Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

BusinessWeek has an article on the appointment of Mark Jarvis, Dell’s new marketing chief, to coincide with their new advertising campaign (the ad is below.) Between this and HP’s ‘PC is Personal’ campaign, tech companies are slowly starting to realise they need to start talking to consumers in a language they understand. Andrea Learned sums this up perfectly in her ChangeThis manifesto.

Geek Talk is exemplified by the way a laptop is described with numbers in a sort of better/stronger/faster approach:

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)

The problem, however, is unless computers are my hobby, I really don’t know how those numbers apply to the way I use my laptop or how my use of it may be evolving. Just stop a minute and read the above line again. Whether you are a man or a woman, what does that really mean for you on first glance? Now, compare it to copy that hits the key lifestyle con- nectors for a new laptop:

“If you check your email a few times a day, occasionally type up documents, do your book-keeping online and surf the Internet a few times a week, this is the perfect laptop for you.”

As long as those numbers and tech specification are accessible, it shouldn’t hurt to market products in a non-geek way, first and foremost. Lifestyle details serve as filters for women, who will then look into the tech specifics. Men, on the other hand, may filter on the technical specifications, but find it helpful to consider the lifestyle aspects as well.

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