by George Monte
When surfing the net I often find sites that have free products offers. After thinking about it a bit, I guess those site got the idea from the offline industries, like supermarkets which offer the customers "1 + 1" deals: buy one product for full price and the second one for free.
On the web they offer you 100% free items! They do it hoping that you'll stop your browsing and stay there to take a second look at what is highlighted as a total free product and by the way your eyes will scroll over to other goods which cost full price. It's a kind of a sophisticated trap. Imagine a store keeper who hangs a big sign on one of the items he shows in the display window. He hopes too that you'll enter his shop and see many other goods and buy one of those who costs full price.
The innocent buyer, in the case of the selling site on the Internet, must stop for a moment and think before he is pushing the button and confirm his purchase: what is hiding behind those "free" deals. What is really happening behind the scene? How come a business proprietor can offer his clients "free" merchandise? A business is a business and it must gain profits in order to survive. There is an absurd here. What are the answers to solve this contradiction?
1. The customer is not going to pay for the product but he is going to pay for the shipment. For the shipment he'll pay a triple price and the total amount will cover the product regular cost.
1. The product quality will be very poor. On the computer screen it will appear as a big, massive, shining and worth a fortune! Just like they do it in the mail shopping catalogues. When you'll get it at home it will be small, fragile, dwindling and worth nothing.
1. When the customer starts the purchasing process he'll find it long and exhausting. It is done deliberately. He wouldn't be able to finish the procedure unless he is passing through several screens. In every screen he'll be offered full price accessories and will be asked to upgrade his original quest for extra money. The poor sucker is happy with the free main product he is considering to be the best bargain of his life and for some lousy extra bucks he is not going to give it up! But the naïve guy is forgetting the basics laws of economy: The proprietor can't loose! He sold the customer those accessories and upgrades for much more money than the regular cost of the product alone.
1. The one who invented the trick of "free" deals new very good the psychological mechanism of many of us. Some of us have this sense of guilt when we get a free gift. We have an urge to pay something in return. So we compensate the site owner by buying some other items, for which we are paying outrages prices.
1. Who really pay for the "free" products? The customers? The proprietor? No. The employees who are manufacturing those products - they pay the price. They earn less money comparing to what they could earn if products were sold for their full price, covering all production costs and leaving some margins for a nice profit. Living according to the true spirit of capitalism we would like to believe that fair and honest factory's owners would have paid their workers according to their marketing success. But if they give it for nothing - what is left for the workers?
So think twice when you see a "free" sign.
I'm working in an online print shop which is forced to give some of its products for free. We have to do it because other online print shops do it. If we want to compete and survive - we have to do it too. I am wondering around our working stations and see the look in our workers eyes when they are working for a job they know that is for "free". They fill as if someone is spitting on their work. You have to see their shinning eyes when they are working for a full price project when they know that someone else is appreciating their skills and capabilities.
Big business owners can reduce prices, in some cases to zero, absorbing it with profits from other areas of their vast range of businesses. On their way to success and dominate the market they run over small businesses. They take an advantage of the mass proffering quantity above quality.
As I've mentioned before, I work in an online print shop (called DCP-Print.com). I can tell you that we have decided not to give away quality. We decided not to deceive the customers with extremely high shipping costs. We do our best to play the game as fair as possible and I believe we're doing a pretty good job at it.
George Monte is a digital printing expert, involved in the printing industry for over 15 years. As the Co-CEO of DCP-Print, George is consulting numerous companies in the field of printed promotional materials.
DCP-Print is an international company, specializing in custom made print products such as business cards, business magnets, invitations and more.
When surfing the net I often find sites that have free products offers. After thinking about it a bit, I guess those site got the idea from the offline industries, like supermarkets which offer the customers "1 + 1" deals: buy one product for full price and the second one for free.
On the web they offer you 100% free items! They do it hoping that you'll stop your browsing and stay there to take a second look at what is highlighted as a total free product and by the way your eyes will scroll over to other goods which cost full price. It's a kind of a sophisticated trap. Imagine a store keeper who hangs a big sign on one of the items he shows in the display window. He hopes too that you'll enter his shop and see many other goods and buy one of those who costs full price.
The innocent buyer, in the case of the selling site on the Internet, must stop for a moment and think before he is pushing the button and confirm his purchase: what is hiding behind those "free" deals. What is really happening behind the scene? How come a business proprietor can offer his clients "free" merchandise? A business is a business and it must gain profits in order to survive. There is an absurd here. What are the answers to solve this contradiction?
1. The customer is not going to pay for the product but he is going to pay for the shipment. For the shipment he'll pay a triple price and the total amount will cover the product regular cost.
1. The product quality will be very poor. On the computer screen it will appear as a big, massive, shining and worth a fortune! Just like they do it in the mail shopping catalogues. When you'll get it at home it will be small, fragile, dwindling and worth nothing.
1. When the customer starts the purchasing process he'll find it long and exhausting. It is done deliberately. He wouldn't be able to finish the procedure unless he is passing through several screens. In every screen he'll be offered full price accessories and will be asked to upgrade his original quest for extra money. The poor sucker is happy with the free main product he is considering to be the best bargain of his life and for some lousy extra bucks he is not going to give it up! But the naïve guy is forgetting the basics laws of economy: The proprietor can't loose! He sold the customer those accessories and upgrades for much more money than the regular cost of the product alone.
1. The one who invented the trick of "free" deals new very good the psychological mechanism of many of us. Some of us have this sense of guilt when we get a free gift. We have an urge to pay something in return. So we compensate the site owner by buying some other items, for which we are paying outrages prices.
1. Who really pay for the "free" products? The customers? The proprietor? No. The employees who are manufacturing those products - they pay the price. They earn less money comparing to what they could earn if products were sold for their full price, covering all production costs and leaving some margins for a nice profit. Living according to the true spirit of capitalism we would like to believe that fair and honest factory's owners would have paid their workers according to their marketing success. But if they give it for nothing - what is left for the workers?
So think twice when you see a "free" sign.
I'm working in an online print shop which is forced to give some of its products for free. We have to do it because other online print shops do it. If we want to compete and survive - we have to do it too. I am wondering around our working stations and see the look in our workers eyes when they are working for a job they know that is for "free". They fill as if someone is spitting on their work. You have to see their shinning eyes when they are working for a full price project when they know that someone else is appreciating their skills and capabilities.
Big business owners can reduce prices, in some cases to zero, absorbing it with profits from other areas of their vast range of businesses. On their way to success and dominate the market they run over small businesses. They take an advantage of the mass proffering quantity above quality.
As I've mentioned before, I work in an online print shop (called DCP-Print.com). I can tell you that we have decided not to give away quality. We decided not to deceive the customers with extremely high shipping costs. We do our best to play the game as fair as possible and I believe we're doing a pretty good job at it.
George Monte is a digital printing expert, involved in the printing industry for over 15 years. As the Co-CEO of DCP-Print, George is consulting numerous companies in the field of printed promotional materials.
DCP-Print is an international company, specializing in custom made print products such as business cards, business magnets, invitations and more.
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