MeDroogies,
Sorry for the delay getting back to you -- I was on a field trip with my kids class.
You're confusing end-user differentiation with the channels of distribution. For end-users, there certainly are a variety of reasons to differentiate the products; we're in complete agreement on that. That's why CPQ had, what, 3 PC brands as did HP.
The retailers, however, while they're willing to carry the various brands that match their customers are not willing to tie themselves into a single vendor for their important products. You already heard Michael (who worked with HPs retail PCs, I believe) say that CompUSA kept threatening to bring in a white-box solution to create more competition. And that was when they had HP and CPQ competing against each other. They were threatening to bring in a third brand. They are absolutely not going to let HPQ be their only supplier of PCs. If HPQ stumbles and can't ship product to CompUSA, what are they going sell to their customers? Nothing. So they have to have alternatives to sell to their customers.
Of the examples you cited, some had nothing to do with distribution channels (like GE capital, and the cable companies, which are regulated to ensure "competition" [yeah, right]). Some of the examples, like magazines, I can certainly point out that the channels (i.e. bookstores) don't just carry magazines from a single publisher, but carry them from a variety of publishers. The only example of an end-user retailer carrying a single vendor's product that you cited was the automobile outlets, where a single site is dedicated to products from a single vendor. What you'll find, however, is that most of the auto dealerships in this country are part of a larger "group" owned by an individual or company that owns dealerships for many different types of automobiles. Again, the same logic applies -- what if Honda cuts my allotment of autos, what if Ford automobiles start exploding and everyone stops buying Ford. The risk is reduced by not limiting themselves to selling cars from a single company.
The PC retailers will do the same.
Dave |
