I worked several years at FranklinCovey, the kingdom of the personal planning seminar.
There were suspicious goings on with FranklinQuest (it later became FranklinCovey when they bought out Stephen Covey) when the first Successories prints started appearing on the walls. We were assured that this was just "decoration." Many people wanted them, but we had to explain that they weren't for sale, but that "Franklin and Successories" had a "Strategic Alliance." Well, what does that mean? All we were told that the two companies "cross promoted" eachother. Then why didn't they just say that. I certainly suspected something more sinister was going on.
Then, a day came when we could sell the prints off the walls. The explanation was that "they were discontinued." Therefore, we would not be falsely sending someone skipping into a Successories store looking for a "TeamWork" poster with outdated graphics.
Next, you saw not only Successories Stores popping up either next door to Franklin Stores, or Successories kiosks parking themselves in the mall within eyeshot. The final blow occurred when we started selling actual Successories Themed Day Planner inserts.
At that time, management at the very top continued to deny any suspicion that this was all nothing more than a "Strategic Alliance."
We all settled down until Franklin "synergized" by buying out....whoops...I mean "synergizing" with Stephen Covey's company.
