Dell Computer has dropped the other shoe in a two-stage repositioning of the company with the launch of its first mixed media advertising campaign.

Its new attack, which includes radio, direct mail, newspaper inserts and an expanded newspaper presence, marks an aggressive departure from its previous small space newspaper and direct mail efforts.

Several elements of the campaign are national to target geographical regions Dell has not focused on before.

The first phase in Dell’s repositioning occurred last month when it lowered prices on notebook computers by 21% and desktops by more than 13% to bring them in $200 to $400 below competitive products.

Andrew Ross, marketing manager for Dell Direct, says the strategy was designed to increase the company’s share in the small and medium business marketplace.

‘It’s a sector that up to now has not been all that well represented in the vendor field,’ Ross says.

‘It’s one Dell is very well suited to because we deal directly with the end user,’ he says.

‘They can buy a brand name pc with all the accoutrements that go along with having a $5 billion company behind them, and even as a small- or medium-sized business get a direct relationship with the vendor.’

During its seven years in Canada, Dell has limited advertising to direct marketing and weekly ads in The Globe and Mail.

The new campaign represents the beginning of a long-term advertising plan for Dell.

‘Our strategy is to become the absolute dominant player in direct marketing of pcs in Canada,’ Ross says.

The advertising delivers the message of brand name computers at clone prices, and all executions feature Dell’s new toll-free number, 310-DELL (the 1-800 prefix is unneccessary.)

The offers include computers at less than $2,000 or for $2,999 for a fully loaded, multimedia Pentium system and a lease plan of $99 per month for a fully loaded Pentium business system.

Each Dell computer is built to the specifications of the end-user.

Four 30-second radio spots are on air now through the end of January featuring the voice of David Duchovny, Fox Mulder in the popular The X-Files tv series.

More executions will be added in the new year.

National direct mail campaigns are ongoing, and in addition to The Financial Post, the national edition of the Globe and Metro Toronto area newspapers, Dell has added Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax publications to the media plan.

The campaign was developed by Sharpe Blackmore Partnership of Toronto, which also created the radio commercials and directed the media planning and buying.

Dell’s direct mail is handled by Hughes Rapp Collins of Toronto, with print coming from Dell’s u.s. agency, Goldberg Moser O’Neill of San Francisco.