Question 5: PWYW vs free sampling

Do you think that "PWYW" is an alternative for free sampling? What benefits could the company achieve by that?

PWYW is definitely a alternative to free samples. It is relatively new and it attracts consumers’ attention. Moreover customers pay for what they get, even if it’s not enough, something is better than nothing.

I don't really agree with you on this point. I think that PWYW and free sampling are two different concepts. As it says free sampling are about samples not about a product on its whole. In my opinion, free sampling is about testing different things and PWYW is about purchasing something you want or need. With free sampling a company’s goal is more to promote a particular product and make it known among consumers. For ex, when you purchase a perfume (in Belgium at least), you always receive samples of other perfumes just as a way to promote them. So event if you havent ask for samples, you receive some. It's a passive concept according to me while PWYW is more active.

There is only one small idea. If you get a sample, you do not bother to think about it that much and you do not care what will happen to it later. Maybe you will try it, maybe not. It just does not bother your head.

And this might happen also to PWYW products. you get something for free but are supposed to pay for it later. The amount you think it is worth. Will you really do it? I guess that most of the people will be postponing this task until they will forget about it. At least I guess that this would happen to me...

I agree that the two concept are very different but in my opinion they have the same goal, attracting new customers. One of both strategies might be better for one type of product, like as you said it's a good idea to give samples for fragrances. Yet, if you wanna promote a restaurant or a new hotel it seems more difficult to promote the launch with free samples...

With PWYW you're not always supposed to pay later. There is that example of cinema tickets in the article, you have to pay before watching the movie

betul_batik wrote:I don't really agree with you on this point. I think that PWYW and free sampling are two different concepts. As it says free sampling are about samples not about a product on its whole. In my opinion, free sampling is about testing different things and PWYW is about purchasing something you want or need. With free sampling a company’s goal is more to promote a particular product and make it known among consumers. For ex, when you purchase a perfume (in Belgium at least), you always receive samples of other perfumes just as a way to promote them. So event if you havent ask for samples, you receive some. It's a passive concept according to me while PWYW is more active.

PWYW and free sampling in themselves are beyond all question two different concepts. I think the key word of this question is "alternative." I totally agree that PWYW is a very good subsitute for free sampling.

Becasue it can help the marketing people to decide how much they should charge for the upcoming new product. But, in my point of view, instead of receiving a substantial dollars, the marketing people can ask the questionees to write down the internal price they perceived for the product or service. This method is similar to "free sampling with questionnaires", but it seems to be more innovative to the questionees.

Aurélie_Thiran wrote:I agree that the two concept are very different but in my opinion they have the same goal, attracting new customers. One of both strategies might be better for one type of product, like as you said it's a good idea to give samples for fragrances. Yet, if you wanna promote a restaurant or a new hotel it seems more difficult to promote the launch with free samples...

I don't agree that PWYW is really about promoting a restaurant/business: it's the case in the paper, but that owes more to the novelty of the concept. If it's adopted as a Long-term pricing mechanism, the novelty wears off.
Free samples are clearly not to make money, just promote the product, but PWYW is a clear strategy aimed at increasing margins. Of course sometimes it doesn't work, due to the type of customers or products... but the objective is to become profitable.
I can easily imagine a business combining the 2 ideas: providing free samples to attract customers, who will then be ready to pay a higher price cos they know the product.

PWYW and free samplings can be seen as an alternative if we are talking about launching a new products.
But if you want to see PWYW as a during business model they are really different things... Radiohead is a good example : they wanted to try a new way of distributing music and I think they didn't see it as an alternative to free sampling but more as a alternative to physical CDs or iTunes.
And if you want to launch a restaurant based on the PWYW model it will be really different from free sampling as well.

@TA: If you do so, it is possible that someone has to pay much more (no PWYW strategy) than what he just wrote on the questionnaire. I wouldn't like that situation

TA_Max_Huang wrote:

betul_batik wrote:I don't really agree with you on this point. I think that PWYW and free sampling are two different concepts. As it says free sampling are about samples not about a product on its whole. In my opinion, free sampling is about testing different things and PWYW is about purchasing something you want or need. With free sampling a company’s goal is more to promote a particular product and make it known among consumers. For ex, when you purchase a perfume (in Belgium at least), you always receive samples of other perfumes just as a way to promote them. So event if you havent ask for samples, you receive some. It's a passive concept according to me while PWYW is more active.

PWYW and free sampling in themselves are beyond all question two different concepts. I think the key word of this question is "alternative." I totally agree that PWYW is a very good subsitute for free sampling.

Becasue it can help the marketing people to decide how much they should charge for the upcoming new product. But, in my point of view, instead of receiving a substantial dollars, the marketing people can ask the questionees to write down the internal price they perceived for the product or service. This method is similar to "free sampling with questionnaires", but it seems to be more innovative to the questionees.

I think that they are used in two different concepts. They meet two different demands. With free sampling you're not even sure people will try them. For ex, I never use the perfume samples I receive because I like my perfume and I dont want to change it at all. With a PWYW strategy, in most cases, people are interested in the product they purchase. Either they need/want it or they want to try it but at least they are concerned with the product. Another example comes to my mind. In supermarkets, sometimes they give free samples of products so that you can taste them. Most of the time you taste them just for fun or because you want a snack.

For ex, I like a few songs of Radiohead but I'm not really into their music. I knew about their PWYW strategy but I didnt purchase their album even if I could have got it for free...

PWYW and free sampling in themselves are beyond all question two different concepts. I think the key word of this question is "alternative." I totally agree that PWYW is a very good subsitute for free sampling."

To be substitute they should meet the same needs, demands. The consumer's satisfaction should remain the same. And in my opinion it is not.
They should be alternative ways for sellers to sell their products. It's not. Free sampling is more about promoting completely new products to consumers. PWYW is selling things people would certainly purchase even if their was another pricing model.

but if your goal is to promote a product than both strategies could be used, isn't it?

In my opinion,
free sampling is not a business model or concept, it's just a marketing strategy, whereas PWYW is a strategy to make business.

Free samples can't substitute a PWYW strategy, but PWYW can be a part of marketing.

I agree that free samples and pwyw are two different concepts. As said Betul with her nice perfume, i would try new songs just if friend of mine told me to listen to it, or send me the song. There are so many singers and bands that it is really hard to know where to look for to get good songs. In this way, the PWYW strategy can be really good.
Then, for free samples, it is just to get a first taste of something we do not know, and could be really interesting just if it is smart free samples, like we could enter some songs we like, and the program is going to look for same songs. People using it are not the same customers as the pwyw.

I think PWYW strategy can be an alternative for free sampling, but not for all cases. For example, in the perfume example I agree that it won't work well, because the point of giving a small sample of the whole product is that consumers will have the opportunity to test the product and encourage them to buy the full product. Obviously it would seem strange to ask people to pay for a perfume sample. And this it true in my opinion for most of the tangible products.

However, for the service industry or digital products (music, movies etc.) I think the case is different, because usually a sample means trying the whole product, or in a case where you only try a part of the product (e.g. one song from a whole album), you might miss some of the experience of listening to the whole album or watching the whole movie. So, in this case, PWYW could be an alternative to free samples because this way consumers get a real product (not just a small sample), and pay what they feel it is worth for them. This could also help the sellers to estimate the real value of the product and what would be the appropriate price for it later on.

To add to discussion, I would say that the two are different, yet they can be used to achieve similar goals, ex, marketing a new product to find the most suitable price to charge to optimize revenue. In this scenario, PWYW indeed can be use to replace free sampling. The company can receive some revenue by using PWYW strategy and at the same time market his new product or service, rather than giving free samples which would be costly to the company. Also, PWYW allows the company to determine the reservation price of consumers, ie what they are willing to pay for goods/services and can use this information for future pricing decisions.

I agree with Schule' idea that PWYW as a marketing strategy. I think it might be especially good for information goods, because the publisher do not have to deal with the storage of physical products. In stead, online download could increase visibility of the product and may extend the border of the existing market.

i think the PWYW method is better designed for the short term, after a while the novelty of the concept is not as attractive as at the beginning. Besides, i don't think free samples and PWYW are alternatives.
The goal of the PWYW is too make money, even if it is not always the case, whereas free sampling is just a promotion tool...plus, we can't define them as alternatives because with free sample, you are not trying the product or service as a whole..

I can't agree with PWYW being an alternative to free samples. On the one hand, you have pay and on the other you have free. How come pay and free are alternatives ? Besides, PWYW and free samples are not focusing on the same products... In a supermarket, I was offered a free sample of chocolate cookies (3 cookies), it would have taken a good marketing campaign to get money from me for that. I would have said "Well, you can keep those, I don't mind". When 3M gave free samples of its post-it, it was to know if someone was interested in them. I don't think the success would have be the same with PWYW method. "You want me to pay ? Then keep it !"

In theory, PWYW can be a substitute for free sampling, but clearly not the other way around. In this case, the goal would be to introduce a new product and perhaps test to see what people would pay. In practice though, the seller would have to be prepared that people will pay nothing for products that were traditionally given away for free, so why not just give it for free in the first place?

In my opinion,the two concept are both part of a marketing stategy , the main difference as many of you said is that thanks to the PWYW the company can earn money rather than giving free samples. THe willingness to pay in the PWYW will be higher because generally the customers is willing to pay if he participate actively in setting the final price rather to accept posted prices.The intent to purchase by giving free sample is quite low because it might be products that customers won't use or don't need. However free sample can be a good alternative in a promotion strategy but it depends as naomi said on what products

I think that the important factor to consider is whether the company is implementing PWYW for long term or the strategy of participative pricing has time limits (Radiohead case - 2 months). In case when PWYW strategy is implemented in a short-term period, one of the main purposes is promotion. Then it is legitimate to compare with free sampling, in a sense that this kind of experience will affect your decisions in future.

It is somehow true that free sampling can be a good alternative to PWYW. But don't you think customer can be tempted to eploit PWYW in the bad way (use it all the time and not pay enough) - which wouldn't be so profitable for the company using this method?
Can you think about any ways to avoid such a misuse of the PWYW method?

There are some great ideas!
1. passive sampling vs active PWYW
2. PWYW is only good for business in a short period of time, such as new product promotion

So, I am thinking maybe we can consider PWYW as a means of drawing public attentions, that is, to get more free exposure on media!

We can consider the total cost of products/services used under PWYW conditions as the investment in media exposure. I would say if the products/services are good enough, the total generated media effect, such as free news exposure or free bloggers WOM, by PWYW must be much better then just buying 30" TV Ad.

What do you think?

betul_batik wrote:I don't really agree with you on this point. I think that PWYW and free sampling are two different concepts. As it says free sampling are about samples not about a product on its whole. In my opinion, free sampling is about testing different things and PWYW is about purchasing something you want or need. With free sampling a company’s goal is more to promote a particular product and make it known among consumers. For ex, when you purchase a perfume (in Belgium at least), you always receive samples of other perfumes just as a way to promote them. So event if you havent ask for samples, you receive some. It's a passive concept according to me while PWYW is more active.