Lady Geek

"None of the professional women I know (which is where the biggest financial opportunity is) would be seen dead with a pink laptop."

I can relate to what you are saying Belinda.

However, the truth is - you and me are not the target group here. I meet a lot of women who far removed from the "professional" type you are thinking of yet are regular computer users. And their world is pink.

I think the idea is patronising and irrelevant to women over about 15.

However, the idea that laptops should come in different colours is not a bad one, most people have a favourite colour and why wouldn't you want your personal laptop in that colour.

I don't think that any professional - whether men or women would want a colour laptop in a work situation - at home not a problem.

I thought only six year old girls, and Katie Price live in a world of pink. Even at home a pink laptop? I mean really i don't see it.

Why did Apple go from a white iPod to black iPod to metallic blue/pink/green? Because they knew some people would buy. The market isn't you savvy marketing people. The market is girls and young 20-somethings who are still into pretty pink. Ever been to Japan? Everything other gadget is pink.

"you are not the target group here"

I agree I am not the 'intended' target audience of this ad.  However I am the potential target audience of the product.  Netbooks have flown of the shelves with women (nearly a quarter of all sales have come through women, according to Intel ) and put brands such as ASUS and Acer on the map.   Its professional women as well as young women who are buying these products. And brands like Dell and PC world are too short sighted to see the opportunity that we represent.

"The market isn't you savvy marketing people. The market is girls and young 20-somethings who are still into pretty pink. Ever been to Japan? Everything other gadget is pink."

I have 2 points.

1) The colour is not the real issue here.  Its the cliches and assumptions that sit behind the colour pink.  Pink is just a symptom.

2)Young girls are a very lucrative market.  The Pink Nintendo DS outsold every other colour.  However, the female buyers are the 'pay as you go market' which is not only fickle and over saturated with kit, but also do not have a high disposable income. The opportunity for advertisers is to communicate to professional educated women (£0.6billion according to Jupiter).  

You don't need to be marketing savvy not to engage emotionally with this pathetic cliched ad.

Unfortunately I have not been to Japan.  But would love to go if you have a project you want me to work on? :)

Just having looked more closely at the data, less than 15% of one of the key players netbook sales to women have been with women less than 25.  The rest of sales have been with women from 26-60 with the majority falling in the 36-49 age bracket.

I stick to my point. The latest Dell campaign seems to be about fun, and is not geared towards those who use laptops for work (i stare at a massive gum-machine full of these laptops every morning waiting for the tube). The PC world campaign is also about reaching out to home users. Who shops at PC world - not a computer-savvy person who'd rather do their research online first and then find a bargain on the net, or a professional type who'd just send the request to their IT manager. The people they seem to be targeting are not in those sales stats at all, imho.

I am extremely adverse to the pink thing, but I doubt Dell/PC World care in this instance...

1) The colour is not the real issue here.  Its the cliches and assumptions that sit behind the colour pink.  Pink is just a symptom.

More detail on the above would be nice.

There are lots of products, ideas, movements etc. made by women for wome that are pink such as the breast cancer ribbon; codepink4peace.org; Pink magazine which is a mag for professional women; the singer Pink chose her own name; Uttar Pradesh's gulabi gang, ie 'pink gang'; The Pink Chaddi on Facebook, also Indian I think; and according to New Scientist, not so long ago, it was said that women may be hard wired to be drawn to the colour pink.

Also, isn't this just one colour in a range. Ignore it if you don't like it. Nobody intentionally buys anything they don't like, do they?

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Hi. I'm from India and hence not the target. But I think the ad just leaves one cold. Even if my world IS pink, the ad doesn't excite -makes me feel that Dell is trying to 'dumb down' the purchase decision and thats not endearing. I have other criterion in mind when I buy a laptop and if colour is an added option, great..but why does it have to become a fashion accessory?

Colour isn't the issue.  The issue is that the pooor author is offended, affronted, and made physically ill because she feels patronized. And since the ad doesn't project her world view she'll attack it not on the basis that it is a bad ad ( ie. doesn't generate profit) but because it doen't meet her absolutist beliefs about how women (Blacks, Muslims, Jews, young people, old people, etc) should be presented in commercial communications.  God Bless censorship! Viva ha PC brigade! Death to - well anyone who doesn't share my wolrd view!!!

What are you on Tod? I didn’t  get that from this blog, and cheers for chucking a random selection of ‘minorities’ into brackets to support your point that Belinda has extreme ‘world views’. Really? I thought she was saying that this ad is lazy marketing. Yes some girls will go for ‘hey pink! hey fashion!’ but there are lots of us out there hugely bored by every ‘female’ product marketed at us following this format (by the way I am ‘key target audience’ and I don’t work in marketing).  I like pink, I love sex in the city, also fashion and design. I feel patronized by this ad and guess what, a quick email round up from a selection of my mates and peers (we fit into lots of different categories – even some ‘minorities’) comes out with the conclusion that the ad is predictable, not particularly inspiring and we’d all rather buy a nice looking mac if we are thinking aesthetics. In fact, when I was under 20 I was more into grunge so would have totally hated this ad. I also second Belinda’s point that professional women, not the orange skinned extensions brigade, are a key market with lots of money, not being properly targeted by agencies.

To start with, I'm not a professional. I'm a 20 year old student (and have never studied marketing/advertising), so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about - but here's what I think...

Maybe Dell sell enough to professionals. Maybe they're now targetting teens and young people who think it might be cool to have a laptop in a more interesting colour than black or grey (or even white). I can imagine a lot of my friends thinking this. So then maybe the idea is that if you can get a PINK laptop then you must be able to get any colour you want.  

Phillipa

Do you 'barf' every time you see lazy marketing? Perhaps you should get that checked out.  

Check out Dave Trott's blog on this same site re the Indian Elvis execution for a slighly more intelligent discussion re stereotypes in advertising.  Or perhaps just read the posting below yours for a more reasonable response to the ad.

I think my point was that I found Tod's comment unreasonable as I could not understand how Belinda's blog could be interpreted as a representation of absolutist world views. Also how the 'pass me the barf comment' could be taken so literally. There are several strands to all of this. I like the comment below mine, although I doubt the first response teens will have is 'ooh this means I can get this in a different colour', it doesnt seem to me that the team behind this had that message as the main priority (it would not have been hard to convey that). A previous comment pointed out the different colours are a USP and I agree with this. Again I repeat the point that professional women are not being properly targeted, in general by advertising, not just this one ad (re: Belinda: The opportunity for advertisers is to communicate to professional educated women - £0.6billion according to Jupiter).  Whilst the Carly's comment offers a view on this, looking at Dell's product, I do think it is suitable for the professional market - not just the tweens, again reinforced by Belinda's stats that 'less than 15% of one of the key players netbook sales to women have been with women less than 25.  The rest of sales have been with women from 26-60 with the majority falling in the 36-49 age bracket'. Final comment is to say it is the 'cliches and assumptions' around the colour pink that make me, and others, want to 'pass the barf bag' or simply feel disappointed by the lack of progression there has been in terms of how women are represented and marketed to.

Todd and Phillipa, thank you for the generally positive response to my first BR comment!

Whilst I don't think teens would choose a laptop based on what colour it is, I do think that if they started looking to buy one they might now think of Dell. It might make them more likely to check out Dell online - and then they can find out about the more important features.

Although if the ad is aimed at teens, I don't think it's very clear - I was really just throwing in a suggestion, another way of looking at it. Looking at the figures it would make sense to continue targeting professionals and in that case maybe it is patronising. I don't feel patronised, but then I'm not a professional (yet!).