Della Meet Stella

May 15, 2009 By BJ Cook,

So someone passed me a link for the new Dell "Della" campaign website. Since I wasn't the target audience, I passed around to some of my female colleagues, searched for conversations around Twitter, read some blogs by female bloggers who know their stuff and figured I'd introduce "Stella" from Comedy Central all at the same time. Are you wondering who is Stella? Stella is a satire on Comedy Central that features Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain. They always find themselves in strange situations, play to the far side of the spectrum and wear suits. At the end of the day, they always find ways to be smart and sophomoric. Can these two qualities exist within a campaign that is supposed to focused on women, yet seems to have dropped the ball in so many ways? As I'm writing this post, there are bloggers chattering, Dell says they've adjusted their direction based on feedback, but I still see holes. Let's help Dell plug them before they go down trying to rap and dressed in suits. Join the conversation - where is the link to the Marketing & Advertising section in Ideastorm.com? Isn't this primarily where most of the conversations are? Why fragment them around the web, which takes more work to then reel all that data back in, run through some text analytics technology and categorise for internal team. I remember hearing from being at Customer Feedback Week that Dell had an 8-person "feedback" division. Maybe it's bigger, but someone still has to distill all that feedback, right? Aesthetics - I'm not the target audience, but still ... are men so bad to include? It feels like I'm shopping on Pottery Barn. I'm gonna guess, but most professional, busy women who are 18-34 like technical data, power and yes style. Does shrinking (hiding) the products and focusing on the woman only the best use of imagery? Messaging - Green tips and pink ribbons? Seems pretty played out based on what other brands are doing. My wife is a stay-at-home, professional mom who needs a laptop. Maybe speak to her lifestage, tell her how it can help her run the kid around, get her stuff done and not lug around some 5 lbs laptop. And Gina Q is on every section with templated, "Share your thoughts on the topic above." Really? But, what do I know. I'm a guy. See what some other folks are saying: Shelley Dolley - "Let's hope the lessons they're learning will be shared across industries." Andrea Learned - "Della Disaster: What Makes A Computer 'For Women'?" Twittersphere - "Ladies, do you find the Della site offensive? Della: Dell's Modest Proposal For Women. Women will buy a computer, having no idea what it does, just because it's cute, according to Dell's Della" Well it seems like Dell is doing their best to respond which I give them propos for and hopefully they connect with some real women consumers and not just stock photography models to gain insight how to market to them today in this world fo 360 degree touchpoints.