Why Free is not a good price
Seth Godin is one of the world’s top marketeers. He understands important things about selling and advertising that the majority of businesses don’t even realise is an issue. He has a blog which is well worth reading. We can also recommend his book, Purple Cow, which will give you a great outlook on the current world of selling and marketing.
Seth discusses the idea of free and its results in his current posting here. This is the bit that caught our eye.
At the TED conference, which costs plenty of money, they had baskets of cool free snacks. Expensive little bags of nuts and stuff, all free. And what you noticed was lots of half-eaten bags of stuff. If the snacks had cost just a quarter, consumption would have been lower and my guess is that satisfaction would have been higher.
The interaction you seek as a marketer often disappears when something is free. The fascinating thing is that it often doesn’t matter if you’re paying or being paid… it’s the transaction either way that changes the posture of the person you’re working with.
Originally posted 2008-03-12 10:28:08.
