Giving People A Reason To Buy: Make Buying Fun

from the what-a-concept dept

One of the key points in talking about giving people a real reason to buy is to make it an experience where people want to pay the prices that you're offering. In fact, one of the best to do this has been Josh Freese -- who set up a variety of hilarious options on what people could pay him for additional value beyond his latest album, causing the $250 option to sell out quickly -- and the $20,000 option to sell out as well (there was only one, but still... someone paid $20,000 for it). $20,000 is a lot, even for getting the following:

• Signed CD/DVD and digital download.
• T-shirt
• A signed DW Snare from the 2008 Nine Inch Nails tour.
• Maynard James Keenan, Mark Mothersbaugh from DEVO and I take you miniature golfing and then drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on youtube of course).
• I give you a tour of Long Beach. I'll show ya my first apartment, the coffee shop on 2nd St where my buddy paid Dave Grohl $40 to rip up some tile just weeks before he joined "Nirvana". I'll show you all my old stomping grounds....the Vandals old rehearsal spot, the house Quackenbush and I use to rent, where to go for the best tacos, Snoop Dogg's high school, etc.... for an extra 50 bucks I'll show you where Adrian and Tom from "No Doubt" live. For another $25 I'll throw in Brooks from Bad Religion and Eric from NOFX's houses too! We then spend the night at the Queen Mary and take the "Ghost Tour" (seperate rooms of course.....no spooning).
• I write 2 songs about you (or if you want 1 can be about you and the other one can be about whatever or whomever you'd like) and it goes on my next record (you can sing back up on them, clap, play the drums, triangle solo...whatever you want).
• Drum lesson OR foot and back massage (once again.....couples welcome).
• Pick any 3 items out of my closet.

But, still, the whole thing is fun, and that's a big part of the reason why people find it worth buying. There have even been rumors that some bands are looking at buying the $75,000 option, which would get them lots of attention, and include options like Freese playing on tour with them for a month and recording an entire EP about whatever they want.

But, of course, it's not just in the music business where this works. Reader William Jackson writes in to point to an interesting article of a guy noting that making buying fun works in a range of industries, from software to t-shirts. He describes the process of buying a t-shirt at the T-Shirt Deli, a t-shirt shop that is set up just like a deli, and makes the process of buying a t-shirt like the process of buying a sandwich -- including handing you the final product wrapped up in wax paper with stickers... and including a bag of chips as well.

So, if you're looking for ways to give people a reason to buy -- a good place to start is to make buying your product fun.

Filed Under: fun, josh freese, reason to buy, t-shirts
Companies: t-shirt deli

Microsoft Jumping On The T-Shirt Bandwagon

from the softwear,-not-software dept

For years, critics of this site have made fun of us (incorrectly) by claiming that we're really telling content creators of all kind to bet their business model on selling t-shirts. That, of course, isn't true, but we keep seeing t-shirts show up in odd places -- and recently discovered that the branded t-shirt market is a decent size. Who's the latest to jump in? Apparently Microsoft. Seriously. Ad Age is reporting that Microsoft is coming out with its own clothing line, focusing on the sort of retro-geek/ironic look that's been sort of trendy in the t-shirt space. They're calling it "Softwear" (not software, get it?), and it will even include the infamous Bill Gates' mugshot among other Microsoft-related images from the 80s. And, no, I doubt anyone expects this to be a big money maker, but with so many people actually selling t-shirts and with a bunch of folks in the comments recently requesting t-shirts from us, maybe we should have some fun and offer some up. I'd probably get one that read LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTS of T-shirts.

Filed Under: t-shirts
Companies: microsoft

Turns Out There's Lottttttttssss Of Money To Be Made In T-Shirts

from the who-knew? dept

We've pointed out in the past that folks who don't want to understand the economics of scarce and infinite goods often falsely claim that the business model we suggest is all about selling lots of t-shirts. Or, more specifically, when they comment in a mocking fashion, it's usually something like "lotttttttttttttttttttttsssssssssssssssssss of t-shirts."

The truth is that the business models we've shown usually have little to nothing to do with t-shirts. There are tons of scarcities that have nothing to do with t-shirts, and often aren't even physical goods (another mistake people make is assuming that scarce means physical). Usually we're talking about things like access and attention as valuable scarce goods. However, perhaps we were being a bit too flip in ignoring t-shirts ourselves.

Clive Thompson has a short article over at Wired looking at "the t-shirt economy," noting that it's actually a pretty big business: on the order of $40 billion in branded or decorated apparel (by comparison, the worldwide market for recorded music was supposedly $31.8 billion in 2006), and some of that definitely comes from content providers who are providing content for free and making money selling t-shirts. I still don't think it's the greatest business model out there (despite what some of my critics like to claim I've said), but I have to admit I'm rather amused by the fact that the "t-shirt economy" is actually getting some attention.

Filed Under: economics, infinite goods, scarce goods, t-shirts

Rock Band Video Game Selling T-Shirts Of Fake Bands

from the lotttttts-of-t-shirts dept

When critics of our analysis of the economics of infinite and scarce goods want to mock our ideas or make fun of us, they often fall back on the false claim that the business model we advocate is "give away everything and make it up by selling t-shirts." Or, rather, if they're really in a mocking mood, they usually write "llllllloooooooooooooooooootttts of t-shirts." It's quite amusing, though, of course, it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what we mean by scarce goods.

That said, t-shirts can make up one part of the scarce goods that someone sells, though, it will almost always be a small part of it. And, there's no reason to mock the contribution that selling t-shirts can make as part of a larger business model. Reader Aaron de Oliveira points us to the interesting news that the super popular video game Rock Band is now letting players who have uploaded their own fake rock band logo order t-shirts, keychains and other merchandise from their fake band. As de Oliveira correctly notes, not only does this make some money, but it also makes the gaming experience better, connects fans more closely to the game and their own fake rock band in the game:

The company realizes it's not in the music business or in the t-shirt business. Its business model is the custom experience and it uses music (fun & free or cheap) and t-shirts to improve that experience in such a way that people are willing to pay for it.

Bingo. So go buy llllllooooooooottts of t-shirts to make it work.

Filed Under: business models, economics, infinite goods, rock band, scarce goods, t-shirts, video games

Another 'Free' Business Model Experiment

from the they're-all-over dept

When we discuss the basic economics having to do with infinite goods, sometimes the debates in the comments accuse me of promoting one "business model" over all others. The truth is quite different. The economics at work are fundamental. Price gets driven to marginal cost. The business models that then result, however, are numerous and varied. The key is simply recognizing that the infinite good works as a resource, increasing the value of all sorts of scarce goods. Thus, you release the infinite goods widely, and sell scarce goods that are made more valuable. How you do that can take all different concepts into account. Just in the music space alone we see so many varied models, from Radiohead's name your own price to Trent Reznor's tiered premium model to Jill Sobule's tiered support model to Maria Schneider's fan-supported production model all the way to things like The String Cheese Incident setting up their own travel agency to help fans follow them around for gigs. The key isn't a single business model. In fact, each of these individual business models might not work for any other artist. But all recognize the promotional power of the music in making something else much more valuable.

And we're seeing that show up in totally unexpected places as well. Take, for example, this recent post on Boing Boing about what's happened with a bunch of experimental video games, developed originally as part of a Carnegie Mellon project. Each game was developed in 7 days and many are given away for free. However, now a company has taken those games and made t-shirts (yes, t-shirts) using images from some of the games. Even better, though, is that with each t-shirt, you get a copy of the video game itself, and the shirts are now for sale at Target. In other words, these games are helping to make the t-shirts more valuable, even though the games themselves are free. It's yet another example of understanding the difference between infinite and scarce goods and how to use one to make money from the other.

Filed Under: business models, economics, free, t-shirts, video games
Companies: target