My 2 cents on Free

There is a large discussion going on in the marketing world these days about Chris Anderson's new book Free - The Future of a Radical Price. Now, I haven't read the book yet but you can basically get a sense of what it is about by reading some of the reviews/postings about it (they are all available on this squidoo page). Some of the biggest names out there have chimed in including Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mitch Joel. This clearly is a topic of great interest/debate.

From what i've read so far, the book is about the idea/marketing of Free as opposed to charging for something. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a review that didn't take Chris' side and has sparked Godin, Joel and others to come out on Anderson's side. These blogs actually provide some fascinating reading and some very interesting points of view regarding how the digital landscape is taking the world towards getting most anything "Free".

In my mind the process of moving towards a Free world is essentially already happening as we speak. More and more companies are making things available to their consumers without charge, and many of them are finding this as a great way to build brand loyalty, cross-sell, and up-sell. Now, they aren't giving away everything for free but they are providing value to their consumers without charging for it. Maybe Coca-cola has a water park set up for a weekend for children to enjoy free of charge or as discussed in the book Amazon gives away Free shipping for purchases over a certain amount. Free is being leveraged everywhere and is a great way for your company to keep your customers engaged and satisfied. Mitch Joel and Seth Godin are giving away their marketing/digital/management opinions for free on their blogs, would any company have given away their intelletual property 50 years ago? 25 years ago? 10 years ago? The digital landscape and the transfer of information as a result have changed business dramatically and your company had better be willing to adapt and take advantage of this new world. Otherwise your competitors will snag your customers for Free.