Let's discuss one company I thought of for this post (Coach), and analyze how they must maintain tight control for their brand image: Most people like to go directly to the source, if possible. There are several companies that market through others, but also have a showroom or web site where you can purchase directly. I can think of Coach offhand. They have a store in the mall, but you could also walk down to Macy's to get a Coach purse. Coach is somewhat different from other consumer products, in that a consumer can enter the same mall and be confronted by a stand-alone Coach store, and then encounter Coach products within the different department stores located within the same mall. Class, what do you make of this marketing strategy? Good or bad - does it dilute the brand name, or reinforce it?