The threat of complacency
A certain degree of intrabrand competition in a market area is beneficial to the manufacturer. It brings forth each channel member's best efforts without going so far as to put the channel member in a losing situation. Best Buy, a giant electronics retailer, acquired Future Shop, a competitor in Canada. Rather than shutting down Future Shop stores or converting them to the Best Buy name, the parent company actually left both names and both stores in place-even when they had stores literally across the street from each other. The two chains serve to block a third entrant-and to stimulate each chain to perform better.17 Companies often use the strategy of competing head-to-head with themselves at the brand/product level on the theory that it is better to be cannibalized by another division than to be bankrupted by another company. Best Buy elevates this logic to the channel level none of the greatest drawbacks of selective distribution is the danger that selectivity fosters lackluster representationning enough coverage to create the optimal degree of intraband competition, however, can clash with other objectives.