Hard Drives- Its 'hard' to Ignore Western Digital

Scoring over its competitors, although not in a big way, Western Digital (WD) has emerged as the number one brand this year in the hard drive segment, pipping the previous year's winner, Seagate, by a slight margin.

Product quality and premium bundled features have always been trademarks of WD products. Even though the company has never lost focus on the build, design and reliability, its products offer value for money as well, as a result of which the company has scored very high in terms of price versus performance ratio. The company has also impressed its partners with a very proactive service approach wherein it has strengthened its after-sales support even in remote parts of the country. Being the leader of this segment, WD has made its position strong by bringing in flexibility in conducting localized promotions and also allocation of funds in the marketing space. During the past year, the company has exponentially increased its touch points with channels. Other than reward schemes, it has liberally supported partners through marketing collateral, POP material and has also been very aggressive with product training.

Besides maintaining flexibility in commercial terms, WD always ensures that back-end incentives and its settlement are done on time. In fact, its online portal has proved very effective for its channel partners. And ultimately, the company has been able to maintain a healthy relationship with its partners, as there is consistency in honoring commitments made by its personnel to the partners.

The second most preferred brand, Seagate, is quite ahead of its competitors in terms of after-sales support - be it availability and competence of account managers/helpdesk services, promptness in stock replacement, and presence of its service centers across the country, or technical expertise to resolve the problem of channel partners. Even in overall commercial terms, it is slightly ahead of WD, especially in the area of maintaining transparency in commercial terms and policies and promptness in communicating schemes/incentive programs to its partners. And as far as relationship management is concerned, Seagate's communication with channel partners has always been consistent and effective. Partners also appreciate the company's reward systems and dedicated personnel for maintaining a healthy relationship.

Though Samsung is not far behind Seagate in impressing the partners on the various parameters, Hitachi has to do a lot in catching up with the these top players of hard drive segment.