Last summer I was a camp counselor. It was a very hot day and I was watching my group of kids at a waterpark. Going in the water wasn’t an option, because I had to keep an eye on 8-10 little rascals who all wanted to do different things.
Just as I was about to lose my mind, this girl came up to me with a Red Bull can shaped cooler on her back. She offered me a free can of this taurine and caffeine infused goodness.
Since then, Red Bull has been my drink.
Before that day, I had never tried it. In fact, the thought of trying it never really crossed my mind.
That’s the power of free, folks. Red Bull gained a lifelong fan that day for two reasons.
1. I found out I really liked the drink. This would have taken much longer to realize if they hadn’t given me a free one. Maybe I never would have tried Red Bull. Who knows? They found me when they knew I wanted a cold drink; smart them.
2. I gained a level of trust for them. Being so confident in their product by giving it away for free really caught my attention. From the second I got that complimentary can, they were cool in my book.
Pretty cool huh? Some good marketing lessons to be learned here.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing. A lot of Internet companies, especially those trying to adapt from their pre-Internet marketing, are finding the value of free content which leads to premium (for pay) content.
But there are many ways to do it. Tammy and I have been trying a new way lately. And we really think it’s cool. I hope more people begin to adopt our model. It seems like it may help drive more traffic to our site over time and attract a more loyal readership. :-)
My next website and venture (which is still somewhat of a secret) is going to take advantage of this. But my goal is, ultimately, to gain trust. I’ll risk not making as much money if I gain a loyal reader. However, over time, this may result in being able to make more money which will support being able to do what I’m good at…which involves helping people.
So free is good…free is very good!
Have you read Chris Anderson’s book on Free?
I still have to read it and see what everybody’s talking about, but I think its a similar concept.
Offer something free, build trust & loyalty, people will pay what they deem to be fair value.
@ Scott – Sounds like you have a pretty exciting project coming up. I’m probably a month or so from launching my business. I’d love talk in more detail about our ideas because they sound like they are going to have very similar marketing/trust building strategies behind them. I’ll get in touch with you via email sometime in the near future. Thanks for the comment once again!
@ Andrew – Man, it seems like we are on the same page once again. One of the things on my to-do list for tonight was to check out that book. We’ll have to chat later about it.
You know what’s cool, is that if you keep an open mind you can find “lessons” like that every day of your life! We’ve recently gotten very popular with the Blue Jays and squirrels in our neighborhood because we throw peanuts out into the yard whenever we go outside. Now, we barely get out the door before they all start flocking to our yard. Lesson learned: Give your customers what they want, consistently, and they will keep coming back – we don’t even have to advertise anymore!
I’m definitely a big fan of free. What’s not to like? So, we’ve been trying to give away money since yesterday and not getting any takers. We must be doin’ something wrong, huh? Perhaps we should throw in a Red Bull LOL
Tammy, throwing in a Red Bull just might do the trick! Haha. And you are so right about the lessons that come up in everyday life. I pick up things all the time and quite often they are the inspiration behind my blog posts.
It’s great you are diligently serving the market of hungry squirrels and Blue Jays, someone has to!