Monty Pythons Free Thinking

As a general rule I do not condone giving your talent or your ideas away for free BUT...(Important mental note: the word 'but', effectively means 'disregard everything I said before the word but.... because this is what I really want to say...') giving away free stuff can be one of the smartest business decisions you ever make - just ask the team from Monty Python.

A few years back, the Monty Python team decided to stop suing people for putting their content on YouTube. Instead, brilliantly, they made their own YouTube Channel, which offered high-quality versions of the same content. The downloads were free and they included a link to 'buy the dvd'.

The result? Sales went up 23,000 per cent. Now in anyones book, that is an impressive figure. Do the math - if they only sold 100 videos a year for $10 each previously - a 23,000% increase equates to a $23,000,000 increase. Nice. (See attached FREE video for a giggle)

The key to free, is that the decision to 'Give Away Free Stuff' should be as part of a clear marketing strategy not a knee jerk reaction to a poor sales month.

And there are good reasons to consider doing so, (particularly for retail):

1)  Positive Brand Association - A freebie is good PR. Everyone loves getting something for nothing. That 'good feeling' is transferred to your brand and stays with them the next time the have a purchase decision to make.

2)  Free Stuff gets people talking - Good news travels fast - and with a little push from social media and a 'good experience' gains momentum.

3) Risk Free Experience - A free experience is a risk free experience, so potential customers are more likely to try a new product or service if there's no risk attached. So a good brand will gain market share by allowing people to 'get a taste of how different or better you can be'

4) Appreciation & Forgiveness - A freebie can be a great way to say Thank you or We are sorry. It's always nice to be appreciated and people are more forgiving when they realise that you understand that the experience they had may not have been your best. Everyone makes mistakes - acknowledgment and a gift not only goes a long way to reconciliation it also builds your brands integrity. After-all it's not everyday you get an opportunity to don your white armour and prove how good you really can be.

So it comes as no surprise that as customers:

–  We would rather gain than lose,
–  We appreciate honesty and empathy,
–  We feel good about good deeds and
–  We don't like risk.

Finally, here some free facts courtesy of Time. An article in the Journal of Marketing found that:

•  People who received a product for free, talked about it 20% more.
•  Getting a freebie related to the product prompted them to talk about it 15% more,
•  While coupons and rebates didn’t make a difference.
•  In a recent study; Where people have a choice of getting 33% more or 33% off the regular price. More people picked getting more, even though the discount is a better deal in terms of how much the coffee costs per ounce.