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That’s Quotable [Chris Anderson]
Feb262008 Filed under: That's Quotable Author: Tony Morgan"Obviously you don’t want to compete with free. If your economic model
doesn’t let you get to free but your competitor’s does, you’re fighting
a very powerful proposition. If you are selling software and some other
company decides to make that software a free service, Microsoft Office
is going to be more and more competing with online word processors.
That’s a wake-up call for Microsoft."
Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired magazine as quoted in Advertising Age interview (February 25, 2008)
2 Responses to “That’s Quotable [Chris Anderson]”
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Tony Morgan is a pastor and the Chief Strategic Officer at NewSpring Church where he develops creative solutions for communications, technology and NewSpring Ministries--the church's ministry that equips other church leaders.
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Joshua Blankenship
February 26th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Tell that to bottled water companies.
It’s not as black and white as Anderson makes it out to be. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s better, and just because there’s a free version of something doesn’t mean people won’t pay for a better (or at least a perceived better) version of it.
tony morgan
February 26th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Joshua, interesting that you should mention that. Actually, Anderson also addresses that very issue in the article. He says, “We charge $10 [for the magazine subscription] because we don’t want to devalue the product, because that would be sending the wrong message. But from our perspective it’s essentially free.” Charging for something that’s free actually works when people perceive added value.
I think that’s one of the factors that ultimately led to the demise of the Promise Keepers. Remember those big stadium gatherings for men. They used to pack out football stadiums when they charged for the experience. Then, when they became free, men stopped showing up. There were other factors, but I think the pricing issue contributed to the decline.
In case you can’t tell, I love this type of discussion.
tony