revrnd
Apsley, Ontario
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Just curious as to why some manufacturers have numerous models and/or brands. When I was looking @ the Forest River website, it would appear that the Flagstaff & Rockwood models are identical other than graphics. Is the interior content different? Comparing floorplans they would appear to be the same.
Thor has 7 divisions selling towables, 23 brands under the Keystone banner alone.
Critics chastised GM for having too many divisions/brands, so why so many RV brands?
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D & M
Laurel, MD
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Could it be that they bought up smaller companies and want to keep the customers that are loyal to the brand?
For every critic there is a crtic of a critic. GM's polices of having to many brands is the fact that they had to many plants with to many union employees building basically the same car. At one time Oldsmoblile was differenct from Pontiac, was differnt from Chevy, At the end it was all samey-same. Too bad too, it was nice to have selection.
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skipnchar
Topeka Kansas USA
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Forest River has purchased many of their brands like Rockwood and Flagstaff and made them twin brands. they can DO that because they can afford do since they are a very profitable company and they actually BENEFIT from the practice by being able to put TWO dealerships in the same area without directly competing with each other. The two BRANDS are indeed identical other than some purely cosmetic items like fabric selection and colors.
The way GM got into difficulty while doing the same thing was when needing public money to finance their operation. Nobody CARED when they were paying their creditors and honoring their warranties without help.
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revrnd
Apsley, Ontario
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skipnchar wrote:they actually BENEFIT from the practice by being able to put TWO dealerships in the same area without directly competing with each other. The two BRANDS are indeed identical other than some purely cosmetic items like fabric selection and colors.
I might be missing something here, but if FR has Flagstaff & Rockwood dealers or Thor has Laredo & Outback dealers in the same areas, aren't they competing against each other?
I guess if the brands have different price points there might not be the duplication I'm assuming.
Up to the late 60s/early 70s GM's divisions were pretty much little car companies. Even though they may have shared body sizes, A, B, F for example, each division produced their own drivetrains.
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woodburner
Mentor Ohio
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The idea of having so many brands; similar or not is to flood the market with THEIR PRODUCT and meet the demands of all price levels. Seems to me these are the ones that have quality issues more so then those that build one thing and build it right!
Just keep pumping them out and don't look back.
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