Marketing Home Assignment no. 2 Topic: Give a competition details of memory cards (USB Flash Drives) in India.

Submitted to: Prof. S.V Kumar Faculty, Marketing Management-2 IBS, Hyderabad

Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907 Seat no. 37

Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907

Seat No.37

Competition in USB flash drive market in India

A USB flash drive stands for Universal Serial Bus interface which is a data storage device. It was built to overcome the disadvantages of CD-Rom and Floppy disks of limited storage space and non ability of re-writing. The exciting feature of pen drives was smaller size, huge storage space, re-writ ability, generally affordable price, high durability and long life. The mechanics of a flash drive includes a small, delicate circuit board which stores electronic data as well as a USB Connector insulated and protected inside a plastic, metal, wooden, rubberized case as per manufacturers choice.

Players in Indian Market: Moser Baer Transcend SanDisk HP

Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907

Lexar Microware Sony Buffalo Technologies

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Strontium Kingston EMTEC Adata

Verbatim Trek Simmtronics Other customized producers

Understanding of the competition

There is a stiff price competition for all sorts of storage capacities among the data storage device producers. Buffalo, the international entrant has focused on providing products with great designs to customers at premium prices focusing on the design and style side of the product. Also, HP has focused on product variety to provide a huge array of product designs for constant storage capacity at various prices. Sandisk has focused on psychological pricing for their products giving a different yet lucrative pricing to its customers. Strontium is charging marginally higher charges than others with low capacities and main product focus on selling its special 128GB pen drive to extract huge sums for spend savvy customers. Transcend and Kingston primary focus on being competitive pricing to give a tough struggle to other competing brands. Their main focus is on bringing in more product designs and providing an array of high capacity disks in various designs. Sony though with limited products also manages to lure its loyal customers who believe firmly in its cutting edge technology, design and quality. Moser Baer which was expected to be the pioneer in the segment due its log presence in India has concentrated at low priced products for long. Its product designs though not very innovative have been still picked by its loyal customers. It has been one of the first players in the industry. Silicon though not much heard of, is on an initial stage and need to focus more in order to gain in the market. For the USB market, it would be correct to say that it is a red ocean, with lot of competition and no scope for new entrants until and unless there is heavy product differentiation as well as low price.

Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907

Seat No.37

Prices of prime brands S.No. Company

1 Buffalo Technologies

Prices
2GB for Rs. 700 4GB for Rs. 1,000 8GB for Rs. 1,600 16GB for Rs. 3,200 16GB to 64GB capacities Rs. 1,651- 5,189 4GB to 128GB capacities Rs. 301- 6,161. 4GB to 32GB capacities Rs. 283- 1,448 4GB to 32GB capacities Rs. 259 - 1,406. 2GB - Rs. 349; 4GB - Rs. 499 4GB - Rs. 549; 8GB - Rs. 999; 16GB - Rs. 1,999 128GB - Rs. 19,999 8GB Rs.1300, 16GB Rs.2000, 32GB Rs.5600 32GB Rs.4,500, 64GB - Rs.8,000, 128GB Rs.20,000 4 GB Rs.320 8 GB Rs.510 16 GB Rs.1,199 32 GB Rs.2,500 4 GB Rs.280 4 GB Rs.290 4 GB Rs.300 4 GB Rs.300 4 GB Rs.300 4 GB Rs.310 4 GB Rs.330 4 GB Rs.510 4 GB Rs.450 8 GB Rs.430 8 GB Rs.450 8 GB Rs.460 8 GB Rs.460 8 GB Rs.480 8 GB Rs.500 8 GB Rs.600 16 GB Rs.840 16 GB Rs.840 16 GB Rs.870 16 GB Rs.920 16 GB Rs.930

4 5 6

SanDisk- Extreme, Cruzer Glide, Cruzer Facet Cruzer Pop Strontium Key Spin Hulk Transcend Jetflash Kingston DataTraveler Sony Micro Vault USM4GN Micro Vault USM8GN Micro Vault USM16GN Micro Vault USM32GN HP V-112 B HP V-210 W HP V-165 W HP V-220 W HP V-240 W HP V-115 W HP V-250 W HP V-335 W HP V-223 W HP V-112 B HP V-240 W HP V-210 W HP V-165 W HP V-220 W HP V-250 W HP C-335 W HP V-165 W HP 112 W HP V-210 W HP V-220 W HP V-250 W

Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907

Seat No.37

HP V-165 W HP V-220 W HP V-210 W HP V-250 W HP V-223 W Moser Baer Swivel Racer Silicon 836 Silicon T01

32 GB Rs.1890 32 GB Rs.1950 32 GB Rs.2020 32 GB Rs.2040 32 GB Rs.2140 8 GB Rs. 350, 32 GB Rs.1200 4 GB- Rs. 599 4 GB Pen Drive Rs. 400 8 GB Rs. 600

Market share and its understanding

The demand for information storage devices has been increasing ever since floppys came into existence. The market reports suggest an increase/boom in the use of storage peripheral devices like pen drives, external hard disks etc, MP3/MP4 players, digital cameras. These products have created a major market pull, such that the global slowdown could not hurdle their growth story. Portability, ease of use and mobility are the key factors that have made these products lucrative to consumers. The flash drive market is one of the fastest growing segments in India. The flash drive market in India saw modest growth of 16% last fiscal and revenues of Rs 676 crore. FY11 proved to be a great year for Kingston that maintained a healthy business growth and dominated the market. Transcend, has remained balanced but maintained its initial performance by securing 32% share. Although Transcends pick up by customer is good, Kingston seems to have controlled through a more organized business approach. As far as products are concerned, both brands gave tough competition to one another by launching new models of USB drive with attractive designs and attributes to lure all customer segments. Sandisk maintained its style of introducing innovative and stylish products while embracing aggressive marketing activities that helped it to secure an impressive growth rate.

Companys name
Kingston Transcend Sandisk Others
Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907

Market share as of 2011-2012

35% 32% 25% 8%

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The market leader is Kingston with a very near competitor Transcend with 35% and 32% shares respectively. Kingston has enjoyed its presence in the Indian market for long and has a loyal customer base. Whereas transcend, is comparatively newer to the Indian market but has managed a fairly good share. Kingston mainly enjoyed a first mover advantage as the competition from existing player; Moser Baer was delayed and not stiff enough to shake the presence of Kingston in market. Sandisk has got a good hold on market but can grow further with innovative designs at premium prices. There is a small share of other players like HP, Sony, Moser Baer etc and would require immense efforts to grow.

Market share
8% 35% 25%

Kingston Transcend Sandisk Others

32%

Demand for high capacity pen drives has grown as the most popular entry level product today is 4 GB drive followed by 8 GB and 16 GB. The product category faces continual technology up gradation and enhanced aesthetics and flashy designs, introduction of new and innovative features like high speed, slimmer and compact pen drives will add more to consumer value. To attract buyers brands like Dell and Transcend came up with newer concepts. The market is growing and the competition is intensely stiff for the players in the market.

Bibliography:
Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907

Seat No.37

http://www.moserbaer.com/writereaddata/mediaresources/CorporateProfile.pdf http://archive.dqindia.com/content/dqtop20_10/IndustryAnalyses/2010/110082315.asp http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2007-09-30/news/28452217_1_marketshare-kingston-technology-high-growth http://archive.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=113328&cat_id=581 http://www.pendrives.in/soft-pvc-pendrive.htm http://www.pricearena.in/hp-v-210-w-481632-gb-usb-pen-drive-price-in-india/ http://www.pricedealsindia.com/pendrive/USB-flash-drives-price-list-in-india.php http://www.sony.co.in/productcategory/storage-recording-media http://www.newtechnology.co.in/category/computer-hardware/hard-disk/pen-drive/ http://www.newtechnology.co.in/kingston-32gb-64gb-128gb-price/ http://www.newtechnology.co.in/hp-pen-drive-price-2gb-4gb-8gb-16gb/ http://www.newtechnology.co.in/sony-pen-drive-price-in-india/ http://www.newtechnology.co.in/transcend-usb-3-pen-drive-price-in-india/ http://www.thinkdigit.com/Laptops-PCs/Buffalo-Technologys-super-compact-USBflash-drives-come_4921.html http://www.thinkdigit.com/General/Encrypt-Your-USB-Drive_1299.html http://www.thinkdigit.com/Storage/Strontium-unveils-3-new-USB-flashdrives_4639.html http://www.fonearena.com/tech/india/sandisk-announces-new-usb-flash-drives-inindia/2340/ http://dir.indiamart.com/impcat/pen-drive.html

Submitted by: Sankalp Lalvani 12BSPHH010907

Seat No.37