Perspective on Dealer Exclusive Lines (e.g. Lexmark BSD)

We went down this road with Oki awhile back and it worked pretty well but at the time, Ricoh was very deficient on color products and Oki had some compelling MPS strategies. They had uniquely branded products and specially keyed supplies as well as extremely aggressive dealer channel pricing. We had some success following the initial launch but I can't remember the last time we sold an OKI. It's just too hard to keep up with all the changes happening within our primary brand to try to maintain a suitable knowledge of a secondary brand .

All products are so similar these days that I wonder if it makes sense anymore to have a second product line. The cost of maintaining parts and supply inventory as well as technician training is hard to ROI from whatever "additional" sales that might result. 

Thanks Old Glory.

Anyone else have a perspective on this?

- Jake

So, some of these may be a little off the wall.

• Dealer exclusive product naming (how different should it be?) I've always thought that when the dealer bought the equipment from the manufacturer that the dealer should be able to "brand" the equipment with it's own name. I was told years ago, that there was a line in the dealer agreements that would not allow this.  Thus, I could call my Ricoh MP C5503 a Genesis 3055, and I could make my own marketing pieces.  Would be harder for others to compete and quote against and would also offer some protection for supplies.

• Existence of names in public sphere (e.g. Lexmark thinks BSD products are secret, but this may hurt brand recognition) Ah, I don't know what DSD stands for!

• Is it OK for the two versions (with different names) to sell in the dealer channel and at CDW.com/staples.com simultaneously or do you want a completely unique product? Unique product

• Product lineup range (how broad does the dealer lineup have to be? Would you sell low-end MFPs or SFPs that are available across channels if the dealer exclusive line started at around $2k?) I would rather have a broad line, I could then pick and choose on the low end when I need to shop outside.
• Consumable exclusivity (unique names, keying, etc) Absolutely
• Hardware and Consumable costs (lower than IT channel versions? I'm starting to hear more and more that many companies are willing to let employees work from a home office. Which would draw down the clicks from the workgroup systems.  I have yet to hear of a company coming to me and asking me for 30 smaller A4's for home offices.  Nor, have I asked!  ok, I'll get to the point, yes, if we're in the business of imaging we need to be able to accommodate all of our customers, with that we need to be somewhat competitive on the low end hardware and supplies.  Right now, I could go on the web and see the same low end A4 selling for less that what I can sell it for.
• MFP modularity and ability to add-on options? Bring some of the higher end features to A4 devices, like stapling, duplex, folding.
• DSM / marketing support levels ????
• Also, now that the "copier" brands now have growing A4 lines, what niche are you looking to fill with your dealer-exclusive lines from the "printer" guys? I would still like to see A4 devices with a cost per page of the A3 devices, especially in the under $1,000 range. It can be down, however, manufacturers stand to lose too much profit from the consumables.