Fast and Free seem to be the new sheik business model :
Google = Fast and free
YouSendIt.com = Fast and Free
FreeConferanceCall.com = Fast and Free
Zoho = Fast and Free
Pandora = Fast and Free
SethGodin.com = Fast and Free
Facebook = Fast and Free
The list goes on…
Check out this great list of fast and free services provided by Inc Magazine. Now-a-days even the free services are fighting for attention! In the 80’s I don’t think many businesses would have agreed with this “free” philosophy. Remember when you could buy the Encyclopedia in grocery stores? They tried to lure you into buying the whole set by selling you the volume of “A” for 99 cents. I bet Britannica would have never thought their competition was going to a free service.
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I am in the process of develop several new projects, all of which will have free services attached to them. So…I posed the question: If the future model of business is “Free”, how will it work economically for businesses?
In my studies to understand why free is so popular for businesses right now I found the following fantabulous analogy and here it is:
The Bikini Concept Introduced by marketing writer Sean D'Souza.
By giving away 90%, the user is willing to “pay” to see the last 10%.
I know…I hear you saying “How chauvinistic Mr. Sudarski!”, (That was my family name before we got off the boat).
It is the last 10% that is of monetary worth to the consumer. How far are you willing to give your audience, customer, or client? What last 10% can be unrevealed that has so much value that “they” will do anything to get the last part? Isn’t that what the Broadway performances at the the Tony’s and the Thanksgiving Day parade are all about on a small level? BroadwaySpace.com has started to offer their audience base free access to the stars. Will live entertainment continue to have a free models like this in the future?
Have you done anything FREE and gained business from doing so? Will you do it again?



At this time, if you have Wicked, Lion King or High School the Musical at your road house, you probably are doing great on sales for those shows. but these these three shows (and a few others) all are todays popular blockbuster trend. You may not think they are the best shows and that they do not deserve the attention they get, but through the development of their branding they managed to make them selves a word or mouth phenomenon.
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