Facebook, stores in the mall can
send coupons and other offers directly to their phones and pad
computers.
F I G U R E 1 . 2
A BMW X5 costs much more than a Honda CRV, but why is it
worth more? What makes up the complete offering
that creates such value?
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
F I G U R E 1 . 3
Social media sites like Foursquare and Facebook have a location

feature that allows consumers to post their
location. Retailers can then use this to send coupons and other
special offers to the consumer’s phone or pad for
immediate use.
Source: Flickr.
Companies use many forms of communication, including
advertising on the Web or television, on bill-
boards or in magazines, through product placements in movies,
and through salespeople. Other …
Running head: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CAPSTONE 1
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CAPSTONE 8
Stacy Hayes
Dr. Joseph Keller
BUS499 Business Administration Capstone
March 2, 2020
Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies
When the name Dell is mentioned, what comes to the mind of
many people is personal computers since the name is widely
known for its link to computers. However, since its founding,

the company has continued to grow and expand beyond the
personal computers market to engage in other products and
services such as IT (Swab & Gentry, 2018). The company now
has a stake in servers, networking, storage, and data protection
alongside its products, such as monitors, PCs, and printers. The
company went public in 1988 as Dell Computer Corporation,
and began a stiff competition with Compaq later in 2001. The
company faced tough times from 2013 when smartphones and
tablets became widely accepted, prompting the company to
initiate the privatization process (Swab & Gentry, 2018). This
paper aims at discussing strategies used by the company to
operate both at the business and corporate levels.
Business level strategies
The business-level strategy aims at meeting customers’ needs
and satisfying them by offering high-quality goods and services
to meet the needs and increasing operating profits (Hitt &
Hoskisson, 2020). The pivotal focus is to position the company
against its competitors. Staying at the cutting edge and
influence market and technology trends in the long-run.
The three core values of Dell Inc. are Listen, Learn, and
Deliver. These values have made the company successful in the
IT sector by offering its products and services to meet customer
needs. The success of the company has been on unique
customization, cost proposition, and delivery. The company’s
focus turned to upgrading its strategies into meet the changing
environment in the sector (Swab & Gentry, 2018). The business
strategy has always centered on several core elements, which
include mass customization, direct sales, partnership with
suppliers, build-to-order manufacturing, customer service, just-
in-time inventories, market segmentation, and information
sharing and extensive data with both customers and suppliers.
Dell now has strategies that focus on individual customer needs,
unlike before, where the focus was on government and
commercial customers (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). The personal
computer trend has shifted towards smaller and more
communication-oriented and integrated products. The market

has experienced high demand for portable devices such as
laptops, smartphones, and notebooks. This has forced the
company to adopt a strategy of manufacturing computer
products which meet that need (Swab & Gentry, 2018).
The core competencies used by the company to meet specific
product markets have been instrumental for the company.
Growth in technology and advancement in product
differentiation makes customers have more expectations of high
–quality and advanced products at a low process (Lee & Barney,
2016). To meet these demands, Dell has focused on its cost
leadership skills and customers’ buying behavior as well as
differentiated products to create value for the customers. The
cost leadership-differentiated strategy enables the company to
make goods and services with an emphasis on low cost and high
differentiation (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). This means the
company has to lower its costs and produce products that are
highly differentiated from its competitors. Through this
strategy, the company has been able to build skills that can
adapt quickly to rapid changes in the market and new
technologies in both internal and external environments (Swab
& Gentry,2018)
To balance its objectives, the company has three initiatives
which, include manufacturing systems, quality management, and
information networks. These initiatives have been instrumental
in the continuous enhancement of products and cost reductions.
Such efforts have also enabled employees to improve
communication and work flow, as well as identifying and
resolving problems. Information management has helped the
company improve customer services through customized
assembly process (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). The flexibility of
this process aims at meeting customers’ orders through a faster
manufacturing process. Total quality management is a strategy
used by the company to run innovation that emphasizes the
commitment to its customers as well as continuous improvement
of processes through problem-solving and data-driven
approaches usually based on the empowerment of employees

(Lee & Barney, 2016). The strategy eliminates inefficiencies in
manufacturing and lowering costs hence allowing the company
to offer products and service at low prices as expected by
customers.
Corporate-level Strategies
Corporate strategies of any business focus on success through a
mix of business units that allow the company to remain
competitive. It aims at making a business more than just a unit
through development of important relationships for sharing
resources and avoiding duplication of efforts. The computer
industry today is one of the most critical and unpredictable
sector across the world. It forms the foundation of all
information technologies, accounting for more than 5 percent of
global GDP (Chang, 2010). Computers are crucial across many
industries for telecommunication, automobiles, consumer
electronics, and medical research among others. Although there
was recorded growth in computer purchases until 2008, today
computer markets have changed immensely unlike 20 years ago
(Lee & Barney, 2016). There have been innovative and
technological trends in the industry, forcing companies in this
sector to keep in touch with latest movements and trends
technologically.
Dell company has also established multiple factories across the
world in order to meet their customers’ needs at a local level
and ensure products are received over a short time. The
company also partnered with its suppliers to set their stores next
to Dell factories to reduce transportation costs and also provide
the company with quick inventory levels (Swab & Gentry,
2018). Additionally, the company is making acquisitions of new
related companies in order to provide the company with services
that the company does not offer (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2020). This
entails acquiring companies which manufacture smartphones
and tablets in order to remain afloat with technology. The
company is also acquiring smaller companies which are into
software and networking in order to diversify its products and
services.

Dell Inc. has remained at the top of the market despite
technological and innovative trends in the whole industry. The
main driving force in computer industry in the recent years has
been internet and applications forcing Dell to adopt a strategy
of simplified PCs or computers with specific applications (Swab
& Gentry, 2018). Additionally, companies are purchasing
computers based on processing power and server visualization.
For instance, Dell began offering Linux notebook systems to fit
into the demands of the market, becoming the first company to
offer such a product line. The company has also been striving to
offer products with high data storage, data transfer as well as
products that offer functions of connecting appliances to PCs
(Chang, 2010). The company has also focused on offering
computers and electronics at low prices through direct sales.
In the past few years, Dell Inc. began to focus on social media
and e-commerce strategies in order to reach out to potential as
well as its loyal customers (Chang, 2010). The strategy has been
working for the company through transmission of its messages
and products lines trough Twitter, FaceBook, among others. The
strategy was adopted because of the changing nature of
communication in the recent times where companies are
choosing to use social media and e-commerce to reach directly
to their customers. In order to improve efficiency and remain
the leading company in the information technology sector, the
company had to adopt ways in which it will ensure the company
remain present across the world through social media.
Competitive Environment
Dell has faced intensive competition from companies in the
computer sector who have tried to set distribution to retain
stores around the globe to drive Dell from the market. This
forced Dell to respond by partnering with suppliers to set their
stores near Dell factories in order to increase efficiency and
convenience to its loyal customers (Swab & Gentry, 2018). The
competition has been stiff, with Compaq edging out Dell in
2013 as the leading suppliers of computers. This was because
Compaq simplified its product delivery process in order to

allow customers to buy its products rather than Dell’s products.
Competition in this industry has been fierce because the
companies use the same differentiation/cost-leadership strategy.
Dell has not been struggling, in this strategy and this made it
face decline in demand of its products because of price.
Companies that are involved in computer manufacture include
Apple, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Compaq, and Toshiba, among others.
Apple has been successful in differentiation while companies
like Acer, Lenovo, HP, and Toshiba have succeeded in cost
leadership (Chang, 2010). Dell’s differentiation strategy has
been copied by its competitors, sending the company to the
drawing board in order to remain unique. The cost-leadership
used by Dell has not been strong because other companies have
been able to offer products of similar quality at low prices than
Dell. As such, the company depends on other aspects of running
the company in order to gain competitive advantage in the
recent years. HP has had advantage in selling its PCs in other
countries while Dell has been US-Centric in its approach (Swab
& Gentry, 2018). This has enabled HP to gain popularity
overseas although Dell responded to such competition by
acquiring smaller upcoming companies which are based in
different countries in order to diversify its production and gain
larger market share.
Market cycles
Slow-market cycles refer to markets where resources are
protected and companies maintain competitive advantage or
monopoly in the market in a way that competitive pressures
cannot affect the markets. These kind of markets are rare to find
unlike fast-cycle and standard cycle markets. Fast-cycle markets
are markets with high competition, forcing companies to
continuously innovate new ways of marketing and new
products, as well as counter attack new strategies used by other
competitors in order to remain relevant in the market (Lee &
Barney, 2016). As such, companies may not rely on singular
resources because the market cycles are very fast. The needs of
customers usually change fast and therefore companies should

be in the look out to identify any arising gaps and new trends in
order to design products that can meet the customer demands.
Competitive environment for Dell Inc. would be different if the
company existed in these types of markets. In a slow-cycle
market, Dell would be using the cost-leadership/differentiated
strategy in order to reduce its products because of less or no
competition. The company would also not see the need to
differentiate its products to match them with new technologies
since it would be the only existing or leader in computer
technology. As such, its products would be expensive and not
able to fit in the current technological age (Chang, 2010). On
the other hand, in a fast-cycle market, Dell has been able to go
out of its way in order to offer products which match this era of
technology, as well as manufacture products that fit the
demands of customers. Competition allows companies to offer
the latest designs of products and services at low cost to the
benefit of customers (Lee & Barney, 2016).
References
Chang, H. F. (2010). Analysis of the innovation strategy of
technical‐intensive industries: scenario analysis
viewpoint. Business Strategy Series, 11(3), 152–157. doi:
10.1108/17515631011043813
Hitt, I. & Hoskisson. (2020). Strategic management: Concepts
and cases: Competitiveness and globalization (13th ed.). Mason,
OH: South-Western Cengage Learning
Lee, Y., & Barney, J. B. (2016). Strategic Factor Markets. The
Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management, 1–2. doi:
10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_519-1
Swab, R. G., & Gentry, R. J. (2018). Vision. Drive. Stamina:
How Dell Became the Company with the Power to Do More.
doi: 10.4135/9781526437921

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