If a Product is Free, are you the Product? Part 1.
Firstly, thanks to Duncan Ross for inspiring this post (@duncan3ross) about how organisations are using 'Free' products to get data they can monetise for profit. I'll be looking at this from both sides of the fence. In this post, we'll tackle what you, the consumer gets from these 'Free' products.
This way of providing products and services is often called the 'Freemium' model and is one that has become very popular over the last couple of years. Anyone with a smartphone will probably have some free software in the form of apps featuring enraged feathered creatures or links to your favourite social network.
You'll often see adverts pop up in these apps and games which is obviously a way for the developers to make money. However, how do they know which advert is going to appeal most to you?
We'll cover this piece in more detail in the next post. Let's look first at what you get.
Travel
If you've got a smartphone, you'll probably be using something like your Google Account to manage your contacts, email and diary. Obviously, this is all free and very simple.
You may also use services such as TripIt to plan your travel (you simply send confirmation emails to the service or plan them via a smartphone app).
With any service like this, you'll invite friends and colleagues to events and meetings or share where your travelling to. This is useful data for anyone looking at consumer travel habits and social network links!
If you travel a lot in London, you're probably going to have an Oyster card. These little blue pieces of plastic are great for loading your monthly travelcard or 'pre-pay' credit onto. You can even track your usage online if you register it which also helps you report it as lost or stollen.
Shopping
If you're in the UK, open your wallet or purse now. Go on! I promise I won't steal anything!
Ok, now; take out all of your Clubcards, Reward Points cards and so on. How many have you got? You're likely to have at least 3: Tesco, Nectar and Boots.
These are really useful to you. You get discounts, points and money off the things you buy the most. If you shop online too, your common purchases can even be seen there to help save you time. Fantastic! With some of them (like Starbucks) you can load up credit to spend in store as well as using it to collect points. Combined with a smartphone app, this is even easier.
Friends
Right then. Hands up who uses Facebook. Lots of you! Twitter? Plenty. MySpace? "What's MySpace?" I hear you cry! Ok, maybe not MySpace.
We'll all be using some kind of social network to tell people what we're doing, where we're going and who we're going places and doing things with. We'll probably also use it to check in once we get there (if we don't use FourSquare) or tell people what it's like via Twitter.
These services have made it a lot easier to organise nights out, shopping trips and so on. They also allow you to see what your friends like and help you judge whether you may want to go to the same bar or movie as well.
Work
In a similar way to the likes of Facebook, services like LinkedIn allow you to network, socialise and discuss things with business contacts.
This can be combined with interest groups, other apps like TripIt and the sharing of presentations and other information. As an individual, this can really benefit you in finding a job, making a sale or learning about a company.
Games
If you have a smartphone, you'll probably have Angry Birds. How much did you pay for it? Nothing? Good work!
You may also play Farmville on Facebook or other browser-based games in Chrome or Firefox.
We'll cover the benefit for the advertiser / product owner later. However, how can you benefit? Well, plainly you get a great game to use for free without the need in many cases for expensive hardware such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
We'll leave it there for now, next time we'll delve more deeply into what these services and products are actually for and work out whether 'Free' is such a great deal after all.
This way of providing products and services is often called the 'Freemium' model and is one that has become very popular over the last couple of years. Anyone with a smartphone will probably have some free software in the form of apps featuring enraged feathered creatures or links to your favourite social network.
You'll often see adverts pop up in these apps and games which is obviously a way for the developers to make money. However, how do they know which advert is going to appeal most to you?
We'll cover this piece in more detail in the next post. Let's look first at what you get.
Travel
If you've got a smartphone, you'll probably be using something like your Google Account to manage your contacts, email and diary. Obviously, this is all free and very simple.
You may also use services such as TripIt to plan your travel (you simply send confirmation emails to the service or plan them via a smartphone app).
With any service like this, you'll invite friends and colleagues to events and meetings or share where your travelling to. This is useful data for anyone looking at consumer travel habits and social network links!
If you travel a lot in London, you're probably going to have an Oyster card. These little blue pieces of plastic are great for loading your monthly travelcard or 'pre-pay' credit onto. You can even track your usage online if you register it which also helps you report it as lost or stollen.
Shopping
If you're in the UK, open your wallet or purse now. Go on! I promise I won't steal anything!
Ok, now; take out all of your Clubcards, Reward Points cards and so on. How many have you got? You're likely to have at least 3: Tesco, Nectar and Boots.
These are really useful to you. You get discounts, points and money off the things you buy the most. If you shop online too, your common purchases can even be seen there to help save you time. Fantastic! With some of them (like Starbucks) you can load up credit to spend in store as well as using it to collect points. Combined with a smartphone app, this is even easier.
Friends
Right then. Hands up who uses Facebook. Lots of you! Twitter? Plenty. MySpace? "What's MySpace?" I hear you cry! Ok, maybe not MySpace.
We'll all be using some kind of social network to tell people what we're doing, where we're going and who we're going places and doing things with. We'll probably also use it to check in once we get there (if we don't use FourSquare) or tell people what it's like via Twitter.
These services have made it a lot easier to organise nights out, shopping trips and so on. They also allow you to see what your friends like and help you judge whether you may want to go to the same bar or movie as well.
Work
In a similar way to the likes of Facebook, services like LinkedIn allow you to network, socialise and discuss things with business contacts.
This can be combined with interest groups, other apps like TripIt and the sharing of presentations and other information. As an individual, this can really benefit you in finding a job, making a sale or learning about a company.
Games
If you have a smartphone, you'll probably have Angry Birds. How much did you pay for it? Nothing? Good work!
You may also play Farmville on Facebook or other browser-based games in Chrome or Firefox.
We'll cover the benefit for the advertiser / product owner later. However, how can you benefit? Well, plainly you get a great game to use for free without the need in many cases for expensive hardware such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
We'll leave it there for now, next time we'll delve more deeply into what these services and products are actually for and work out whether 'Free' is such a great deal after all.
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