It really boils down to how many products a manufacturer has to sell to stay in business. These days, that number keeps increasing, which is why you see a lot of companies merging or disappearing all together. The markets continue to grow and manufacturers keep selling more product, but the margins have been so eroded that many companies must grow just to keep their doors open. As a result, you see companies diversifying their product lines into two distinct categories: high-end, high-profile, cutting edge wonders of the 21st century (the 'sizzle'), and the mundane, run of the mill, intermediate products of OEM ('the steak').

It's an old adage that you sell the sizzle and not the steak, and that is surely the case today. You need to brand a product…make the name recognizable no matter where, whether it is a home enthusiast looking to pump up his system or an IT executive speccing out his latest RFQ. This is where the sizzle comes in. The enthusiast wants to be reassured that his purchase choice is a good one while the IT executive, even though he is buying a lower end product, wants to feel that the product he is choosing is good, and that association is made with the high end product. If a company makes Product 'A', and its at the top of its class, then it is likely that products 'B, C and D' are also going to be good. Since most technology works in a trickle down setting, this is not necessarily flawed thinking.