In the days of
brick and mortar stores, people went into book stores to browse, look at books,
magazines and esoteric periodicals from all over the world. Then the E reader
happened. Kindle happened and people were able to download books on their new
reading devices.
As the Kindle became more sophisticated and added features, other competitors, most notably
Apple, jumped into the fray and offered up their version of an E reader with
many more features. It was called the “I
Pad” and sales of this product skyrocketed into the millions.
Now Kindle (a
product of Amazon) has gone to the ultimate marketing route by introducing its “Kindle
Zero.” The cost for this product? ZERO,
Nada, It is Free.
Why would they do this? Simply because you need to buy books and the
only books you can buy, you must get through Amazon. I guess they figure that over the life of the
product’s cost, the consumer will buy enough books not only to pay for the
product but to provide a handsome profit to the company.
But Kindle has
also moved beyond FREE. Those books that you could get for free, as a kindle
subscriber, some 10% of their inventory will now be offered to the Kindle Zero
buyer as will a monetary stipend to read the book.
In
other words, “get a free Kindle Zero, read this book and get paid!” The idea is to sell advertising that would
pop up on these readers’ devices as a way to generate income.
Pretty cool
marketing. Pretty innovative.
Now I am
contemplating whether to offer my consulting services for free, sell advertising
on my electronic marketing system that you have to read and offer you a FIAT
500 when you complete the course.
Is this the wave
of marketing in the future?
What does it mean for your bowling center?
Or for any other
business selling products to consumers?
