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Does Dell Know What Women Want In a Laptop?
Hugh Pickens writes "Finding the right approach for gender-specific marketing can be really tricky, said Andrea Learned, a marketing expert and author of Don't Think Pink — What Really Makes Women Buy. So when Dell recently took the wraps off a new Web site called Della, geared toward women, featuring tech 'tips' that recommended calorie counting, finding recipes, and watching cooking videos as ways for women to get the most from a laptop, a backlash erupted online, as both women and men described the Web site as 'ridiculous' and 'gimmicky.' Della's heavy emphasis on colors, computer accessories, dieting tips, and even the inclusion of a video about vintage shopping 'seems condescending to women consumers,' says Learned. Instead, Dell should have emphasized function and figured out ways to sell the netbooks that weren't clichéd and reliant on gender stereotypes. 'Some brands go too far with the girlie stuff,' Learned says. 'Della's marketing strategy sounds like it's advertising a purse. There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing.'"
Sorry to be politically-incorrect here. But just because some people find a certain stereotype demeaning doesn't necessarily make it a complete falsehood. Sure, it's stereotypical to say that women like pink, pretty accessories, shoes, knick-knacks they can put on a million shelves on the wall (instead of the movie posters that belong there), a pink cover on the toilet, decorative soaps, scented candles, etc., etc. But you know what? That "stereotype" effectively describes 4 out my 5 last girlfriends, my mother, all my aunts, and a solid majority of female friends I've had over the years.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
why wouldn't Dell do it? It may be gender biased and un-pc but if it the amount of sales outweighs the cost of creating the website then it's done it's job. Business 101
I hate stuff like this - it makes me cringe. Same with video games that are overtly aimed at girls. I mean, fair enough, target audience - but for crying out loud, don't just soil the thing in stereotypes.
Keep it subtle in multiple directions, and you open up to multiple target audiences (including women) rather than targetting one area poorly, and driving it away
Dell probably spent millions on research figuring out what they thought was the magic bullet in marketing a laptop to women. Focus groups, design teams of women, and they might have even found things that a majority of their women customers are interested in.
And they blew it. No woman actually wants to be told they should check out dieting tips, that's like telling a wife/girlfriend she looks fat in those jeans. On top of that even if a lot of women are interested in cooking and recipes it comes out in very bad taste when you release your laptop for women as an extension or helper of domestic chores. I wonder if the wives of Dell executives are upset, or maybe they're too busy doing the dishes and cooking dinner to even know what's going on...
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
In the top ten percent of the personal market, women want very similar things to men. In the bottom 90, they want pink frilly stuff. If you want the 90%, you have to figure out how to silence the 10% of people you're going to offend.
Hint: Men are the same way (not the pink part). Give them sports data and stuff with their favorite team logos.
Business is a whole different world...
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
'Della's marketing strategy sounds like it's advertising a purse. There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing.'
If you add the level of sophistication, you might be perceived as thinking men are incapable of it. While it's socially ok to think of men as the lesser stupider sex today, I don't think that solves the problem.
... frankly, I'm a customer. I expect to be treated the same as another customer unless I have chosen to be treated differently. And if I chose to be treated differently, you better be careful or you'll lose me as a customer. You want to make a Trek themed site to target Trek fans? Fine, but don't you dare pay for images of Scott Bakula or the deal's off.
If I may impart my engineer's point of view on this topic, don't divide your customers on controversial lines. The fact that you made it any different shopping as a man or woman is going to cause the public to pick apart each site with the finest toothed comb and set to you like dogs. Because it's an old battle and women have very real memories of the glass ceiling and at least some form of repression.
You aren't making an Ebonics themed site for African Americans and you aren't making a talk-over-your-head snooty themed site for Caucasian Americans. Why? Because it's a sensitive issue. Any subtle difference will cause you to catch hell. Why, I'm going to get torn apart for the adjectives I used above because I'm sure some words have baggage meaning they're slightly better or worse than others.
Are you going to make different purchase sites for Hindus, Jews, Moslems and Christians? Nope. Say it with me now: because it's a sensitive issue.
Are you going to make a homosexual themed site so that homosexuals can be distinguished between buyers that are heterosexual. Again, see above.
There's a list that goes on and on
Don't Think Pink -- What Really Makes Women Buy
Thank god a woman wrote that. If it was a man, I'm sure there would have been a march on Washington.
Why do you even start this up again? Are you really running out of marketing ideas that the only thing left is controversy? Haven't we learned our lesson time and time again?
Here's an idea if you want a marketing gimmick: pick non-sensitive topics. When a popular super hero movie comes out, make good guy versus bad guy themes and always allow the customer to go to the regular site? Or make generic themes that have no conflict at the center?
My work here is dung.
Maybe it's because it's one letter away from Delta, but Della just sounds like a "fat" person name. Like "Gertrude" sounds like an old person name. And "Candy" is a stripper name.
Maybe it wasn't the targeting of women that was gimmicky. Maybe it was the use of an unattractive person name.
This one clearly fails the Dilbert test. Alice would kick the managers responsible into their own hats.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Since I was born I've learned only three things about women:
- No two are alike
- No two want the same thing
- What a women wants changes from moment to moment
But that all being said, I'd try and sell Laptops via a "Aspirational Lifestyle" (e.g. "You're a 20~ successful, confident, and stylish women. This is the laptop for you.").
Then produce a bunch of stylish laptops that match that "look." Or match the look of the women in my adverts to my laptops. Either way, the people who aspire to "be that thing" will buy the laptop to do so...
Because there's already a clock on the stove.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Just slap some pink glitter on it and build in a makeup mirror into the screen and I'll buy it? Where did they get their consultants who advised them this would work? A time warp to the 1950s?
FTA
"Despite the backlash from women about the sexist advertising schemes, sales of the Delldo (Dell's new dildo mount for laptops and pc's) was spectacular."
"I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
That's like saying that guys like to pee on geysers just so they can say they did it!
Best Slashdot Co
You can't really pull off the whole Like-A-Women's-Magazine to sell netbooks unless you can convince women the netbook will:
1. Teach them 20 ways to supercharge their sex in the bedroom.
2. Help them lose 40lbs in six months while simultaneously making the world's most delicious 5,000 calorie chocolate cake.
3. Do yoga exercises that take 20 years of their visible age.
If I had a dime for every time I've heard a woman say, "I'm not like other women." Every woman thinks all other women are pretty much the same and that they themselves are different and unique.
I used universals to incite a flame war. Hey it's Friday!
Men do not wear bras or skirts (sorry Scots). This gender based customization might be a good strategy.
As a man I expect more manly looking notebooks with customization made specifically for us men and not mid gender gay looking user interfaces or designs (sorry Apple).
Whenever you make these broad generalizations, there's always going to be the fringe outsiders offended by the stereotype. Dell should have picked a different metaphor that clearly indicates "girly" without saying it. Maybe, market one towards mothers (not women) where there are distinct duties like feeding kids making recipes relevant. Bundle apps for roles and not sex.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
If so, there are a hell of a lot of very successful condescending websites and magazines about. Now I'm not saying that all men would be attracted to sites like that, just like not all women would be attracted to pink-themed sites, makeup tips and fashion. However, the difference is that men don't go around wailing at how they're being "exploited" or belittled or generalised by these things. They either visit them or ignore them. I would suggest that if women want to see themselves as equal to men they adopt a similar approach and either like it or ignore it ..... unless the thing they really dislike is themselves, individually, being so easy to categorise.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
A woman's laptop should use one of those IBM Thinkpad TrackPoint things for the pointer device.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Then will the same groups go on to shut down Better Homes, Oprah, Family Circle and Good Housekeeping magazines? These magazines are focused on women and only publish articles on calorie counting, cooking tips, recipies, and shopping. Won't the same groups think these magazines stereotype women as being stay at home moms? Or does it simply address the needs of a particular marketing segment?
i saw on BBC's look around you...the "petticoat 5" computer for women...complete with emery board and lipstick i think...
Good people go to bed earlier.
I hate marketing. Put out the plain truth and let people decide for themselves. That's my thinking. Unfortunately, any company that follows my advice will be out of business in a short time.
But Dell? I gotta tell ya, when it comes to marketing to women, never focus your marketing on what women actually do with their computers! Focus your marketing on how their computers make them look and feel! Almost all successful marketing targeting women focus on image and lifestyle that they all "wish" they had. Feminine hygiene products all talk about the "things you can do with confidence!" when only a very small percentage of the women who buy them are light enough to actually walk in the sand without leaving giant craters, can play tennis for more than 5 minutes or even know how to fly a kite. Clothes and jewelry are another classic and obvious example -- all displayed by supermodels and mannequins made of sticks.
I would suck as a marketing person. I despise marketing because it is misleading at least and quite often just a bunch of lies. But examples of success in marketing are out there for all to see.
If they made a marketing campaign that specifically targeted men, the feminists would have simply murdered them. So now they openly say they target women and men shouldn't complain about it, because they use computers anyway. Smart.
Just like there are guys who truely like working under the hood of a car and can appreciate it's engineering there are plenty of guys who just want a car that is loud and goes fast. The same is true with women, there are going to be women who really use a machine to it's fullest function and don't need to be pandered to and there are the Jill Sixpacks who want something that matches their fashion motif.
Having a focus on a niche market like that isn't a bad concept as long as you don't try to push the stereotype onto the entire demographic.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
The brought out a "concept car" that was designed by women, for women. So, it had a split headrest for a ponytail, lots of amenities, interchangeable interiors for color and material. But what I thought was most telling (and insulting) was that there was no hood. The only owner serviceable component was the windshield washer fluid reservoir. The engine and transmission could only be accessed by unbolting the front end sheet metal at a dealership. When asked about this "feature", the lead designer, a woman, said that most women really can't be bothered with servicing the car and they'd much rather have someone else do it.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
"Della.... DELLA!"
Every woman thinks all other women are pretty much the same and that they themselves are different and unique.
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 17
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
If I had a dime for every time I've heard a nerd say, "I'm not like other nerds". Every nerd thinks all other nerds are pretty much the same and that they themselves are different and unique. There fixed that for you
This whole comments section is describing the Hello Kitty Generation demographic.
What % of Woman Corporate Raiders responds to Dell's brand of marketing. Yesterday I think I saw Google's Exec in charge of something was a woman. What are her tastes in computers?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Indeed. The aspects that womens' stereotypes address are generally not the aspects that make them unique (though when I think back about previous girlfriends, the differences definitely come to mind first :P )
www.purevolume.com/martyd
He knows what women want because he can read their minds.
This would be my ideal laptop but only if it had a larger screen/keyboard. A 15.4" version would be lovely.
While Della may offend the most militant feminists, I think it will probably appeal to the average woman. My wife, is very practical and doesn't particularly care about owning a laptop. She'll gladly use mine or whatever computer happens to be around. When I start talking about his and her's she has no interest. Just our's.
I think this is probably not uncommon. My wife won't care about the various specifications, CPU speed, memory, etc. The only thing she might care about is how this laptop is going to benefit her lifestyle. Looking at the Della website, they are trying to communicate exactly this. I think Dell has done a great job communicating how technical details will translate to real life benefits:
"Improve your mood by listening to music, viewing pictures or even watching a movie. Some netbooks even offer an optional DVD drive. If your netbook has an HDMI port, you can expand your screen by connecting your netbook to an external monitor or TV. Several minis have HD screens available as an upgrade!"
Dell is definitely interested in women purchasing "upgrades," but how do you convince a woman to upgrade who is already feeling guilty about spending money on herself? It was hard enough to get her to even start thinking about buying a new computer. So they are simply trying to connect real world benefits to these various technical aspects. If anything, I think Della is a tribute to the practicality(differing priorities) of women rather than an insult to their intelligence.
I'm not Dell fan-boi, but let's be honest here women tend to see the world a little differently than men and we're all better off for it. Why not just embrace the differences rather than trying to force homogeny?
You can sell clothing to women because women have distinct needs from men in this regard, and there is are well established cultural differences in how men and women dress.
You can sell computers to power users, to office workers, to creative types, to programmers etc, but you can't sell computers to women because a persons gender does not define what they need out of a computer.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
shoe-shaped laptop or free shoes with every laptop or free laptop with every pair of shoes etc
But what women really want to know is: "Which computer is best for running Linux - a blue one, or a grey one?"
So should men get in a similar uproar about video games/movies that advertise violence/sex?
Let's look at this week's top box office movies:
Star Trek
XMen
Angels & Demons
Violence/sex sells, obviously. Clearly there is a similar selling trend for pink doodads and females, otherwise Dell wouldn't have bothered, right?
In the following year they explain that the reasons corporations are fun is they can invent themselves any time without notice, called Branding.
(Analogy)
Ever gotten into a rabid argument about Yum Brands? I bet not. Yet I would gather you've thought about whether some day's lunch was Kentucky Fried Chicken vs. Pizza Hut.
The thing is women like to form their little "women's cliques" and then tell men something totally different. See elsewhere why it's great for a magazine to insinuate that the GF weighs too much, but not okay for the LesserHalf.
So let Dell CoBrand all they like. They can have the Pony brand, and the Artemis brand for those scary stiletto-heel types.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Obviously not. I speak as someone of the female persuasion. :P
The website first reminded me of this:
Then I wondered how they got the idea of selling laptops to women, since why would a woman need a laptop? Obviously their place is in the kitchen.
Third, Slashdot is as misogynistic as ever. Thus posting anonymously.
for those scary stiletto-heel types.
Scary is not the word I would use to describe most stiletto-heel wearing women.
Men on the other hand...
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I understand why the site angers people, but frankly I think we should all be bothered by Learned's comments too. "Seems condescending to women consumers..." I don't know about all of you, but I consider myself a human being, and frankly am annoyed at how often my "is-ness" is reduced to the function of consumption. Every time I hear a politician, spokesman, or news commentator refer to us as "consumers" I want to smack them up-side the head, and if you'll notice, this requires no act of consumption to perform.
I am not a consumer. I am a person.
"There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing."
Uh, you mean like all of it. By the sounds of it, it completely and utterly lacks any hint of sophistication. In fact, the best way to market to women (especially tech-savvy women) is to utilize a great deal of sophistication which makes their complete lack of it quite ironic...
Ok this is marketing stuff which comes from marketing guys, and it is obviously things like this that make them exists. /. it is different, 'cause
It is just their job.
Now, for most people on
IT is our job.
Honestly I do appreciate Dell, and own a few laptops I am very happy working with. Solid, powerful, and I dont care if they look less cool than a more expensive AND/OR less powerful Vaio... Coupla years ago, my girlfriend needed to buy her first lap, I suggested a Dell so we went to their site and paid around 30euros more for a "girlie cover".
Sure they do not need Della to sell to girls, just like they didnt need something like Adamo.
Still they need to get something out of the marketing folks they pay. Hope they will get better results though.
But Microsoft does.
Sig this!
I can't stand marketing campaigns like 'Della'. Not only do they show a lack of insight, creativity, or original thinking (really, it reminds me of the way appliances were marketed to women in the 1950s!) but it's also offense to all the women who've worked so hard to be judged by their skills, competence, and character instead of by idiotic stereotypes.
My wife has a graduate degree in construction engineering, and she works for one of the largest commercial construction firms in the world. Literally more than 90% of the employees above the level of secretary/admin are male. On every new project, she constantly has to work harder, smarter, and faster than everyone else just to overcome the stereotypes that accompany her because of her gender (e.g. such things as "doesn't she know a woman's place is at home / in the kitchen" and "women don't belong on a job site.")
Dell's new marketing campaign is in appallingly bad taste, and I can tell you that despite the fact that I generally like their computers, I doubt I'll buy another Dell.
to buy laptops without supervision by a male?
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
It is times like this I wish there were more lady slashdotters.
Nobody on slashdot has a wife. Stereotypically, nerds are gay.
The problem isn't that they offered the things they did it's how they presented it. Even if a woman wants a pink laptop that's not the only feature she's interested in and she sure doesn't want to be seen as wanting a laptop because it's pink. You have to sell the concept of custom color laptops and let some of the colors be "girly" colors.
Stereotypes sometimes exist because of real preferences but nobody wants to be a stereotype so you have to disguise your intent a bit. Heck all of advertising is based on the concept. We all want to see the good stuff we can buy but we don't want to think we got manipulated into buying it.
As with most things in life subtlety is key and like most people in life Dell's marketers appear to be a bit short on it.
Yo' bitch is gettin' a Dell, too!
Can they make a Dell laptop where its baby pink for 3 weeks, then blood red for the fourth? I think that would sell well with the ladies.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Being a girl( I swear I really am female!!!), I have some insight for you. My mom and best friend are very much the people that fit the stereotype. Both of them ADORE pink frilly stuff, love to shop, have a hardcore penchant for knickknacks and are generally very girly. Hell they even have "typically" female jobs, a cosmetologist and a nurse. I, on the other hand, think pink of any sort is hideous, prefer WoW to the Lifetime channel and work in IT. Doesn't mean I don't do girly things though. I love to shop for..... yes shoes. I think I have like 30 pairs. It's my little thing. All people have some piece of them that fit into some stereotype about them. In spite of that, I, and most women I know, don't want to be pandered to. It's a terrible idea. It this whole thing makes Dell look like they don't have a damn clue about modern women. Are some of us on diets, yup we are. Do some of us love shoes, yeah. I know I do :) Do some of us love the atrocity that is the color pink, sure. As another poster said, I am sure this has some appeal to some women, but not me. I'm not trying to say that I'm some super special person because of this either. Just saying it's a terrible fucking idea to to stereotype ALL people in a certain race, gender, sexual orientation and then try to sell them a product based on that. It would be like me setting up a website selling country music and only gear it towards Texans, you can put a multitude of other examples here but you get the point. I think I won't be buying from Dell anymore.
No, your analogy is flawed because those aren't negative stereotypes of men.
For example, a personal gripe for me is sports. Hey, I love sports, but I'd rather PLAY it than WATCH it on a TV. Another one is how we can't take care of ourselves without a woman around. I get annoyed when TV portrays men as dumb idiots sitting on a couch watching football who wouldn't know how to wipe their own ass unless their wife told them how to.
So now imagine a Dell website geared towards men that featured marketing copy about how dumb we are. Would you like that?
Made me think of the song called "Wenn sie dich fragt" by Roger Cicero. (The song is in German)
The song starts off with the following words:
Hey mein Freund, du bist schlecht gelaunt!
Deine Freundin stresst, das kenn ich auch!
Denn du und ich haben eigentlich
beide fast genau die gleiche Frau.
Rought translation:
Hey, my friend, you're in a bad mood.
Your girlfried stresses, I know that too!
Because you and me have actually
pretty much exactly the same woman.
Oh, and for the political correctness crowd: this song is stock-full of stereotypes. Pretty much all of his songs are.... He does have a lot of success in Germany, mostly with women. Guess women are able to laugh at themselves after all.
"Della! You're putting me through hella!"
Did it ever occur to you that generalizing about women from the sample of women you have fucked and to whom you are related would not produce statistically meaningful evidence?
The reason this is stupid is because none of those things really have anything to do with a computer.
The reason this is offensive is because it shows how dell thought women were too stupid to recognize this.
Photos.
Here's what my 25-35 year old female friends do with their laptops:
Music (iTunes, iPods, iPhones), Social Networking, Pictures of their Kids, Casual Games, buy nice bags for them, watch funny videos. One friend is especially into fashion, so maybe she'll look at dresses online and such.
None of that non-sense quoted above is cool or fun. And, it's available on anything with Internet so how is it special? I'm guessing the larger laptop purchasing female demographic is, you know, more young and more trendy then recipes and watching cooking videos.
Really Dell? It's 2009. Fire your marketing director.
http://xkcd.com/243/
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I bought her a brand new laptop for Christmas this year, here are her exact uses for it...
- Look up recopies from the kitchen
- Watch streaming episodes of "The Hills"
- Shop online while watching TV
- Type up her master's homework from the patio chairs
There is an obvious, innate difference between men and women that Dell could have exploited in their gender-specific advertising, but didn't. And I'm not talking about "love for pink".
I'm talking SIZE and WEIGHT. I'm a woman and have an EeePC 900, because in common with most women I don't have a lot of upper body strength so lugging around a huge-ass laptop all day HURTS. Yet when I read reviews of small laptops, the reviews are overwhelmingly written by men. They moan about how the keys are too small. Rarely a problem for women!
It's the same with photo gear. Users of high-end gear are 70% male, but the reviewers are 95% male, as, I suspect, are the gear designers. They mutter that small cameras are unusable due to fiddly buttons, and say "oh this one weighs a pound more" like it's no big deal. Give us a decent female-focused portal, and we will use it, and buy more stuff. Everybody will be happy, and no pink diet tips required thankyouverymuch.
It seems to me to be aimed at the sorts of people who like accessorizing and color matching crap. Buying a lifestyle, as it were.
semantics are everything!
Women don't want to have "products for women", just like elderly people don't want products for elderly people. They want their needs satisfied without being singled out. That doesn't mean that women don't prefer lively colors, rounder forms (cute!) and fewer technical details. It just means that women don't want the products they like to be "for women". Dell has the ideal business setup for this problem: Build-to-order means that women can get the same laptop that men would buy, but change the color.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Recipes? Check.
Cooking videos? Check.
Calorie counting? Check.
However, I also do:
* occasional gaming (unfortunately I need to run Windows for that - neither cedega nor crossover games will run the games)
* video editing and transcoding
* graphic design
* embroidery (unfortunately I need to run Windows for that)
* web design
* occasional small coding projects
My preferred environment is Linux. When I buy desktop computers, I build them myself; I want workstation-level motherboards and nvidia-based video cards with low failure rates and decent performance.
When I buy laptops, I seek out desktop performance. For me, that means Dell Precision, Dell Latitude, or a higher-end Asus. Fast dual core processor (quad core isn't worth the premium Dell charges), internal RAID, and the smallest hard drives and RAM they'll ship because I can upgrade those from a distributor or Newegg for 1/5 to 1/3 the markup Dell charges.
It'd be really neat if I could get a Precision M4400 or M6400 in purple or hot pink, or even blue, but unfortunately the only option is an orange color (Covet). Thanks but no thanks, I'll take the industrial-looking graphite.
Now, when it comes to a netbook, which I will buy, a nice blue would be nice. The Aspire One would do nicely but there is a huge range of options, and since the goal there is solely maximum portability, performance isn't the goal. For a netbook I will accept compromises for style.
A computer is a tool, not an accessory. When it comes to tools I try to be practical.
$.02
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Just like I know I'm not like all the other computer nerd programmers! In my case it's true!
Giving dell the benefit of the doubt, I have to agree with you. The women who are 'offended' and say they could care less about the girly stuff shop at Dell's primary website or a competitors main site and there is nothing really to be gained from them. The Della site is targeted at the 'other women' who don't shop at Dell's main site because they don't feel its aime at them.
"There is no real right or wrong, just what the majority accepts at the time."
You think it will appeal to the average woman, do you? Have you actually ASKED the average woman? NONE of the women I know (from girls like myself, the classic girl-geeks, to the frilliest girliest girls on the planet) appreciate this website.
I agree with the idea that women generally have different wants and needs and that most of them are not interested at all in specs. Good on Dell for trying to explain computers in a way that most women would find appealing.
However, their methodology sucks. The entire website is permeated with subtle undertones of "women are too stupid to understand computers". They should have pulled back on the real-life-benefits tailoring to females (the calorie counting thing was just stupid). They should have provided at least the option to access more detailed specs for those women who might be interested (or perhaps provided explanations of what the different specs mean for those who don't know).
The website is tailored to the lowest computer knowledge level, and then they slapped the "women" label on it, effectively alienating every woman who actually knows how to turn a computer on.
No tech savvy person is buying a Dell computer nowadays anyway. Dell's marketing dept. is simply grasping on to the last bastion of consumers that still think that Dell makes a decent computer: the uninformed.
I'd expect someone fitting the stereotypes that Dell is throwing out there to be fairly clueless about computing in general. That makes them a prime candidate for buying a Dell.
Women want the same thing I want from a laptop--the utter lack of exploding batteries.
And all the femmy guys, and trans folk and gay folk... Tim Taylor types can have the military grade dell.
as if they were simpletons, no matter their gender, taste in clothes, etc. That's what this is about. Dressing up a laptop in pointless bells/whistles just tells customers that the product is probably overpriced. Otherwise, why the gimmicks?
Just wait for Dell to release a sidebar gadget to notify the user it's almost "that time of the month."
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
From TFA, from the author of the book:
Seriously... a LONG memory? She's basically proving that Dell was right to leave out technical details for women.
Reminds me of a Mark Twain quote: "It's better to stay silent and look a fool, rather than speak and remove all doubt.".
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Well, I can state what I want in a laptop:
1) It has to be configured for whatever application I want to use it for (games, office, netbook, class).
2) IT HAS TO WORK.
3) It has to be associated with reliable service.
Under those three requirements, Dell breaks down rather badly, and all the recipes and shopping tips they want to throw at me will fall on deaf ears.
This reminds me of trying to buy a car twenty years ago as a woman. If I happened to drag along my husband, the salesman always made the pitch to him--despite the fact that I was paying for the car and would be driving it. This was fairly common and always infuriating. At some point car salesmen realized that, yes, women do drive, and that they care about more than the coordination of the upholstery. There are even car saleswomen now.
Dell should take a page from the automobile sales book and pitch their laptops to everyone on the basis of quality, reliability, suitability, and service. Unfortunately they can't really do that and be truthful.
"Here's what's happening. You're starting to drive like your Dad..." - Red Green
Why is it that whenever a company tries to market its product towards a particular minority subgroup in the population, it's always a fail of epic proportions. Anyone remember when Slashdot tried to appeal more to women? ;-)
oh come on...
iÂm tired fo seeing girls with flashy pink cellphones...
if dell marketing strategy target that kind of audience it could be, that they realised that the functionality buyers were allready assesd with their traditional marketing strategy, so they are trying to expand their market...
in any case i donÂt think this is enougth to offend someone... but you nevver know....
Not everyone can be Abby from NCIS. Aint she HOT? Who knew that GOTH and sweet went together. Smart, sexy, powerful, and a geek; what is not to love!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
from the nytimes blog linked in the article:
"If the netbook is great for using the Internet and has a LONG memory..."
1) Not the best way to critize them for dumbing down a site
2) Appearantly length DOES matter...
I think Intel does...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Though I wonder...is it that far fetched that it was planned? People write articles about them, /. has a story - and nowhere the product is critised, only the campaign.
One that hath name thou can not otter
'Some brands go too far with the girlie stuff,' Learned says. 'Della's marketing strategy sounds like it's advertising a purse. There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing.'
Oh really? And why is it that when we're talking about laptops, the kind of language used is evil and demeaning, but when it comes to overpriced sacks, it's fine? Seems to me that Learned's argument is that women are either irrational or just plain dumb regarding things important to women, but if it's important to guys too, then they suddenly get a giant increase in mental capacity.
Here's what most women want to know about their computers:
Only geeks and gamers focus on raw metrics. The rest of the world? They just want to be able to do the things they need a computer for, quicker. And many are even willing to trade speed for portability. Hence, netbooks.
People who get pissed at marketers for doing what marketers do are just being dishonest for themselves. Marketers don't create ads out of personal satisfaction, they create them because they want to reach the largest possible audience and convince them to buy or do something. That's how they get paid.
Thank you! I'd mod you up if I could.
The woman I have helped purchase laptops wanted something fast and worry free. In Red of course.
Hey... it just works.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Those magazines publish those articles because those magazines are about those subjects. If you want a magazine on calorie counting, cooking tips, recipies, and shopping you buy one of those magazines. When I want articles on those subjects, I buy one of those magazines ("Real Simple" in particular). When I want articles on large-caliber full-auto firepower, I buy an appropriately-oriented magazine ("Small Arms Review" in particular). And when I want to buy a notebook computer, I want Dell's website to show me an affordable ultraportable notebook - and not "cooking with garlic" tips or an in-depth review of .408 CheyTac.
Companies fail when they stop focusing on what the customer comes to them for.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
And the vast majority of posts I've read up until this point, have apparently either never worked in retail, or never realized that there was a trend.
when I worked at Staples, I sold cameras and laptops to both men and women. Men were more likely to ask questions about the technical specifications, while women were immediately drawn to the slim, pink/silver camera. There were women who bought the camera specifically because it was pink and for no other reason (which was good, because it was among the worst performing cameras from a technical standpoint). At the same time, there *were* other women who *did* ask about technical specifications. More of the artistic photographers I talked to at the camera rack were women, and they weren't touching the pink camera with a ten foot pole. So obviously, there is a range.
To level the playing field, let's go with a jock-oriented site, where they market their computers for keeping track of Fantasy Baseball scores, ordering beer online, and getting tips for their perfect lawn. Great! If it helps Dell gain a few customers who end up saying, "I hadn't thought of that...", then fine. I don't feel degraded, stereotyped, or any other negative feeling toward Dell. I just won't be a statistic in their browser traffic. As a technical person, I'm going to be browsing cnet, pcworld, and other specifically technical sites. Likewise, women who are tech savvy probably aren't going to buy a Dell because it's pink and they can get dieting tips from it. Della isn't marketing towards tech savvy women, and I don't see how it's degrading that it's targeting a certain demographic.
First, make a designer bag that looks great. Then make a laptop that fits in that bag and has no glaring weaknesses. It could be just mediocre in a whole lot of ways, it just has to not suck. Then offer both the bag and the laptop in a ton of custom colors/skins/whatever. Most importantly, MAKE TO ORDER.
By having them made to order and using netbook-grade components, you could maintain a decent profit margin (each one is a "custom job"), and if the marketing campaign goes completely bust, you aren't stuck with a bunch of stock to dump on Woot or Overstock. If one particular setup sells well, maybe it would pay to get ahead of the game and stock a few -- or make the shells so interchangeable that they can be quickly converted to whatever is ordered. Sell the shells too! The Acer Aspire One comes in a variety of colors, but they're all black on the inside. That sounds like factory-swappable shells to me.
Women who don't fit the stereotype, or for whom this just doesn't quite hit the mark, will continue to buy regular laptops (since I assume these won't REPLACE any existing product). What harm is done?
If Dell isn't smart enough to catch this boat, someone will. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be Acer or Asus.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
We all know men use computers mostly to get pr0n, and nobody markets a computers directed to them that way. Although, we all now that most of them will buy machine with hardware that exceeds their needs, as a penile extension, and the brands will overprice those items targeted to that niche.
The very notion of a gender-specific computer sales Web site in this era - regardless of the specifics how it was implemented - is pig-headed and doomed to failure on the face of it. Apple is no doubt breathing a sigh of relief that they now get to learn from Dell's mistake rather than making it first themselves.
It just goes to show you: there's still a wealth of zombie-like stupid ideas that haven't yet been buried deep enough to keep them buried.
How much time did you just spend on it?
this is a bigger fail than the "dude we're getting a dell" kid getting busted for drugs shortly after advertising for them
My Wife wants a laptop that has a tablet/touch screen. With a graphics card that can do basic gaming (intel integrated graphics are out, Radeon ~3100 or nvidia ~9300M would be fine.).
Also light, small screen size 10-12" preferable.
The HP series of tablet screen note books seem to fit the bill. One without an optical drive would defiantly help on the weight front. Any other suggestions sub $800 (after rebates/offers)?
I also understand though that everyone has different tastes, so meh, I will just go to the regular Dell website because I don't find the Della site appealing at all. Regardless, if the target group you are marketing your product for thinks that your attempt at wooing them was ridiculous, as 'right' or 'wrong' as your attempt may have been, you have failed.
i r in ur
2 words
Dr. Phil
Damn, the man is always bad and the women is always right no matter what. Some women eat this up.
Like my wife. She sometimes tries to make me watch this if I have done something that she didn't like to punish me. Believe you me they end up being the boss. After this torment you will then say OK to whatever they want.
Nobody does a mobile phone promo saying "your phone can do more than call sex lines and download porn clips while you call for a pizza and a six pack".
It should be coming preloaded with sex-line and "adult company" numbers and a voucher for free pizza and beer.
Naturally, it should be personalized to have your local pizzeria (or your other take-out joint) on the speed dial.
You don't waive candy at the baby and then try and feed it vegetables.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I know little, but the trick is to sell envy straight up. Like, buy (x) and you will better than every one else. x=product. Simple math. It works on anyone.
Let's be fair. Most *women* don't know what women want, so I don't see how Dell stands a chance.
It's an interrogative statement, meant to test knowledge. But that's not important right now.
Yeah but you're just trolling, I get it.
pink. My sister's : light purple. Both are tech-illiterate mind you, but they are bright, and it drives me nuts when they choose something technologically inferior just because of the color.
BTW, I don't wear pink because I don't like that color (maybe my formated subconsciousness is telling that it looks gay...), but here in France light pink is a pretty popular color for men shirts and ties. And we've got the Rugby-themed brand Eden Park whose logo is a pink bow tie, and who puts pink on about every piece of cloth they produce.
...no offense implied to your post, with which I agree...but seriously mods, marking the fact that women don't like to be told that they are fat as "informative"? Are you serious? Let's mark posts that tell us that the sun is probably coming up tomorrow as informative as well.
...and no ladies, the jeans don't make your ass look fat...the dozen donuts that you ate this weekend make your ass look fat. ;)
...but my thoughts are still awaiting moderation (facists)...so I will repeat myself:
BTW, I tried to comment here:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/what-do-women-want-in-a-laptop/
In general, men and women *do* tend to look for diferent things in gadgets. Let's not pretend otherwise. That is not to say that all men are knowledgeable about such things or that all women are not, but seriously, when arguing a point about women not being technically clueless and Dell being insulting and/or condescending, perhaps they could get a better spokesperson. Seriously, did you folks read her comments?
If the netbook is great for using the Internet and has a long memory,
Long memory? Okay marketing "expert", perhaps you should step out of the spotlight now...since you have just reinforced the stereotypes that you are trying to dispel.
$0.02
- Scuba
Actually, I think the "trick" is often to figure out what BOTH genders prefer, and offer one product that pleases both.
For example, I see this a lot with lawn care tools. You can choose from dozens of weed-trimmers with relatively big gasoline-powered engines. They all promise that they're built "to last", etc. etc.
Yet one of the best sellers I've seen on the shelves year after year, with no real product changes, was the Weed-Eater "Featherlite". Why? It's priced reasonably, for starters - but hugely important is the fact that it's really light-weight and comfortable to use.
I know quite a few women who do their own yard work, but they wind up paying someone to do the weed-trimming part, because the full-size trimmers everyone seems to be selling are too hard for them to handle.
The thing is though, as an average-sized guy, *I* bought one of those "Featherlites" too, and appreciated the same benefits. There's no reason to lug something around that's 4x heavier and uses more gas, to do what's a pretty basic job around the house and driveway.
When you're talking about computer tech, I think the majority of women are attracted to something that's easy to use, small and lightweight (if it's a portable computer), and that comes with the tools they need to be CREATIVE with it.
Again, this are all goals that most GUYS would appreciate as well. It's just that a guy is probably more likely to shop based more on "raw performance for the dollar" and figures he'll "get the other software rounded up and installed later".
Seriously. The real Stereotype here is that Dell still makes good computers at a good price, and that women or anyone else for that matter is sufficiently stupid to still want to buy them.
I am insulted!!!
Living in Chile
Evidently, an opportunity to find fault.
I hate this view that there is everyone, then there are women. Its like we're moving back to the dark ages, as it is completely undermining the whole movement of equality and making gender a non-issue.
I mean honestly, are women so different that they really need gender-specific computers?
So when are Dell going to make male-specific laptops and have special websites just for men? Without that, I now feel seriously discriminated against by Dell just because of my male genderness.
And if it is now morally acceptable to create alienating products and insulting sterotypes for maketing purposes, where does it stop? what about blacks-only and whites-only laptops? How about laptops only for native Indians or Aborigines, or one for Europeans only, or Baptists only, and what about people with green eyes, or are gay, or all the other factors that have no ACTUAL affect on computer usage or functionality?
It's not possible to know what women want. I think it must have something to do with the Heisenberg principle. My wife says women will not tell you what they want because you should "just know", so asking them doesn't work. I could see where this could scale up to opinion polls and product marketing.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
As a femmy MTF transgendered person, I have to say that I love Hello Kitty, in an ironic way. So if Dell did an ad a la:
"The ultimate merger of power and cuteness, Quad Core CPU, 4GB of RAM, 2TB Hard drive and it's a fully licensed and badged Hello Kitty product" I'd swoon.
A Hello Kitty netbook with Linux pre-installed would be good too especially if the window manager had a Hello Kitty theme included. That would so kick ass. It should have some "Tux" branding too so that everyone knows the Hello Kitty netbook runs Linux.
I've seen quite a few stiletto wearing people who were born male. Most of them don't exactly identify as your "average guy" and most of them try to wear their stiletto's with panache and style. Doesn't mean they're always successful but effort matters. The scariest thing I ever saw was someone wearing black hosiery with white shoes. Ugh.
Acer, the third largest vendor in the global PC market (source: Gartner data, 1H 2008) today presented the new Ferrari 1200, an all-new notebook series designed to deliver mobile computing superiority in an exclusive style.
In the true spirit of the Ferrari racing team, the Acer Ferrari 1200 notebook combines powerful performance and extreme portability with the excellence of design. From the choice of materials to the smallest detail, the Ferrari 1200 conveys the look and feel of a F1 racecar. The carbon-fibre cover, a material actually used in racecars, is lighter yet stronger than magnesium alloy, making the Ferrari 1200 the perfect travel companion. Unique ventilation design echoes the exhaust pipes of F1 cars and the anodized-metal touchpad resembles the brake and acceleration pedals of a Ferrari car. A tasteful wave pattern embellishes the cover, while the soft-touch coating and the velvety texture of the interior ensure ergonomic comfort.
So, Dell seems to be in a mindset unchanged since the fifties.
I chose that, rather than earlier, because in '54 and '55, Lionel, then the premier maker of model trains, decided that girls might like trains, too, and so put out a trainset aimed at girls.
How was it aimed at girls? It had a pink locomotive.
Needless to say, it was an utter flop. Girls who wanted model trains wanted TRAINS.
Women who want/need a laptop want/need a computer, not an electronic supermarket women's mag.
And what do women want? Try reading the 14th Century Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The answer? What do YOU READING THIS WANT? "What you will", that is, things to go the way you want them to, not to always have to defer to parent/boss/other authority figure.
How hard is it to understand that?
mark "men are from Earth; women are from Earth; get over it"
...Whatever women want, it is not a guy who:
1) Can (and does) hold a well-paying job
2) is intelligent
3) is thin and very healthy, eats right and exercises regularly
4) Has a fully-intact,fully-functional, disease-free body with no deforming scars
5) Has great self-discipline, no addictions, and lives a well-rounded and balanced lifestyle
6) Acts with integrity and compassion.
7) Takes no for an answer, treats her with respect, never gets abusive (nor passive-aggressive).
8) Listens with interest, values her opinions, accepts constructive criticism well.
9) Is trained (and generous) in massage.
Though women insist they want all of these things, and complain incessently when their boyfriends don't have them...they never start with these things when evaluating potential mates. It generally starts with:
1) good looks.
2) charismatic personality.
3) seems dangerous in some way.
Yes, I am bitter.
Has anyone else noticed that women are posting on /.?
However, since the most honored computer geek is Grace Hopper, I'm suprised we don't encounter more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper
I wonder if the Della site would have insulted her?
I can't find the part of the main dell.com site that points to Della. I was hoping I would find something so I could see what Dell's angle really is. There seems to be this assumption in the community that this section is being marketed to "Jane Everywoman". What if the purpose of this site is to entice, specifically, the sort of women who read the fashion magazines, love to shop, and love to turn heads? How could the internet possibly be so boring that we're looking for reasons to be outraged? If you ask me, I blame those damn cats that have Twitter accounts.
Welcome to Slashdot. Replace this text with your desired signature before replying to a story.
Hmm? In my experience most nerds (curiously, in a group that prizes individuality more than most) are very conscious of the extent to which they're similar to other such.
I am trolling
I was recently tasked with finding, customizing and ordering a laptop for my roommate. I put together several options from various brands such as Dell and HP going between a price range of $1,000-1,500. Outside of "will it be fast" her only concern was the design and colors of the laptop.
In the end the HP won; not because of what was inside, but because of what was outside.
(It also happened to be the better deal for the insides)
The lifestyle they are selling is an ideal that went out in the 1950s. They should have picked a cooler image for "women" even if they can't ever please all of us.
But they are *always* willing to point out some reason that they are not *quite* as nerdy as the other guys :)
Video gamers make fun of tabletop gamers make fun of larpers make fun of magic players.
They can market themselves until they are IBM blue in the face.
After 6 months of being treated as a criminal by customer service (my warranty was erroneously not under my name), and reading similar stories on the internet, not only will I not buy another dell (dude), I also actively tell others not to buy them.
Back in the day, before my own lovely experience, I used to hype them... good stats and cheap price.
I was responsible for more than 10 dell sales to friends, and over 200 corporate sells to companies I erroneously advised.
If they want to improve their marketing to women, men, even household plants.... maybe they should improve their %&*%$# customer service.
ok... maybe I am just a tad bitter.
Emmanuel
www.erefinancing.org
To the person who modded this coward troll: http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/bios/erin.aspx
Nothing wrong with offering laptops in pink. I personally would like a dark red laptop. Some guys want pink, too. Nothing wrong with offering different designs. The gimicky stuff has to go, though.
If only I had a dime for every time I've heard a nerd say, "Why do girls never go for the nice guy?" Every nerd thinks that every guy that doesn't behave like a whipped puppy when interacting with women is morally flawed and subsequently blame womankind for wanting more out of a relationship.
I can't count how many girls I've dated who always went on about how they're "not like other girls" and yet in the end, they always proved themselves to be exactly the same (soulless bitches who only want to date a jerk).
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Because they make pink laptops. Not all women will go for this and I'm sure some men will. However, multiple women have ignored my strong advice against buying Dells just so they can have a pink laptop.
Every nerd thinks all other nerds are pretty much the same and that they themselves are different and unique
Actually while I have seen some of that, I've also seen some of the opposite -- thin and successful nerds emphasising how they're fat losers on the inside, so that they can fit in better on IRC...
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Actually that's so over the top that if it were cheap, I might get one to be funny. If they are going to market sparkles and ponies,go all the way. What they did wasn't even as good as Hello Kitty. They shouldn't make it about "women" though, because I could see people twittering the gay pride parade using a fun feathered netbook. "We're here, we're queer, join our facebook!"
My wife just bought a Dell laptop. For her, as for many people (women AND men!), the computer is a tool--she wants something powerful enough for professional AutoCAD work and teaching, and beyond that, aesthetics are important. (both visual and functional).
Soooooo, she asked me "what do I need to know? What do I need to care about? Why are you telling me to buy a smaller hard drive for the same money? (7200RPM vs. 5400). These CPUs are the same speed--why is this one more expensive?"
In other words, she did her homework. not like a man, not like a woman, but instead like a consumer, with specific needs.
Gender-based marketing should be turfed. The answer to "guy-specific" shopping isn't to try and invent "girl-specific" stuff, it's to eliminate the gender bias altogether. Colours? Sure, why not? Sell it in pink, sell it in blue, sell it in green and orange and black and silver and white. Just don't sell it in pink "for the ladies" and blue "for MANLY computing!".
Ah well. Proof that marketers are usually as stupid as they are evil.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
You can wear a wool garment for months .
It's like cars, top three items women shoppers want in cars:
Economy
Safety
Cup Holders
Applied to computers:
Battery Life
Don't catch on fire
Cup Holders
*Someone* hasn't read the market research.
-RunZ
Well my Mother would like a Dell Studio laptop that doesn't lock up every day.
And the geek stereotype is that we all post from our mum's basement, and we've never had sex. So don't be offended if I assume you're a virgin still living at home right - don't give me that PC response, right?
Stereotypes may have some truth in them as a generalisation, but the important thing is that if you come across someone who doesn't fit the stereotype, you accept it's the stereotype that's imperfect, and not the person that is wrong.
And there's nothing "PC" about it - claiming "PC" is the call of someone who doesn't like something, but can't explain why. It's the sort of response I expect from the Daily Mail.
Whilst laptop manufacturers may try to market towards women, I'm glad we haven't got into the situation of having "men's laptops" and "women's laptops". You may think that stupid, but that's exactly what we have with every personal item that didn't appear recently: clothes, watches, glasses, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, bags, bicycles. If the laptop had orginated in the 19th Century, then you would be walking into your computer store to find it divided into two: men's laptops, and women's laptops. Imagine finding one that's perfect, only to be told "I'm sorry sir, but this is a women's laptop"? And people would justify this with the same arguments of "But these stereotypes are true ... and anyone who disagrees is being PC!"
They can sell pink laptops and pink Ipods all they like - I'm just glad that with new kinds of products, we no longer insist that what one you can buy is dependent on what's between your legs.
A penis?
"You can't really dust for vomit" --Nigel Tufnel
In general, women don't want to tinker with computers. They want to use it for what they need it for then move on to something "more social."
Ok, so that means ... ... or whatever color they want. If someone added a changeable velcro outside, they'd make some cash.
- No having to manually load patches.
- No having to install software.
- No having to tinker with settings to get something to work.
- No crashing, lockups or BSOD.
- No difficult tricks to get backups or anything else working.
- Networking should "just work", but still be firewalled.
- Visually stimulating and efficient.
- Never runs out of disk or RAM.
- Don't change the look between program versions, just for fun - Vista Windows-Explorer sucks because they changed the address bar into something that requires a mouse.
- Runs programs they use on other machines that work AND look **EXACTLY** the same.
- Websites should just work, not crash, look funny, bring viruses down.
- Pink outside
Of the 3 main OSes (Windows, MacOS, Linux), none of them fulfill what women want.
Pfft. Not my experience. A couple of other larpers spent fifty minutes in the pub going on about yu-gi-oh! cards, and we let them. And while I would never touch yu-gi-oh! I appreciate the only difference between us is a matter of degree.
I am trolling
Also lots of girls aren't tech savvy.
Lots of girls aren't tech savvy, but [[NEWSFLASH!]] lots of guys aren't tech savvy either.
However, you don't see Dell advertising computers as the best way to track football scores and the results of Nascar races or find the cheapest local place to buy beer. Come to think of it, I've dated one or two guys for whom that sort of ad campaign WOULD make them more willing to buy a computer... The bigger question I have is why they have ad campaigns talking down to (seemingly) less intelligent women, but DON'T have ad campaigns similarly targeted to the less intelligent men. Hmmmmm...
The companies that assume that being a woman means I want pink things and fashion aren't selling to me based on their soccer mom marketing strategies. Really, I don't care. If it works for them with the masses, fine. In the meantime, I'll buy what actually works for what I need it to do.
Oh Pink shirt! Now I understand!
This is as good a place as any:
http://www.amazon.com/Rantings-Single-Male-Correctness-Everything/dp/0976261316/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242451652&sr=8-1
Have fun, and laugh at it. I got this at my door, and 18 hours later (I like to stop and think) I was 18 hours further down the death march of life. Didn't agree with every little thing the dude wrote, but a good read none the less.
Btw, ISTR from his stories that he was either a dev or sysad, so it should be familiar territory for a lot of people here.
Billy Brown rides on. Yolanda Green bypasses Gary White.
A usb laptop vibrator perhaps?
Hello-oo Tux!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Like this post, for instance, probably should have been made on Friday. Oh well.
From the female software engineer fringe department, there's a time and a place for everything. I like some things that are stereotypical and I hate some things that are stereotypical. I don't really want to see them when I'm shopping for a computer. My take on it:
- The designs: Good idea, one I think could be extended to men as well. Dell's big thing has always been customization and aesthetics would be the next logical step.
- Selling laptop-specific accessories: Also a good idea, again, could be extended to men.
- Fashion tips/dieting tips/whatever else was there: Bad, bad, bad. I think that even from within my little geekish bubble I can tell you can tell you that most women will find this condescending. It simply does not make sense. Big mistake for Dell jumping on the weight insecurity just 'cause. I won't lie and say computers aren't useful for information on whatever they had up, and I won't try and say it's not a concern of their targer audience, but why push it in our faces when we're trying to buy a computer? Especially the dieting thing. I can just imagine advocates of eating disorder related causes just pouncing that one.
Also, why aren't they pointing out things that you actually need a computer to accomplish? Big example: Social networking.
Three days later and it looks like they've already toned down the site. The most ridiculous parts have been taken down and performance stats are available. I just don't see why they need to segregate it. They could mix designs/accessories in with the main site, and since this is obviously targeted toward inexperienced computer users, find a way to mix newbie-friendly tips into the main site without alienating experienced users.
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.