Profile: Poh Lin Tay Mengi is helping Dell emerge in new APAC markets

Upon meeting Poh Lin Tay Mengi, Dell’s marketing director for Asia-Pacific, it is tempting to jump straight in and ask her about Dell’s new retail strategy. The company launched a series of new products in January and the task of marketing fell firmly on Tay’s shoulders. “I think we can attribute a lot of growth to our retail footprint,” she says. “On the last count we had 50,000 stores worldwide and a lot of them are in Asia. Giving accessibility to consumers is really important.”

The new range includes computers targeted at different segments like gamers and designers, and falls under the four brand names Alienware, Inspiron, XPS and Studio.

Key for Tay will be pushing the Dell brand in countries like India and China where HP, Acer and Lenovo already have established retail set ups.

“They had a head start. However, the strength of Dell in the past was dell.com and it still dominates today. I guess that puts us in a good position. We have key strengths to maintain and we keep trying.”

Tay says Dell is one of the most searched for names online and has a following of 1.5 million people on Twitter, a site it used to generate 1.5 million product sales in 2009. “Our site is among the most accessed in the world. So we couple this asset with our retail penetration.”

And for the retail strategy, Tay emphasises that even though people tend to refer to ‘emerging countries’, there are emerging cities and mature cities within one country. “For example, Shanghai and Beijing are mature cities just like Singapore or Hong Kong. There is a tier-six city in China just as there is a tier-six city in Thailand.”

That means increasing Dell’s footprint within the tiers. “We want to be both accessible and prevalent. It’s about making ourselves available. Whether consumers want to buy from the digital space or from the physical retail space, we are making these options available for them.”

Regionally, a big focus for Dell will be Southeast Asia, which Tay calls an “emerging giant”.

“India and China have been huge successes and we are learning from these countries. The next big focus is Asean. Our focus will not be on one country but the entire region.”

It would be easy to mistake Tay for someone a lot younger. However, behind her youthful appearance lies a thoroughly seasoned marketer. Tay worked in marketing roles with Guinness, Coca-Cola and Sony Ericsson, before joining Dell in 2007 when the world’s second largest computer maker was embarking on a retail strategy outside of online. It was Dell’s determination to stay close to consumers that attracted her to the company.

“A long time ago Dell’s focus was B2B and it wanted to make sure that there was a clear demarcation in metrics and goals. That was why I joined, because I knew I could bring significant knowledge in FMCG, handset businesses and consumer electronics to the PC world.”

She sees many similarities between her previous roles and her current position. As she puts it: “Eventually it’s all about building a brand”.

“It’s all about making consumers feel close, feel loyal and feel an affinity towards the brand. And we must be the advocate to consumers - that’s the goal of any marketer .”

Globally, Dell’s performance in 2009 was not spectacular. Close competitor Acer increased its market share globally to 13 per cent from 11 per cent, while Dell’s market share dropped from 15 per cent to 13 per cent.

In Asia-Pacific its performance has been stagnant. After a good start in China, its biggest regional market, the computer maker has not made much headway, with competitors HP and now Acer claiming a larger market share in the country. In India, Dell has performed better and kept a number two position after HP. In 2009, it even overtook HP in the laptop category in India.

Tay is largely positive about 2010 and thinks that this year will be stronger. “We had 24 per cent year on year growth in 2009. Now we are looking at a stream of strong products - all centred on mobility, design and portability. Our designs are very different today, across notebooks and desktops.”

She says this year’s strategy involves identifying different segments and driving products towards them by making Dell “appealing, relevant and successful” with the help of agency partners Y&R and Enfatico.

Poh Lin Tay Mengi CV

2007 Marketing director, Asia-Pacific, Dell
2004 Marketing director, Asia-Pacific, Visa International
2000 Senior marketing manager, Sony Ericsson
1998 Senior brand manager, Coca-Cola
1995 Brand manager, Kraft

Got a view?
Email [email protected]

This article was originally published in the 25 March 2010 issue of Media.