Set the infinite components FREE!
Please let me know your T-shirt size and I’ll get one of these out to you right away.
OK, maybe Set the infinite components FREE! won’t end up on a lot of bumper stickers or T-Shirts (wait! maybe now it will.) But understanding and implementing the concepts associated with it can radically change your business. So much so that you could probably afford a new custom made T-shirt (Hey, I’m starting to think there really may be a business here.)
I lifted the phrase from an article at Mike Masnick’s TechDirt blog (read it here.) It’s definitely required reading. The beginning of the article goes into the history of his involvement with the economics of free stuff and the concepts of scare components and infinite components. Towards the end, he applies the principles he has developed to the music industry (although he’s using music just as an example and believes the concepts can be applied to many other things as well.)
Here’s Mike’s example:
- Redefine the market: The benefit is musical enjoyment
- Break the benefits down (not a complete list…): Infinite components: the music itself. Scarce components: access to the musicians, concert tickets, merchandise, creation of new songs, CDs, private concerts, backstage passes, time, anyone’s attention, etc. etc. etc.
- Set the infinite components free: Put them on websites, file sharing networks, BitTorrent, social network sites wherever you can, while promoting the free songs and getting more publicity for the band itself — all of which increases the value for the final step
- Charge for the scarce components: Concert tickets are more valuable. Access to the band is more valuable. Getting the band to write a special song (sponsorship?) is more valuable. Merchandise is more valuable.
Taking those same principles and applying them to books yields a list of possible scarce components: book signings, author lectures, supplemental materials with logo or design criteria consistent with the infinite component, behind the scenes / the making of materials (not so much “I sat in my pajamas and wrote for 8 months” but what were the ideas the influenced the author), author seminars & coaching, etc.
What ideas can you add to the list?
Gary Ward
Topics: FREE! Marketings, Marketing |
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