free marketing in long tail world

8.8.2009 Source: BarCampRDUBrainstrom

1

Free?


2

Free: Profit Killer, Inevitable, Necessary or All of the Above

• Long Tail

• New Altruism

• Citizen Marketer

• Free To You

• Freemium = Few Pay

• Attention = New Money

• Monetizing Twitter

• Cool = Normal

• Ideas = Purple

• Sticky memes and emergence

• Crossing The ChasmCover Art: Shepard FaireyObeyGiant.com


3

head

tail

Long Tail by Chris Anderson


4

Long Tail

• Chris Anderson’s Long Tail.• 80% anything controlled by 20% of

set.• Also known as Pareto Distribution • Long tail concept applied to many

things:– Long Tail of Search

– Long Tail of Links

– Long Tail of Voters

• Long Tail = Repeatable Fractal– Repeats as set is reduced in size

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal


5

Free

• Experiencing New Altruism? – NonZero by Wright– Mind of the Market by

Shermer– Neuroeconomics = new

concept = why we buy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonzero

http://www.michaelshermer.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroeconomics


6

Citizen Marketer

• Magic 1% contribute.• Contribute for non-monetary

reasons. • People become message.• Hearts and Minds becomes

mission.• Citizen Marketer Book

http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/cm/


7

Free To You

• Free To You - Paid by Others– Advertising (Google, Facebook,

radio, Free TV)– Sponsorships (niche magazines)

• Free Markets tend to identify BIG winners – Google share 70%+– FREE can destroy markets

• CraigsList = free classifieds• Free Classifieds =

newspapers not profitable• Newspapers close


8

Freemium = Few Pay

• Some models are free to most.

• Premium version paid for by some:– Martin LinkedIn– Martin LibraryThing – Flickr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/martysmith1980vc

http://www.librarything.com/home/martinsellingzoe

http://www.flickr.com/


9

How Can Twitter Make Money?

• Two battles– Attention

– Money

• Without Attention (customers) money is moot.

• With attention able to monetize– Must be consistent with

community

– Advertising or Sell Company

http://www.twitter.com/scenttrail


10

Attention is New Money

• Attention economies = different– All basic goods = created– Quality = better than good

enough– Attention = new currency

• Reputation is also money– Reviews of everything

now everywhere

http://books.google.com/books?id=j6z-MiUKgosC&dq=attention+economy+book&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=9LN_Ss7GHpbKtge02qX4AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=attention%20economy%20book&f=false


11

Cool = New Normal

• iPod,iPhone = instant wins

• Design Matters• Business & Art merge

– Ideo

http://www.ideo.com/


12

Is idea Purple?

• Only create “purple” products.

• Read Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

http://www.sethgodin.com/purple/


13

Will Idea or Product Stick?

• Made to Stick• Memes transmit like

biology• Emergence

– Bottom up not top down– No centralized control

http://www.madetostick.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memes


14

Emergence

• Study nature for emergence– Ants– Bees– Birds

• Books by E. O Wilson


15

Product Development Lifecycle

• Product lifecycle ties to Long Tail• Top of bell curve = Head• Either side = Tail

Crossing Chasm


16

Long Tail

Crossing Chasm

Product Development Lifecycle

free marketing in long tail world

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