Does Giving Away Free Stuff Destroy Your Product's Value?

Posted by ShawnHessinger under Strategy
From http://sethgodin.typepad.com 3855 days ago
Made Hot by: logistico on May 7, 2014 8:25 am

The theory ois this. If you offer something for free, it will generate interest. And that will (eventually) turn into sales. But there's another way to look at it, Seth Godin explains. It could be that by giving your product or service away, you never really give customers a chance to evaluate the value of your product or service.

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Comments

Written by amabaie
3855 days ago

That's why free trials are good, but you have to have something non-critical but highly desirable locked away until they upgrade to a full account (and remind them to "upgrade to unlock the AmazingThingThatWeJustKnowYouAreSalivatingOver."

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Written by ShawnHessinger
3851 days ago

Hi David,

Seth seems to be talking about the backlash against freemium and free products and services here. That backlash, however, will never be complete, just as the organic food industry never eliminated McDonald's. However, I think there's also a subtext in this post. It's critically important to understand that all attention isn't the same, that if you really use any means necessary to draw interest to your product or service, there's no way of knowing the right group of people will show up.

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