One angle I didn’t explore that would be interesting and insightful is what the retailer’s perspective is on bringing in goods that aren’t core to their business.

I believe there are tons of alternative channel opportunities out there but the key hurdle is often margin/terms.

What struck me is the value of complementing your mass distribution with targeted niche distribution (like offering Wii-Fit in Babies-R-Us). With a narrow market, imagine the added marketing power from tailoring your in-store message and product offerings to reach a more tightly chosen target. Sweet.

Also interesting that this offers one type of response to the threat of private labels – that you note may be part of the reason we aren’t hearing too much about buyers being threatened by this.

…Doug Garnett