The main reason I question the Return on Investment for these ads, is because when I saw this ad I didn’t even know how it tied into Vicks and at first I didn’t even know it was an ad for Vicks. I honestly thought this was generic Vicks advertising because the ad doesn’t spell out that First Defence is actually a Vicks product. I mainly saw this ad on trains or tubes. Advertising on the tube has its advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantage of this vehicle is that the tube is an extremely busy place and people usually have the mindset of getting to and from somewhere in a hurry. The attention span of your audience is already limited, and this is shortened further on the tube. This means you need to grab the
target market’s attention quickly and maintain it, whilst calling them to perform an action. After viewing this ad, I assumed that Vicks wanted me to buy some cold and flu medicine, I had no idea of the exact product.

The visual focus of the ad is on the soccer ball and the goalkeepers gloves- which is a sure fire way to get most of England’s attention. The soccer ball and gloves almost appear as part of an equation. This is where I feel that Vicks missed out on a trick. Vicks are not part of the equation in my mind. I feel that they should have placed an image of the First defence bottle at the end of the equation. It brings the story together- showing that Vicks First Defence is the answer to the problem. This
would also enable the consumer to recognise the product and help trigger product recall when they are in the Chemist buying the product.

It’s also worth discussing that considerations for storage on trains must be taken into account when placing advertisements. There is a shelf so to speak to store your bags on above each passengers head. When bags are stored the advertisement could be blocked entirely. However, there is always going to be the storage shelf to contend with. When I saw this Vicks First Defence ad on the train, the storage shelf
space blocked out the writing at the bottom of the ad- which helps to explain
the ad.
At the end of the day, I feel that a quirky ad was created and the message was severely diluted. I think that people will remember the different scenarios; soccer ball and gloves, raindrops and umbrellas and that’s it, people will be left wondering what is going on. I don’t believe that consumers would be left with the feeling of wondering what the ad was about and undertake additional research to understand this due to the product category and the mediums that the advert was placed in. Rather, I feel that people will quickly scan the ad, and then quickly turn their
attention elsewhere.

If this were a football game, I’d place the Vicks First Defence ad on the bench.

Arron Child

So what makes Club Med so special?

Club Med is designed to put any guest at ease immediately, providing you memories and friendships that will last you a lifetime.

One of the secrets to Club Meds success begins before the guest even arrives at the resort. Money and time are two constraints that cause stress in people’s lives, especially when they don’t have enough of either. To eliminate these concerns Club Med cleverly have guests pay for a package that includes unlimited food, drink and activities (on the island) before they set foot on the resort. Guests are able to automatically remove the stress of money from their vacation- alcohol can always help with this! A holiday can be enjoyed without spending a single cent once the guest has reached the island. Most activities on the island are also free- including
relaxing activities such as sailing, golf, circus pursuits etc. However, Club
Med do have a gift shop and massage centre to maximize the sale with the
guests, however, this is purely optional. Any item purchased will instantly
remind the guest of the fantastic holiday they enjoyed and may trigger that
guest to book another holiday with Club Med.

In order to truly relax one must be able to release the burden of time and work.
Clocks are not displayed prominently, if at all. Without the constant reminder
of time, guests are able to fall into a relaxing state quicker- which is
important as some guests only attend Club Med for 5 days. Club Med staff will
always go around and tell guests that there is a game of volleyball etc about
to start so that guests don’t need to fear missing out on anything. Work is
also kept to a bare minimum- due to a convenient geographic isolation. There
are only three spots on the island where a guest can receive mobile reception-
effectively creating an atmosphere of escapism for guests.

Imagine walking around an island and everyone stops and greets you asking how your day is going. Well, that’s the Club Med way. Staff meet new guests at the jetty, waving and smiling to welcome them onto the island, this way guests have familiar and friendly faces from the moment they step onto the island and the moment they leave. Throughout their stay, guests will come to know most staff members and the other guests due to the social atmosphere Club Med create. Club Med understand that the largest family is usually 6 members, so each table has 8 chairs- to enable two staff members to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with the guests. There are only two places to eat food from, a restaurant for private dining or a large restaurant with buffet style food. Guests socialise with staff and guests socialise with guests, everyone gets to know everyone. Staff members are instructed to always socialize with guests rather than each other. Games are always played designed to bring the guests together, shows and nightly entertainment are provided- with the purpose of bringing all the guests together. Guests quickly feel a
sense of belonging, which enables them to relax. The social and relaxed
atmosphere Club Med creates enables guests to make life long friendships with
staff and withh each other.

Of course, some families have children. Often children and parents have different ideas of relaxation. Club Med have countered this by setting up ‘Kid’s Club’ for children of different ages. Kids are able to play with kids of similar ages whilst being supervised by staff. Kids club is flexible- parents can vary how long the children are in the club for so that they can still partake in family activities. Most children have the times of their lives, which enables parents to have the time of their lives.

In order to sell a product, you must first understand all barriers that the potential purchaser will have to the sale and be able to remove them. Club Med have effectively removed all the barriers to a memorable holiday that are within their control.

Enjoy your stay.

Arron Child

It might seem strange that I, a marketer, am telling you to give marketers a taste of their own medicine but Christmas is all about giving, and well I didn’t want to let the festivities pass us all by without me giving you something too. In fact, I’m feeling so generous that I’m going to give you something that money can’t buy.

My dad brought me up with the following philosophy in mind:

‘Give a man a fish and he will live for a day, teach a man to fish and he will live forever.’

* Courtesy of Gordon Wolford

Well ladies and gentlemen, here it is, taste is largely what you expect it to be. That’s right, taste is largely attributable to a series of pre-conceived notions of what the taste should be. Ludicrous? Marketers are able to exploit the fact that the tongue only has 5 known elements of taste perception; salty, sour, bitter, savoury and sweet and that it is hard to differentiate taste when the olfactory sense has been eliminated from the equation.

When was the last time you bought a bottle of water and tell me, why did you buy that bottle? Was it the majestic mountains that this clear liquid drifted down from into the bottle you held? Was it the purifying process of the Amazonian forests that enabled the clear liquid in the bottle in front of you to leave you feeling more refreshed and healthier?

No, it simply wasn’t. Would it shock you, for you to find out that tap water usually outperforms bottled water in taste tests? Well, if you read the fine print on your bottle, you would realise that the bottled water you have purchased can even be supplied from Municipal Water supplies.  (A CNN expose on Bottled Water stated that 25% of all bottled water is actually tap water. What this proves is that taste can be manipulated by marketers conjuring up imagery and tastes in the consumer’s minds)

Bottled water from Municipal Water supplies effectively means that a company has effectively taken tap water, placed it in a bottle, created a nice story about how the water was discovered and sold it to you. The marketing has you convinced that you are drinking a product significantly better than tap water- otherwise why would you pay around 2000 times more for the bottled water than you would for tap water? Penn and Teller set up a great water experiment to provide you with more insight into ‘The Truth about Bottled Water’.

It would be remiss of me to write about marketing to taste and to not mention the Pepsi Challenge. The taste test was a marketing master class. Pepsi were losing the battle against Coca Cola for market share and more importantly the hearts and minds of the consumers. Pepsi realised that the sweetness of Pepsi meant that consumer’s preferred Pepsi to Coca Cola after the initial taste. Pepsi rolled out a global blind taste test pitting Pepsi directly against Coca Cola. This campaign proved to be effective in changing the perception that Coca Cola tasted better than Pepsi. However, there are critics of the ‘taste test’ that point out that Pepsi may be superior in a sip due to the sweetness of the beverage but over the course of a whole can, Pepsi can be too sweet and thus inferior to Coca Cola. Whatever way you look at it, Pepsi demonstrated how to market purely and simply to taste.

Supermarket taste testing’s are an obvious marketing ploy to target the taste sense as the consumer is looking to purchase. By offering free tasting’s the product being tested is able to maximize the net of tasters. The obvious aim is that they locate impulse buyers for a low involvement purchase decision which leads to the satisfied taster buying the product. Often the taste test is hot food such as sausages, which is designed to appeal to the user’s olfactory senses as well as taste. I’ve covered in previous posts on this blog how hungry shoppers are more likely to spend more money in a supermarket which is exactly what the free sample is designed to achieve.

Wine is a more complex purchase for most consumer’s as the quality of the wine can vary greatly between regions, vintages and many other variables. Due to the many variables, there are many different competitors in the wine product group. Coupled with the cost of wine, it is hard for marketers to make their brand stand out. Many of these barriers can be overcome by providing a taste test, in order to satisfy the consumer. E.g. if a certain brand of wine decides it needs to drop the price of the wine to increase sales, it may choose to use taste testing’s to reassure the consumer that they are purchasing a quality wine. This technique is used effectively in alcohol shops but also at the vineyard themselves. Vineyards have an upper hand in the sense that they can produce a wide array of wines to hone into a wine that fits your taste buds. When they find the wine that satisfies your taste buds you feel compelled to purchase the bottle or multiple bottles. Vineyards can also produce foods such as figs, jams and jellies etc to maximize the sale. You could say that after a few samples the consumer’s inhibitions may have been lowered which will also help to maximise the sale.

Taste testing is most successful when the product is on hand to be purchased immediately after. The marketer needs to pique an interest from the consumer and then capitalise on it, if the consumer is given time to walk around and then come back, sales will drop off significantly.

When tasting, it is best to do so blind, blind to the marketing spin and packaging.

Arron Child

* Courtesy of The Rose Lover Blog

Why would marketers target my nostrils?

Marketers are hoping that they are able to change your state of mind or mood and thus affect your buying behavior. It may seem trivial to you, inconsequential marketing and to be honest, the effectiveness of this form of marketing is not guaranteed, but companies are spending large sums of money investing in this area. The second reason is that some companies are intending to become associated with a particular smell and to use it as a signature so to speak. This is unique and quite innovative.

A famous example of the effectiveness of marketing is described by MP Mueller:

‘A study conducted by the Smell & Taste Research Foundation evaluated the effects of odors on product perception. One of the tests consisted of placing Nike sneakers in two different rooms, one with unscented air, the other scented with a mixed floral smell. Most people in the study said they were more likely to buy the shoes, or liked them more, in the scented room. And many said they would pay $10 more for the product in the scented environment.’

You can see why companies are investing in trying to understand this area. People are more likely to purchase an item if a room smells nice, and furthermore, pay more money for the privilege!

Smells can relax a person. As we have discussed previously on this blog, relaxing a person is a technique that shops use to maximize the sale in the hope that the person will shop for a longer period of time and thus purchase more items or be willing to part with money for more expensive items. This is why many casinos are dabbling in scent marketing. Casinos are trying to relax people and/or trigger a memory of happiness in the hope that the person will stay for longer and thus spend more money. Coconut/ Jasmine flavoured scents are rumoured to be the most popular to achieve this. Studies have actually proven that casinos that using scents around slot machines actually increases the revenue earnt by a massive 45%. Coconut is often used as the smell reminds people of an exotic holiday they once had.

When I was at school and worked in the supermarket, I used to be in charge of baking fresh blueberry bagels and bread. Supermarkets now regularly cook rotisserie chicken as well and sell hot food that can be consumed on the spot. The objective is twofold, increase point of sale purchases. The overall objective is really to make the consumer hungry and thus have the consumer buy more food than expected (it’s well documented that consumer’s spend more money when hungry).

Perhaps you have been to an open home and smelt freshly baked cookies and/or coffee? Yes, real estate agents use odour marketing too. Real estate agents are trying to trigger happy memories, such as eating cookies or drinking coffee. However, the real estate agent is inviting you to imagine living in the house and partaking in such activities. Half the battle is won by the real estate agent if they are able to have the viewer imagining themselves living in a house.

It’s interesting as well that some smells can shape your impression of a store. If a company has a very nice aroma that is very strong you are likely to wonder what they are trying to hide with this aroma, which creates a negative impression in your mind. It’s the same with food outlets that smell of grease and oil. Smelling like food and oil reminds the consumer of the unhealthiness of the food and helps create the stigma that fast food is bad for the consumer. Studies have revealed that consumer’s used to associate McDonald’s with the smell of stale oil. McDonald’s needed to eradicate this smell in their quest for being perceived as a restaurant and possessing healthy alternatives- perhaps that is also a key reason that McDonald’s now have café’s that make fresh coffee.

Be alert next time you stop to smell the roses…

Arron Child

We all know the fable of the Pied Piper, depending on what version you subscribe to either children or rats were lured away by the Pied Piper. Well stores are using the Pied Piper technique to lure you in.

* Courtesy of Fan Zone

Supermarkets are able to use music to speed up or slow down your shopping time depending on the store’s need. Supermarket’s will generally play faster music during peak hours, to encourage shoppers to shop faster and thus preventing excessive queuing- which leads to customer dissatisfaction. Outside of peak hour times, supermarkets will generally play slower music. Slower music relaxes the customer’s and encourages them to spend more time in the store. Supermarkets have a multitude of techniques designed to stimulate the senses and impulses of the shopper. Thus, the longer they are able to have a person shopping in their store, the greater the chance the supermarket has of maximising the sale.

If auditory stimulation works for supermarkets, surely this will work in other shopping situations?

Clothing stores also call people into their store like the Pied Piper. Shopping for clothing is generally an image conscious decision as the clothing one wears communicates the brand of the person. Clothing shops are able to appeal to certain images by the music they play but there is also a science behind it. Naturally, people will be more inclined to visit a store that seems relevant to them and music plays a large part in this. Stores can also use music to repel other demographics, e.g. if a store wants to present itself as young and hip, they can play dance music that will appeal to this demographic but will perhaps drive away other demographics from their store.

Music is used to alter the mood of the shopper. Dance music is used to speed up the blood pressure of the shopper and thus increase the adrenalin. The music is generally used by the target demographic on a night out or in a relaxing environment and thus can trigger positive memories for the shopper. The environment that the demographic listen to the music in, a night club for example, is a place associated with freedom and lowering inhibitions. Lowering inhibitions can help to decrease resistance to spending and price. Shopping in these situations can be about lifestyle and thus more clothing may be purchased or clothing that is not necessarily required as the shopper is able to justify the purchase in their mind- enabling the clothing store is able to maximize the sale.

The brand that certain music projects is also a powerful attraction for people that fall outside the immediate target market. Music will attract persons that want to be part of a demographic but aren’t, for example an older demographic. An older customer may wish to appear more youthful and thus the music transports them back to memories of their younger years and alert them to the store that understands the youthful fashion. Thus music is able to extend the lifecycle of the clothing range and broaden the target demographic.

Next time you go shopping, keep one ear out for the Pied Piper but also the other ear closed!

Good luck

Arron Child

* Courtesy of The Old Charm GuestHouse

When it comes to making money, we know that the house always wins. It’s not just the tables that make sure that casinos are able to maximize money collected. Casinos ensure that the carpets are dizzying patterns and that the slot machines have bright colours. Why you ask? Casinos are endeavoring to ensure that you are attracted to the slot machines like a moth to a light, so that you spend the maximum amount of money during your stay. There is no natural sunlight in a casino as this is designed to disorientate the player from understanding how long they have been playing for. Have you ever heard the stories about the person that wins big at the Casino and then receives a complimentary stay in a great hotel suite- well the purpose is obviously so that the Casino can win back their money and it works!

I’ve written on this blog before about the way McDonald’s use the colours to trigger an emotional response designed to create hunger, so I’m not going to delve into colours on this one. I want to explain the reasoning behind ‘What you see is what you get’ from a retailers perspective. The formula in the supermarkets is that ‘eye level = buy level’. All the expensive items in a supermarket are stocked at eye level, with the cheapest products being at the bottom. Most of the special promotions 2 for 1 etc. are also conveniently at eye level. Items in a supermarket are generally a low involvement purchase and thus when an impulse is triggered, a decision is usually made on a product. A low involvement purchase means that consumers won’t spend too much time analyzing alternatives. If you want to save money, look further down the bottom of the shelves. Promotions are usually in bright red so that you can’t miss them. Promotions maximize your expenditure as they entice you to purchase more than you need, people will always reason that they are making a saving by preparing for the future. More often than not, you will actually purchase items you don’t need and never had any intention of purchasing, all in the name of saving money, ironically!

That also brings me to my next point… perception is everything. The most expensive items on the shelf always have the most visually appealing packaging. They need to have a nice package to justify the increased expense right? It represents quality? Well, yes it does but the cost of the pretty little package is always passed on to you. Do a blind taste test on a No Frills product against one in a pretty package and draw your own conclusions.

Perception can also be altered to increase your personal brand. Katie Price released lingerie this year and instead of hiring Victoria’s Secret models she opted to use ‘real women’ as they are the people that will be purchasing the product. This occurred for two reasons;

a)      The use of real models, illustrates that Katie Price understands the needs of her target market, creating the perception that Katie is a real person just like them.

b)      When Katie price stepped out amongst the ‘real women’ modeling her lingerie, she appeared to be the most beautiful lady in the room.

She has covered all bases with this. She has appealed to the masses as understanding them and then she has created an aspirational appeal for the consumer, a ‘purchase this and you can look beautiful like me’ appeal.

Visual stimulation isn’t always what you can see.. it’s about what you can imagine. With high involvement purchases, a successful sales person will ask the purchaser to imagine. Imagine your kids playing in the back yard, imagine cruising down the high way the top down in this convertible on a warm sunny day. Imagine, that you have already bought it. Once the purchaser has imagined purchasing the item, and the great new life they will have with it, it is a stark reality without it. Price has now become secondary. This technique is very similar to the Puppy dog sales technique that I have discussed on this blog.

I’ll leave you in the words of Bob Marley:

‘ Not all that glitters is gold/ half the story has never been told’.

Arron Child 

‘Consumers are quite funny people. They are attracted by a lead-in price, such as £39.99 but when they arrive at the point of sale and see the upmarket model for £49.99, human nature makes them enquire about the better model.’

We are all used to the McDonald’s upsell, ‘Would you like fries with that’ so surely those sales techniques don’t still work do they?

The truth is, all shopping stores are experts at selling, and more importantly, selling more than we expect to buy. Stores are able to pique our interest by appealing to our senses; auditory, visual, olfactory, taste and touch.

Every week I will cover off how stores market to our senses in order to maximize their sales…..

Stay tuned, you might even learn to save money…

Arron Child

* Courtesy of Rob’s Rantings

Let’s look at the situation in England at the moment. Housing estates in London were threatened to be closed down, to be turned into paid accommodation. If that doesn’t illustrate what situation the economy is in, I think the next point really does. Drug addicts are being offered money to become sterilized. Both of these issues are purely financially driven. Drug addicts cost time, they cost resources and the bottom line is, in times like these tax payers care about jobs and scrutinize how their tax paying pounds are spent.

You can read all kinds of horror stories about the deficit like the 400,000 public sector jobs set to disappear by 2014 (initial figures only- usually figures are worst) and understand why a lot of companies are refusing to spend. Vodafone are different. I have mentioned on this blog previously that companies that invest in their communities, especially during times of struggle are rewarded. Well, Vodafone are paying 500 people to work two months each for a UK based charity. That is, Vodafone are paying for 1,000 months of charitable work to be conducted in the UK- a huge number.

Vodafone are paying people to work for charity, in this climate?

Yes, they are and it is for two reasons;

a)      They are committed to supporting charities and re-investing in their communities

b)      It creates a lot of goodwill for the brand and increases the brand exposure which is important when creating brand loyal customers.

To the first point, Vodafone are helping out up to 500 different charities, which is always much needed work. Given the economic climate at the moment (pictures in the newspaper with people holding signs reading ‘Employ Me, I’ll do anything’) this campaign by Vodafone will add a much needed boost to the UK economy as well. Reducing the unemployment rate reduces the benefits paid out by the government. Furthermore, increased employment increases the number of people spending money purchasing goods, albeit if only for 2 months. This point really leads into the second reason for this campaign.

The point is, yes, Vodafone want to support various charities and have good intentions, but they will be rewarded for it. I am not criticizing Vodafone at all, I think it is great what they are doing. With that in mind, this campaign will generate a lot of great PR coverage for the company. Firstly, Vodafone are seeking applicants for these 500 roles. I am anticipating a very high response given the desperation for employment. Imagine the elation felt by someone who has suffered from unemployment for 12 months and now has a job, thanks to Vodafone. It won’t be quickly forgotten. This is the kind of story that journalists would be interested in writing about as Vodafone aren’t selling a product and are assisting society. This kind of story is great for people that are using Vodafone, as it can make them feel like they are indirectly supporting these charities and thus feel a sense of achievement. It could also sway persons trying to decide what phone carrier to use, to try Vodafone. Most companies support charities, some of it is well published and some of it isn’t. This Vodafone campaign will receive coverage and because they aren’t directly selling anything, may have people more inclined to talk about it which brings us to the marketing vehicles…

Vodafone are using a lot of outdoor advertising at the moment, advertising on buses, at train stations etc. They could have easily have done a tv commercial, but I think they chose outdoor advertising to have people talking about it, rather than Vodafone talking to the consumer. TV is interruptive marketing, whereby you are forced to stop what you are doing to see the advert. Alternatively, outdoor advertising is interactive marketing, whereby the consumer chooses whether or not to read the advert – only one sense is stimulated, sight. The disadvantage of outdoor advertising combined with driving people to a website is that many people will not be driven to and/or will forget to visit the website later. A person seeing the ad and interested in it, can’t always access the website then and there. However, this is somewhat negated by the desperation of the workforce at present and that the campaign is run like a competition. People love a competition, Survivor, X Factor, Big brother etc.. and one of Australia’s greatest tourism coup’s ‘Greatest job in the world campaign’. The great thing about a competition is that people will remind themselves to enter. Every entry is from a person that has received positive brand exposure from Vodafone’s point of view. It would be even better for Vodafone if they received very creative entries via You Tube or Facebook, which would help to make the campaign viral. I am sure they will maximize social media by communicating progress in narrowing down winners and having the winners communicate via these channels about how they were positively impacting their charities.

Arron Child

* Image courtesy of Westword Blog

The goal of marketing is simple, reach as many prospective customer’s as possible as many times as you can. How do you get there? Well, that’s like asking how long is a piece of string? There are as many ways as there are to skin a cat.

Often people say there are 3 key things to getting your message across; tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them and then  tell them again. Reaching the dark arts are where the dark arts marketers come out to play.

To begin with, ‘roaching’ is a spell weaved by dark arts marketers to manipulate the minds of unsuspecting ‘muggles’. Would be actors are paid to go onto buses, tubes and trains to discuss a certain product. The key for this is for the actors to havea normal conversation and then start discussing the product.  Unsuspecting eaves droppers would hear people raving about the product and may be tempted to try the product as a result. Doesn’t sound too bad? Who would notice anyway? This is manipulative as it is still a paid advertisement, however, it is disguised as two different consumer’s opinions.

And then came the iPod, which would largely negate any ‘roaching’ practices. As is the case with Harry Potter, the longer time marches on, the stronger Voldermort becomes. This time the battle ground was changed but the usual suspects were still involved. Would be models and actors were employed to hang out in clubs and bars. When approached by men, ‘ Can I please buy you a drink?’, the actors then ask for only one brand/ drink in particular. This has a couple of implications; importantly it increases sales in the short term. Secondly, it makes the drink appear popular. Other women may seethe drink and the girl ordering it and the attention that she is receiving and order the same. Men buying this drink may also purchase this drink to impress other women. Manipulative,  check. Subliminal, check. Increasing profits, check.

To quote usual suspects ‘The greatest trick the devil ever played, was convincing the world he didn’t exist’. Well, marketer’s can do this too, and you would be none the wiser. I learnt this marketing technique at university. My university professor taught me how he would use PR to further his client’s objectives at the detriment of his competitor’s. The way he would go about it is by calling someone in the press and telling them that he had heard that his competitor’s product was faulty and caused serious health concerns for consumers. The press contacts would write up a little article in their respective mediums and simply say ‘ an unnamed source …. ‘. Consumer’s today have an insatiable appetite for instantaneous news, as a result of a digital revolution. This insatiable appetite has led to Gen Y being called the ‘2 minute noodle generation’ as they want news but without the substance. This thirst for knowledge has resulted in articles being published without sources being checked, David Beckham could tell you all about this. David Beckham understands the power of the media. Along with suing for damages, David Beckham has also demanded a Full page apology be written to him and his family in the event that he wins this case. It is the media that wins the hearts and minds of the public.

Don’t believe in the power of subliminal marketing? Watch this clip from Derren Brown

‘Expelliarmus’.

Arron Child

Seth Godin’s ‘Unleashing the Ideavirus’ was cleverly released as a pdf file that was small enough to be emailed to other people. Seth Godin actively encouraged people to download the book and to share it with others, for free. ‘Unleashing the Ideavirus’ became the most downloaded e-book ever, with over 1 million downloads. The book then went on to become an Amazon bestseller.

So if it’s free why did people buy it?

Firstly, Seth Godin broke the mould by allowing people to share and download his hard work for free (remember the year 2000 was around the time that Napster got prosecuted), this would explain the popularity of the book. Some of these people may have bought the hard copy in order to support this novel approach to business, but not all of them. The e- book effectively acts as a free sample. People are more likely to download the book as it’s free. People are more likely to share the book because it’s free and also because it actually is a very good book. Furthermore, because the book is recommended by a friend or acquaintance, the recipient is more likely to read the book and so the cycle continues!.  Secondly, there was no iPhone, no Kindle to read these books on, so the person that downloaded it had to read this on their computer, or to print off 197 pages. A hard copy of the book would allow the person to read the book anywhere and the presentation would be nicer. Genius!

If you can make money from a book that was free, surely you can make money with some free fudge? On my way past Windsor castle to the train station there is a tiny fudge shop. An extroverted man stands outside the fudge shop with a paddle pop waving pedestrian’s into the fudge shop to try a free sample. Inevitably persons are herded in like sheep to a slaughter and more often than not leave with a purchase of fudge. The fudge is freshly made and to a high quality so this tactic works. Furthermore, it’s a low involvement purchase that relies upon impulse buying. This tactic is also used by café’s with a hot pizza slice on a cold day etc.

Above we see that the free sample is used to stop the customer dead in their tracks and then to induce a sale. Free samples can also be used to sell a high involvement purchase or a service in order to get the sale over the line. For a high involvement purchase like a car, the free sample comes in the form of a test drive. The test drive relies on the puppy dog sales technique. Imagine I provide you with a puppy, ask you to name it, feed it, wash it, play with it and then after a week I ask for it back. Too late, you have bonded and have incorporate the puppy into your lifestyle. The test drive of a car hopes to do the same thing, with you envisaging your life with the new car. Services are effectively selling a promise. One of the best ways to showcase the service on offer is through a free limited trial, depending on the service. Again, the trial is used to negate apprehension from the consumer’s behalf in order to induce a sale.

What about those restaurants that provide free mints and chocolates as they hand you the bill, surely that’s free? Well, guess again. Studies have actually proven that the chocolates provided with the bill actually lead to a higher tip as the customer feels they have received something for free and thus are more generous with their tip.

Proverbs stand the test of time for a reason….

There is no such thing as a free lunch

Arron Child