Value Add, Free, Or a Hidden Cost?
What is your value add? Many businesses strive to deliver products or services that claim to have a significant value added. Does this cost the business or is it more of a goodwill intangible kind of value?
You may suggest that it depends.
It depends on if the value add is a tangible item or not. It might also depend on if the value add is service on a product, or a product offered with a service.
Economies today are experiencing a shift in marketing approaches. The concept of free has never been more prevalent.
Join the free webinar, get a free order of French Fries, or signup now for a free t-shirt.
It may cost nothing for a business to add your name to their email distribution list. If they add your name to their postal mail, there may be hard costs.
If you join in the free webinar, are you a potential customer or are you the product? If a popular webinar gains more and more followers for free, how is the cost of the webinar being paid for? (You just might be the product.)
Are you paying for value add? Does free stuff cost?
Value Add
Consumers are often paying for things that they don’t realize.
Free technical support feels good, but most people quickly realize that is part of the cost of the product.
What would the product cost if technical support was only found on YouTube? YouTube videos created by people at their own expense?
Is that a value add to you? Or is it a really clever way for the product developers to achieve more margin?
Value add and the concept of free has never had more hooks. It’s an intricate web of people, technology, and pyramid style events (different from illegal scheme) that shifts the costs and the benefits of value add.
Some things in life might be free, but the odds are that it is costing someone.
Someone might just be you.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
