Why ‘free’ will eventually cost you
Modern marketing is taking services and products that used to be free and adding subtle charges for them, argues Andrew Hughes of the Australian National University in a cross-posting from The Conversation.
Remember the days when free really was free? When reading a news article to the end didn’t mean having to get over, around or through a paywall. Or when loyalty schemes actually rewarded loyalty with decent rewards, not “spend $200 get a $20 reward voucher that can only be spent with us”.
The recent suggestion by Australia Post that letter delivery should be slowed unless Australians pay for a “priority service” is the latest signal that what has been considered free or “regular” can easily be bumped up by marketers to “premium”, with the associated cost.
Marketing is changing in response to a new world order in markets. The era of the liquid and dynamic market, as Coke calls it, is here. Markets move quickly. Getting a competitive advantage is becoming more difficult, but so is sustaining old business models that are unable and too rigid to keep up with the pace of change.
Vargo & Lusch’s assertion is a bit dystopian, but the idea of a “subscription” based culture where you pay for what you use without having unlimited access for certain functions (like using a combination of Uber + Public Transport instead of owning a car) seems closer than we think.