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Guest post by: John Clark Become an Author

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In marketing, some people will use fishing analogies to get a point across, so there is, say, a lure that is used in most campaigns in order to hook customers and reel them in. So the idea of giving stuff away for free might seem counter-intuitive to many. With freebies, it's sort of like just tossing the bait out in the ocean and hoping that the fish just hop right into the boat. Incidentally, that's exactly how it works.

Just giving stuff away isn't really the best strategy though. It's what is given away that counts. One of the most common types of free sampling is known as razor-and-blade marketing. This has been used to great effect in the past, with the namesake example being the selling-at-cost or giving away of razors. This seems great, but then the user eventually runs out of fresh blades and needs to go and buy new blades. The user has seen how useful the razor is, and now wants to keep it well stocked.

This method destroys the barrier between a customer and a non-customer.

Another example would be when a video game company releases a new system. It's in their best interest to make sure that everyone in the country has one of these gameboxes in their living room because they make a lot more money on the sales of the games themselves than on the systems. People only buy the system once, but the average gamer might buy three fifty dollar games a month.

Free stuff is all about getting an "in." It brings in the customers, it gives the marketer an "in" to reach them and it breaks down the barriers that keep sales from happening. Think back to the mid-nineties and all those free AOL discs. They were more common than blank discs. That made for some cute jokes, but at the end of the day, AOL guaranteed that everyone in the country had those discs in hand, and even today they remain a dominant force on the service provider scene.

Brand name recognition comes from a brand finding its way into the hearts, minds and homes of the public, and that's where freebie marketing can help.

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Referred by: http://www.saveonquotes.com

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