Re: Question 5: PWYW vs free sampling

by Edghill_Manuel Mon Nov 02, 2009 11:32 pm

Of course!

As long as "the product" we are talking about here is THE SAMPLE, and not the entire service/complete product.

The company doesn't loose anything while having a lot to gain!

Although Betul makes some good points about the passiveness and activeness between the two techniques, both sampling and PWYW generate the same promoting value (and recently PWYW generates more promotion) but now there is the posibility of making money while promoting the product (which is rare).

They (the company) were going to give "the product" for free anyways, but now they have the option of obtaining some cashflow (in the case that some costumers believe that this sample is worth something) for it.

Rediculously Good Answer

by uroi.salii Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:31 am

Brodie wrote: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?

i would have to agree with brodie on this subject. PWYW can substitute for free sampling. However i feel that PWYW is more of a marketing method while free sampling cannot be a stand alone marketing method, it is just a part of the strategy of creating awareness of the product and allowing more customers to see what they are going to get from purchasing the product.

by kathia Morano Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:50 am

In the case of PWYW, companies expect to receive money from customers. It is called 'pay what you want', so pay something even it's almost nothing. For free samples, companies are not expecting to receive money from them. Companies just give to customers to have a first experience with the product. The way companies decide to launch the product is pretty different; their expectations from customers too.

by luis_guerrero Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:06 am

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

I think is a good alternative, because the seller could obtain some revenues from the selling and can investigate about the willingness of pay of each customer. This strategy can help the company to identify the price at which they should sell their products in the future.

by Chi Fai_Cheng Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:21 am

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

If the goal is to promote the product, PWYW can be seen as an alternate, but not a good one in my view. I believe free sampling would be more effective in promoting.

by BartekWu Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:56 am

I agree with most points of view - that this will be a great way of promoting products. But I just would like to add one more "why".

If this philosophy does not concern a business where it is already present, like restaurants, there is big rumour about it. This creates great marketing possibilities, people are talking about it, newspapers and websites write any articles... great way of promotion! And even if the company makes some lost on this one certain product, it may earn more from other products. Just new way to get consumers attention.

by JesusMiguel_Fernandez Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:41 am

Schulz_Martin wrote: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 totally agree, we cant compare both because they are not part of the same area of Buseness Studies!

by JesusMiguel_Fernandez Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:45 am

I believe, however that PWYW could be a good short-run promotion method, and a tool for determining the price curve on your product:

Normally, your supply curve is determined by your costs (microeconomics)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Supply-and-demand.svg/240px-Supply-and-demand.svg.png
However, the demand cuve is unknown or most bisinesses and it requires extensive marketing research to find it out.

I would support PWYW as a strategy to find out the real demand curve for your businesses products at the start of your venture, however i dont think it is a good long-term strategy.
Question 5: PWYW vs free sampling - Page 2 Moz-screenshot

Question 5: PWYW vs free sampling - Page 2 Moz-screenshot

Question 5: PWYW vs free sampling - Page 2 Moz-screenshot-1

by taniapaola_gutierrez Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:50 am

Naomi_Karnovsky wrote: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.

In general I agree that free sampling and PWYW price strategy is a good way for a company to promote the product and attract more customers, but PWYW can help the company analyze the real value of the product which will be a way to know how much the customer is willing to pay for it. As well, by analysing this will allow the company to find out how loyal the customer is to the product and it also makes the customer to observe and evaluate the service and finally set the best price for it.

Is true that everyone likes to get things for free, but as a good customer you will apply some value to it and not just getting it for free. Of course it depends on the kind of product or service that is being offered.

by Ted_Chiang Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:56 am

PWYW is more useful at generating buzz, and another value of PWYW is to test the consumers for the prices that they are willing to pay so that in the future sellers can determine the level of price that would generate the most profit.

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