Can Michael Dell Refocus His Namesake?

Steve Lohr of The New York Times examines the problems Michael Dell faces trying to turn Dell around:

[Chief marketing officer Mark] Jarvis, a former Oracle executive, says Dell’s brand is widely known and respected, but often not linked to a clear message. So he wants to give the brand a makeover, saying that in the consumer market, it needs to be “much cooler and go away from low prices; a lot of people see us as a cheap PC company, and that’s not where we want to be.”

It’s hard to differentiate your computers by anything other than price when you’re shipping the exact same software as every competitor other than Apple.

★ Sunday, 9 September 2007