Dell Computer, whose streamlined sales model is the envy of the industry, today will unveil plans for its first major foray into image-building, a US$70 million multimedia advertising blitz revolving around the phrase "Be Direct."
The campaign, scheduled to start this weekend, will use television, print, and the Web to hype Dell (DELL) as the world's leading middleman-free distributor of personal computers, the company said.
The "Be Direct" ads will kick off with a round of 30-second US television spots on Sunday, featuring an ingenious field mouse who figures out a better way to get his cheese. Faced with an elaborate maze, the furry creature takes direct action by igniting a bomb that clears everything in his path.
"What's the best way to deal with obstacles?" a voice asks the viewer as the mouse lights a match, exploding the bomb. "Eliminate 'em," the narrator answers rhetorically.
Print ads, which will follow in American and Canadian business and technology magazines, will target those likely to make corporate buying decisions. The campaign will eventually extend overseas, Dell said.
The Round Rock, Texas-based PC-maker hired J. Walter Thompson USA's Chicago office in November to develop the campaign. The ad agency is a unit of WPP Group (WPPGY).
The new crusade comes in addition to Dell's existing product-related marketing -- straightforward pictures of computer boxes with prices and model specifications. According to Competitive Media Reporting, an advertising market research firm, Dell spent $23 million on US broadcast and cable television during 1997, and fed another $29 million worth of business to consumer magazines.
The company certainly has the means to finance new advertising: It netted US$305 million in its fiscal-1999 first quarter on revenues of $3.9 billion, using a much-admired system that gets computers out to buyers quickly while keeping inventories scant.
