Godin: Rethink Free

In a recent post on his blog, marketing author Seth Godin talks about the impact of free on our perceived notions of value, supply and pricing. He argues that it is dangerous to put free on top of an existing business model and that you have to win by reinventing yourself:

We spent a generation believing certain parts of our business needed to be scarce and that advertising and other interruption should be abundant. Part of the pitch of free is that when advertising goes away, you need to make something else abundant in order to gain attention. Then, and only then, will you be able to sell something that’s naturally scarce.

This is an uncomfortable flip to make, because the stuff you’ve been charging for feels like it should be charged for, and the new scarcity is often difficult to find. But, especially in the digital world, this is happening, and faster than ever.

Seth’s Blog: Flipping abundance and scarcity

Photo by kalandrakas CC BY 2.0