UPDATED 7-7-11 (final update): God bless Dell. They have done so much for Austin and even my career. But this is the cherry on top of bad summer ads.

This time there is no offer. Free shipping is not an incentive! They're talking about the Big Weekend, but that was kind of last weekend. And 4 days? Most people's weekends are only 2 days. You know they have to do this. They have to keep pounding out the deals and coupons, but at some point, to the consumer, it's just noise, junk mail, spam. Even if I asked for it. (AdAge has a great article on The Discounting Disease, that makes my point.)

UPDATED 7-5-11: Dell's newest summer message/deal is much clearer. And the actual offer is at the top of the page. Well done. Sort of.

The almost got some humans into the shot. Hey is that a scene from The Social Network? Kinda looks like Zuck. Um, but how does Dell claim it has "the thinnest 15" PC in the world"? Are they counting some technicality I don't know about? And is thin really the most important feature? [At this price you're pushing up against the Mac.] Nope, that's the price and the free X-Box. At least with this ad we know what's what.

UPDATED 6-24-11: You didn't really think the deals were going to end, now did you? Here's the latest "Limited Offer" to show up in my inbox.

And is "free standard shipping" really a HOT selling point? And the real problem with a deal-addicted company like Dell, is you can never tell when you are getting the best "deal." Spend any time on their site and you find so many "deals" that comparing prices and coupons and special offers is almost impossible. And this ultimately causes people to NOT BUY, because they think the better deal is just around the corner, or more likely, at Best Buy, where Dell has to compete along side Apple, HP, Toshiba, Acer and Samsung. Visit Dell.com and ask yourself, "What's the deal?" Prepare to be overwhelmed.

UPDATED 6-20-11: And the END of DELL'S SUMMER DEALS is TODAY!

Yes, this might very well be the LAST BIG DEAL OF THE SUMMER from Dell. But somehow I bet they've got a few more lined up right behind this one. The false urgency is what irritates me. Driving demand through some sense of "holy cow if we don't buy this amazing computer today, tomorrow we're gonna pay twice as much" mumbo jumbo. Who believes this stuff? And who wants to be I get a NEW DELL DEAL this week?

++ The original post ++

Two promotional "summer" emails arrived in my inbox this morning. And the stark contrast between Apple and Dell could not be clearer. Here are two slides I presented today on SlideShare.net, that cover the huge differences in the Dell and Apple approach. The presentation is available for full-screen viewing and downloading as a PowerPoint presentation here: Apple and Dell Summer Ads (powerpoint)

Here are the screen grabs of that presentation:

and then Dell:

UPDATE 6-17-11: I missed the actual offer in my initial post. Thanks to a comment I went and looked at the rest of the ad. Here's the REAL summer offer Dell was pushing.

* thanks to the dr. who fan that commented below

I think the contrast is remarkable.

Apple does not compete on price and therefore their "offer" is actually a gift card from their online app store.

Dell on the other hand, competes on price and even competes with itself on price. Does any consumer think that the SPECIAL, or LIMITED TIME OFFER will not be made even better tomorrow, when Dell unveils their NEXT SALE? I believe Dell thinks urgency is the key to selling computers. Now, Today, Limited Offer, Today's Offer, 30 Days of Offers, 365 Days of Offers. But their Big Savings Everyday slogan sounds more like Walmart.

But then again, perhaps Dell is the Walmart of computers.

UPDATE (an hour after initial posting): Major ah ha. Apple is about the people. (human in ad is happy, dreaming of better things) Dell is about the computer. (no human, only prices). Visualise this brand strategy for me.

Apple = Human
Dell = Computer

@jmacofearth
permalink:  http://uber.la/2011/06/apple-vs-dell/

Other posts of interest:

• Apple and Dell Summer Ads (powerpoint presentation – free to download)
• Mobile Phone Discussions Are Boring: How the iPhone Killed Geek Phone Mistique
• Michael Dell's Take on the Tablet Problem, "The Notebook, it just screwed up."
• Dell Launches @DellCares on Twitter, Will the Peeps Come?

My Slideshare.net profile: jmacofearth

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