Running head: sandisk: place and competitive advantage 1 sandisk: place and competitive advantage 5 SanDisk: Place and Competitive Advantage University Marketing Plan With its headquarters in Milpitas, California, the twenty-seven year old company has proved to be a force to reckon with in the manufacture and distribution of storage devices which include; USB flash drives, memory cards, flash drives, caching software for laptops, embedded flash drives, PC applications, and enterprise applications. The SanDisk Corporation has over the years remained business wise afloat despite competition from other companies in the storage devices industry like Samsung and Apple Inc. It is through this competition that SanDisk has always seen the need to be creative and to come up with better strategies to remain relevant and ensure that their products are used globally by as many people as possible so as to achieve their vision of being the largest supplier of storage devices worldwide. As recent as February of 2015, SanDisk was the third largest manufacturer of flash memory. Place SanDisk Corporation has a well-defined distribution strategy that ensures smooth flow of products from the manufactures straight to the final user who is also the consumer. With storage devices industry being depended on, by billions of people around the world, SanDisk Corporation has established more than 260,000 retail locations in more than 200 countries as a way of reaching the end users, Wee, A. (2016). SanDisk generates more than half of its sales outside the US where it is based and this, therefore, means that most of its customers are in the rest of the world. It is for this reason that they decided to open two more manufacturing plants, one in China and the other in Japan so as to be nearer to their customers considering a large number of people in the Asian continent and Africa below. Though in North America SanDisk exclusively sell through specific retailers, in the other parts of the world the products follow a distribution channel that runs from the manufacturer, the distributors, the wholesalers, the retailers, and finally the consumers. This distribution channel has enabled SanDisk to reach as many of its customers as possible and in the process compete with its competitors in the market. With retailers at supermarkets and mobile storefronts, the end user is reached easily. SanDisk also directly sell to digital cameras and mobile phone manufactures who sell their products together with the mobile devices and digital cameras. Competitive Advantage The location is important to any business. SanDisk Corporation understands this fact very well and so is the reason why it has two of its manufacturing plants in China and Japan. These locations are strategic first regarding production cost and secondly and most important, to be closer to more than half of the end users. This makes it easier for distribution channel to run smooth and quick as possible a ...

1. Running head: sandisk: place and competitive advantage 1
sandisk: place and competitive advantage 5
SanDisk: Place and Competitive Advantage
University
Marketing Plan
With its headquarters in Milpitas, California, the twenty-seven
year old company has proved to be a force to reckon with in the
manufacture and distribution of storage devices which include;
USB flash drives, memory cards, flash drives, caching software
for laptops, embedded flash drives, PC applications, and
enterprise applications. The SanDisk Corporation has over the
years remained business wise afloat despite competition from
other companies in the storage devices industry like Samsung
and Apple Inc. It is through this competition that SanDisk has

2. always seen the need to be creative and to come up with better
strategies to remain relevant and ensure that their products are
used globally by as many people as possible so as to achieve
their vision of being the largest supplier of storage devices
worldwide. As recent as February of 2015, SanDisk was the
third largest manufacturer of flash memory.
Place
SanDisk Corporation has a well-defined distribution strategy
that ensures smooth flow of products from the manufactures
straight to the final user who is also the consumer. With storage
devices industry being depended on, by billions of people
around the world, SanDisk Corporation has established more
than 260,000 retail locations in more than 200 countries as a
way of reaching the end users, Wee, A. (2016). SanDisk
generates more than half of its sales outside the US where it is
based and this, therefore, means that most of its customers are
in the rest of the world. It is for this reason that they decided to
open two more manufacturing plants, one in China and the other
in Japan so as to be nearer to their customers considering a
large number of people in the Asian continent and Africa below.
Though in North America SanDisk exclusively sell through
specific retailers, in the other parts of the world the products
follow a distribution channel that runs from the manufacturer,
the distributors, the wholesalers, the retailers, and finally the
consumers. This distribution channel has enabled SanDisk to
reach as many of its customers as possible and in the process
compete with its competitors in the market. With retailers at
supermarkets and mobile storefronts, the end user is reached
easily. SanDisk also directly sell to digital cameras and mobile
phone manufactures who sell their products together with the
mobile devices and digital cameras.
Competitive Advantage
The location is important to any business. SanDisk Corporation
understands this fact very well and so is the reason why it has
two of its manufacturing plants in China and Japan. These
locations are strategic first regarding production cost and

3. secondly and most important, to be closer to more than half of
the end users. This makes it easier for distribution channel to
run smooth and quick as possible and in the end, gives SanDisk
Corporation an edge over their competitors. Ensuring the end
user can access quality product whenever and wherever, is what
gives any company life in the market and SanDisk has been
there for the last twenty-seven years just by mastering how to
do this better than its competitors. Lee, et al...(2014)
We can, therefore, conclude that SanDisk has a distribution
channel that has worked for them over the years and is still
working for them to ensure that their products reach the end
user. This is because of the many customers that they are
targeting and also considering the high demand of storage
devices. On place or location, SanDisk has also made sure that
it tries to stay ahead of its many competitors in the storage
device industry, a strategy that has made them remain relevant
and making sure their products are in every store that sells any
storage device related materials. This has therefore given
SanDisk competitive advantage over their competitors.
References

4. Lee, T. H., Subramanian, V., Cleeves, J. M., Kouznetsov, I. G.,
Johnson, M. G., & Farmwald, P. M. (2014). U.S. Patent No.
8,853,765. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Wee, A. (2016). 2TB SSD? SanDisk announced the fastest SSD
ever.World.
Running head: markerting plan of sandisk company 1
markerting plan of sandisk company 4
Marketing Plan of SanDisk Company
University
Marketing Plan
SanDisk Company uses the strategy of aiming to be the global
leading supplier of flash disk and memory cards, as well as any
future innovation in the data storage solutions, thus developing
a large scale market for these storage products that it continues
to produce. The company maintains its leadership in the field of
technology by putting resources into future technologies in both
data storage and in fabrication technologies. This ensures that
the company is able to produce the best quality of products, that
are affordable, and that are designed for the present and future
needs of the clients in the data storage market.

5. The company aims to remain a one-stop-shop for all the
clients that use their products, through the sale of all data
storage solutions for the target market in large volumes, to keep
the clients purchasing more of their data storage solutions. The
company also takes advantage of the elastic nature of their
market, such that the reduction in the price per MB of storage
may lead to a higher demand in terms of the capacity of the
products being sold, encouraging for innovation and upgrade to
using new systems and technologies (Fleisher, & Bensoussan,
2003).
Promotional Strategies
The first promotional strategy that the company has is to utilize
the sales distribution system that it has put in place to ensure
that the demand that the market has created is sufficiently
supplied. This guarantees no shortages, and the brand become
more respected by most people, as it always has solutions for
what the clientele is looking for, and the solutions are available
to the customers.
Further using advertising to make the brand known to those who
might be loyal customers of other competitive brands.
Advertising also increases the possibility of other people who
did not know the brand to become aware of it, and slowly
encourage those customers to promote the brand, because they
are now more informed.
Since the company has a powerful personal selling statement,
they could take advantage of it to promote their sales and thus
promote their brand. The unique selling point of any company
becomes a promotional strategy if it is well recognized by
customers, so that they can recommend more people to try the
brand. The unique selling point of the brand ensures that the
company meets the expectation of the client, thus remaining the
most preferred brand in the market (Ireland, & Webb, 2007).
Competitive Advantage
Unlike the case in other companies that are coming into the
industry, SanDisk Company has been able to innovate and
fabricate products that other competitors might still not be able

6. to go into. The company has greatly invested in research and
development projects so that they could maintain the ability to
build products that are unique and exclusive to the company,
which gives SanDisk products an edge over the products of
other competitor companies.
Further, the company could also merge with other Original
Equipment Manufacturing company, such as Google or Apple,
to guarantee a bigger market share acquisition, and thus another
competitive edge over the competitors of the company (Jean,
2011).
References
Jean, S. (2011). Brand parody: A communication strategy to
attack a competitor. Journal of
Consumer Marketing, 28(1), 19-26.
Ireland, R. D., & Webb, J. W. (2007). Strategic
entrepreneurship: Creating competitive
advantage through streams of innovation. Business Horizons,
50(1), 49-59.
Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2003). Strategic and
competitive analysis: Methods and techniques for analyzing
business competition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Running head: swot analysis 1
swot analysis 5
SWOT Analysis
SanDisk Company

7. Introduction
SanDisk as one of the leading providers of the flash memory
products like the PCI flash, SSDs, server solutions, mobile
storage, MP3 players and removable memory cards and USB
drives has grown tremendously in the last twenty seven years.
In the digital world today, they have a vast market segment
ranging from individual and business corporate solutions. Any
individual with an electronic gadget is likely to be their client.
The target age group ranges from as young as four years of age
old children who play video games to adult aged. Anybody with
a mobile or cell phone device, laptop, tablets or computers are
their target market. Anybody on the Internet is also a potential
client. The demographic coverage for their products is the entire
world. Every country, every nation, all cultures, religious
sectors, age groups, genders amongst other groups who have
embraced technology are potential clients for their products.
The Internet has led to globalization which makes the world a
small large market place. Individuals and companies can source
electronic devices from anywhere in the world and SanDisk can
supply their products to all as well (Fujita & Thisse, 2013).
Social media and social sites and applications have led to a
behavioural change where everybody relies on electronic

8. gadgets and the internet to communicate, share data whether
audio, video or text, learn, campaign amongst other things
people may need to share or exchange. Electronic storage
devices thus become a necessity to store, backup, transfer and
exchange data.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Like every other organisation, the SanDisk Company has its
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It could
therefore utilise the SWOT analysis to uncover an exploit
available opportunities by maximising its strengths, work on
reducing its weaknesses as well as understanding risks to the
business in order to protect the organization against potential
threats (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2003).
Strengths
Weaknesses
· There are no barriers to market entry because the Internet has
an already open market online purchases increase daily.
· High growth rate due to the rise in users of their SSD and
storage devices both individual and businesses.
· High profitability and continuous revenue growth due to the
growing increase in customers.
· Good credibility hence has access to monetary assistance that
can improve their product range and coverage thus growth in
business.
· They have an innovative and highly skilled technical and
managerial workforce.
· Their productivity is at times lower than the demand.
· The cost of production is high.
· There has to be continuous investment in research and
development to keep up with technology changes.
· The tax structure is high for their products.
· They have to produce in small batches to avoid wastage due to

9. dynamic technology.
· Access to monetary assistance may lead to large loans.
Opportunities
Threats
· New Markets emerge each day as new technology in software
and devices evolve
· New products and services due to market demand.
· Growing demand as the world becomes digitalised especially
in terms of communication, storage, transfer of data and data
recording.
· Growth in demand and products leads to growth in revenue
and profitability
· Growth in revenue and profitability leads to growth in
economy
· Rise in competition due to proof that the demand is high and
rate of success in continuous profitability.
· Cash flow may be an issue due to loans and high production
levels especially when demand overwhelms supply.
· Increasing interest rates in those they borrow money from.
· High tax rates
References
Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2003). Strategic and
competitive analysis: Methods and techniques for analyzing
business competition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Fujita, M., & Thisse, J.-F. (2013). Economics of agglomeration:
Cities, industrial location, and globalization (2nd ed.).

10. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing).
Running head: pest analysis 1
pest analysis 5
PEST Analysis
SanDisk Company
An overview of SanDisk Company
According to SanDisk, (2016), over the last twenty-seven years,
SanDisk has continued to innovate and develop devices which
have transformed the storing of information on digital
platforms. Their flash memory innovations and inventions have
grown beyond imagination, and they have been adopted by the
world’s leading data centers. It has its headquarters in
California and it manufactures products like memory cards,
readers, USB flash drives and solid state drives. Their devices
have also been embedded in various devices like smart laptops,
phones, tablets. Even though they have acquired a considerable
share of this market, this company vows to go yonder and be
more creative in providing hi-tech storage devices. They have
manufactured flash storage facilities which suit their client’s
uses at home, or even for business. Their products have

11. acquired a bigger market share because they are of superior
quality, and their performance is impressive. Their products are
also very affordable and therefore can be accessed by everyone.
For instance, regarding costs, their flash memory was reduced
by 50,000 times and it has increased its performance 30,000
times. Their creativity and innovation have earned them the
recognition of being a number one company in storage
facilities. More and even more resources are being used by the
company in research and experimentation to make sure that they
meet the future demands of their customers. Their devices can
either be embedded in hardware, or they can be removable. The
company also ensures that the society can trust them to keep
their valuable memories using their affordable storage flashes.
This company has thousands of stores all around the world,
meaning that their products can easily be accessed.
PEST analysis
Political
· The EU regulation governing Privacy Act was released to
encourage data security especially when it comes to legal data
security issues. These problems are making the company be
more creative and produce technologies which are capable of
securing and protecting data. However, when breaches occur on
data security, it becomes a real issue, and which negatively
impacts the company. These legislations place the business in
an impossible position.
· The ability of government to access data is also another
political issue. There are some countries where this practice is
encouraged while in others, it is not encouraged.
Economic
· SanDisk ensures that they have created flash storage facilities
that are 50,000 times cheaper and 30,000 times more effective
compared to other storage facilities from other companies.

12. · Their products are pocket friendly
· SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), NAICS Codes
334112, 541711, 2016 Revenue 5,564,872,000 with over 8,000
employees.
Social
· San disk provides support when their clients need it. This
support can be accessed quickly from their robust website
resources. They also have knowledgeable agents who work 24
hours around the clock to ensure that they attend to all their
clients.
· They have a collaborative approach where they collaborate
with the device manufacturer, OS vendors, mobile network
operators, design firms, chipset providers, application
developers and system integrators to ensure that their customers
enjoy their experience when working with their devices.
· Their devices are highly trusted by over millions of people and
organizations because of its quality and reliability. Their
products can store relevant information in the form of photos
which most likely stores in the form of a technology.
Technological
· They work tirelessly, invest a lot of money and resources in
research to make sure that they meet the future storage needs of
their clients.
· They have first class engineering teams and a rigorous quality
control team which ensure that their customers can trust the
products they deliver.
· Even though their devices are cheaper compared to the same
products from other companies, SanDisk devices are more
efficient, superior performance and of high quality.

13. References
SanDisk. (2016). Retrieved from
https://www.sandisk.com/about/company
SanDisk Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2016,
from http://www.zoominfo.com/c/SanDisk-
Corporation/214679943
Unit VII Research Project
Marketing Plan
This week you will continue your comprehensive marketing
plan researching the SAME Company that you researched in
previous units. Again, utilizing the CSU Online Library, you
will research the various elements of the marketing plan as it
relates to this company. In Unit VII you will provide a
comprehensive discussion of the pricing strategies of your
company.
Pricing
This section will provide a comprehensive look at the pricing
strategies of your organization. Begin with a look at the overall
pricing objectives used by your company. This might include
profit orientation, sales orientation, or status quo orientation.
From there, review the pricing policies and include a look at the
flexibility of the pricing structure, prices over the product life
cycle, and discounts or allowances. Review Chapter 16 in the
textbook for a complete understanding of how companies utilize
pricing strategies.
Competitive Advantage
Does your company has a competitive advantage WITH
RESPECT TO PRICING? The idea is to discuss whether your
company has a competitive advantage with respect to how they
price their products? Again, this section should only discuss

14. whether your company has a competitive advantage with respect
to price (product, promotion and place are discussed in other
sections). Once you have stated your position, remember to
include your rationale.
Your submission should be a minimum of two pages in length,
double-spaced with a reference page and title page. References
should include at least one additional, credible reference beyond
the textbook. All sources used must be referenced; paraphrased
and quoted material must have accompanying citations and cited
per APA guidelines. Include the use of subheadings (this week
consider Pricing and Competitive Advantage in Pricing).
Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for
this assignment is provided below.