Pricing is the largest competitive advantage Dell has, specifically their ability to quickly respond to changes in prices from their own suppliers. Dell's website is tailored to allow for rapid price changes, and together with the custom configuration capability, pricing is the reason why Dell excels against so many competitors.
Columbus (2003) discusses the role of special pricing requests being critical for the long-term profitability of companies that have high inventory turn items and rapid product lifecycles, as Dell does.
In terms of distribution or place, the ability of Dell to create customized PCs through any one of several manufacturing plants is really the 4th P. Of the marketing mix. The Dell manufacturing system acts as a foundation to support the execution of all 4 Ps in marketing, and certainly "place" or distribution is more dictated by the ability of the company to automatically route and fulfill orders from the factory closest to the customer. This intelligence within Dell turns manufacturing into a differentiator in the market, Askegar and Columbus (2002).
In summing up, the 4 Ps for manufacturers are best exemplified by Dell and their heavy reliance on the build-to-order model that actually is comprised of multiple levels of complexity (AMR Research, 2003) and the ability to take this quickly tailoring of systems and have them accurately portrayed, priced, and positioned on the company's website and on its many communications materials. The bottom line is that only when all essential functions of a company are synchronized to sense and respond to customer demands can a manufacturer be truly market driven.
References
AMR Research (2003) - Configuration is the Heart of Customer Fulfillment for Complex Product Manufacturers....
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