Land of the Free
Feb 01
2009
2009
If you think Land of the Free refers to the U.S.A., you are showing your age. Land of the Free is the Internet. In the January 31 edition of the WSJ's Weekend Journal, author Chris Anderson wrote a thoughtful piece on "The Economics of Giving it Away." If I can, I'll post the article on the news section of the group. I posted a NY Times article there earlier in the month, and if you come across a great news story or other material from your neck of the woods, please try to post it on the news section of the our Linked In group so we can continue to gain from our collective experience. Unfortunately, the news posts get buried quickly so you have to dig a bit to get to older uploads.
The gist of the Anderson WSJ article is that the price of goods and services is continually going down, courtesy of innovation and the Internet. The question for all businesses — mature and start-ups — is how to make money in an increasingly "free" world. Anderson writes: "It's now time for entrepreneurs to innovate, not just with new products, but new business models." Easy to write — harder to implement, eh?
Even Microsoft, he writes, is feeling the pinch but is responding by providing free services to a segment of the market in hopes that when they mature to larger companies they will already be loyal to Microsoft branded products. What does that mean for you? It means finding a model that allows you to provide something free to provide outreach to potential and future customers. You can't do free forever, but you can rob a page from the supermarket industry and provide some things as a loss-leader. If you haven't figured it out yet — here's my dirty little secret – that's where Linked In fits in my NAPL marketing strategy. Now, I've broken a marketing rule here — don't tell people when you're marketing to them, but you're the Linked In Group and, by definition, a bit more hip than the rest of the industry so there it is… my secret.
This is why I believe so strongly in NAPL. As an association, we are supported by dues, but much of what we provide is value added or "free." In January, alone, we sent out six different free e-newsletters (four exclusive to members, two open to the general industry), posted more than a half dozen free blogs, and took on the US Postal service on a proposed new regulation. That's in addition to our member services, economics research, magazine and events. If you'd like to subscribe to any of the free newsletters, go to our special request page. If you'd like to sample any of the management blogs (giving you a free sampling of some of the best thinking of our brightest consulting minds) go to NAPL's web site (www.napl.org) and click on the blog links.
This past weekend was the amazing Super Bowl XLIII between Pittsburgh and Arizona. And, as with all Super Bowls, the commercials are almost as important as the game. In that tradition, I hope you'll indulge me with this mini-commercial for NAPL as a real-life example of how free can play out in today's economy. For more on this business model, I strongly suggest Seth Godin's book Free Prize Inside. Written in 2004, it again shows why he's ahead of his time. To save you time, here's what it's about: We all loved getting the free prize in the Cracker Jacks box, didn't we? Studies showed kids wanted the box as much, if not more, for the prize than the Cracker Jacks themselves. People still love to be surprised. So, don't just give what you have away… give it in a way that surprises and delights your audience, and make it part of your business model to turn that audience into paying customers.
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