FREE!

This is Duke University Predictably Irrational "FREE!" Let me tell you a story about one of my friends ...and Jeff is trying to sell all kind of chesskuss on the web you know like flashlites and little gadget things Things that basically will cost me $5 He said, for some people, let me sell these products for $5 and give them free shipping other people. let me sell the products for$2.50 and charge $2.50 for shipping other people, let me give them the product for free and charge them $5 for shipping Huge difference! I mean these are all equivalent! At the end of the day people will still pay $5 for one of these chesskuss But in fact, they didn't feel like it the one where the product was free and shipping was $5, was dramatically more attractive! Something about "free" just the idea that something has no negative side, it only has an upside creates and emotion reaction to us it makes us value it more, and this excitement causes us many time to behave and get it. The point is, that there are many times when getting something for free is not bad I mean why wouldn't you get something for free?! But as this example with Jeff illustrates, these are all equivalent examples financially! It's just how it is framed. So there is something really quite magical about "free" It gives us certain happiness that we just don't get without it purchase. so imagine that you want people to start using Hybrid cars Do you want to discount on the registration or to make it free?! You want a discount on the taxes people pay on their cars or do you want to make it free?! The advantage of making something free is a much more powerful card than discounting it. Think about what great power it is! It means that discounts on prices are great, I mean they can get people to buy more things, they give more reasons to buy and so on.. But a discount to zero is particularly influential. it's particularly big, because zero is a different price. In fact it is not a price. We don't think of Zero having any downside. We don't think of it having a price. It's all the time free! It's a price by itself. It's a category by itself. and we think and about it very differently.