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Mark Jarvis, the first chief marketing officer of computer maker Dell, perfected his art at Oracle: Deny, deny, deny, and when denials fail, spin, spin, spin. He boldly slashes at the branding and advertising strategies of Dell's past while outlining, with Oracular swagger, his new strategy for Dell. He says, of his own job, "It's not rocket science, funnily enough" — in a Wall Street Journal interview (subscription required). Unfortunately for Jarvis, the Journal ran a companion piece that paints a different picture: Jarvis's marketing rhetoric doesn't conform to the reality of Dell's production woes.

Jarvis boasts of Dell customer loyalty while espousing his fondness for sticky viral marketing (ewww):

I am big into the whole viral thing. You are going to see us do a lot of viral activities and spray it on the wall and see what sticks. Dell customers are vehemently loyal. There is a "Dell for life" concept. So we are going to build a loyalty program. There will be viral aspects to that loyalty program.

Jarvis wants an emotional response from the customer, though not the kind, presumably, Dell's been getting:

The big challenge was that there actually was no culture or discipline of marketing at Dell at all. Marketing at Dell until I walked in was a consequence of the sales process... However what is lacking at Dell is there is no air cover over the top that actually explains what Dell does and creates an emotional link between Dell and the customer.

And he brags that they can achieve a level of consumer customization that its competitors can't:

We are going to apply the direct model to customizing what's outside the box. So you are going to be able to pick the design of the outside of your system, which H-P can't do. ... Ironically even Apple, Apple has moved away from that. There used to be a time when you could get six different colors of Apples.

Unfortunately, Dell, in reality, can't deliver even on the basics. Customers are facing shipment delays of a month or more on many models of its latest XPS and Inspiron notebook computers. The delays are being blamed on dust contamination in its customized painting process and component shortages.