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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ausdauer who wrote (17832)	12/30/2000 4:29:04 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Aus, Viking may be paying for the banner ads, or selling to Amazon at a lower price. From my experience, it doesn't look like a price war situation right now. The different channel situation is always difficult. It's in the best interest of the manufacturer if all their customer charge the same price, unfortunately it is illegal to require that they do that. Most retailers try to work for about an average 32% gross margin, lower on price sensitive items, higher on "blind" items that the consumer doesn't price shop. Then you have folks like Sam's Club, that work on a 10% GM. How do you sell them and keep your other retailers competitive and happy? I suppose it's the same with the Internet retailers, though I don't have much experience in that arena. I don't think brand affinity is a factor yet, the category is too new. But NOW is the time to build brand awareness, the first guy to capture mindshare will create an uphill battle for the rest. I think you mentioned some months back that it's important to get the camera manufacturers to supply SanDisk brand with their cameras, because the consumer will likely want to get the same brand. I agree, and if the consumers first purchase is SanDisk and he's satisfied, most will probably always purchase SanDisk. I don't see CF advertised, if SanDisk doesn't have a co-op advertising program, where a certain percentage of an accounts purchases can be rebated after they run an ad, they should. SanDisk's sales force should have been pushing the retailers to advertise CF in the weeks after Christmas, to capture the aftermarket for those many new owners that want more storage. It's one of those win/win situations, good for the retailers, good for SanDisk. It will be interesting to see how the numbers pan out. If the economy hadn't tanked at exactly the wrong time, I would be VERY confident. John