Martin Lindstrom Proves Free Stuff Delights Customers

Martin Lindstrom has proven scientifically that giving away free stuff helps to surprize and delight customers – and win over new customers.

SAB gets this. Last week I was standing in the queue at a local liquor store waiting to get some drinks. The guy in front was busy paying for his six pack of some other beer. A SAB rep, who was in the store at the time, surprized the client by giving him a six pack of Castle Draught – “Here, why don’t you try this? It’s on the house”…

The customer’s surprize and delight was clear – and it was contagious – smiles all round from the other people in the queue as well!

Evidently such a simple gesture can go a long way.

Martin Lindstrom’s neuro-scientific marketing research has proven why. When consumers get free stuff an unconscious response in the lateral prefrontal cortex of the brain is triggered – the area that generates emotion.

And this trigger response is worth mega bucks.

Just take Apple for example. Apple took the legendary Gillette strategy to a whole new level – the razor and the blades are free – i.e. free app, free game … You only pay when you want to be recognised as a gamer that has liberated the cute creatures. It is estimated that 65% of the revenue generated in the iTunes store comes from free games.

Not convinced?

That’s an estimated mind-boggling $ 2 billion per year!

Some more food for thought – how 2 cents impacts sales by 222%

And free stuff is not all – Martin has studied the psychology behind the sweet spots of pricing.  A Chicago grocery store dropped the price of margarine from 89 cents to 71 cents – sales improved by 65%. When they dropped the price by just 2 more cents to 69 cents, sales jumped by 222%!

Take away the $ sign and your customers will spend more

So couple this with his other research which shows that stores who mark their goods with a $ or R or £ sign are creating a very unpleasant emotional response – one linked to our consumers purses/ wallets leading us to believe that the item in question is more expensive than it actually is.