Dell's Della Debacle an Example of Wrong Way to Target Women†

For Starters, Stop Thinking of Them as a Niche Demo

Advertising Age, May 25, 2009 — Hearing that Dell had launched a female-targeted microsite called Della last week triggered my "Is it a gag?" reflex — the suspicious reaction to a bit of marketing too extreme to be real. Yet upon arrival at the site, there they were: all the ridiculous "women's advertising" clichés you could imagine in your wildest feminine-products-commercial fantasies. But it wasn't a gag — not intentionally, anyway.

Niche candymakers fall in shadow of Wrigley-Mars deal

Chicago Tribune, April 29, 2008 — Henry Rich kept a low profile Monday as he passed out samples of his top-selling mint mojito breath lozenges at the Global Food & Style Expo trade show in McCormick Place, but he knows Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. is on the trail of his tiny business.