Organic Frog

Both Chris Anderson (Wired) and the guys at Trendwatching have written inspiring articles about the notion of free:

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

Free Love

They are both very interesting and praising how brands and businesses could actually be more relevant and even more profitable thanks to free.

You can watch the video of Chris Anderson discussing this point below.

(Well apparently taking about free doesn’t mean that you are enabling people to embed your video, so you can have a look at the video on YouTube!)

I am maybe just thinking out loud here, but although I am a big fan of the idea of a brand and/or a business giving free and useful stuff away, how could it work at a bigger scale?
For instance the free newspaper concept work because the advertising is paying for it. We live in a consumerist society and unless we change the whole model, someone will have to buy something at some point. Indeed if you push Chris Anderson’s argument to its paroxysm, how could we have every consumer goods at our disposal for free? And what would happen to the advertising supposed to pay for the freedom? There is an utopia in the everything for free idea.

I guess free isn’t the answer for all the problems the consumer’s society has had in the past but usefulness definitely is. I’d rather like paying for my Flickr pro account rather than having a free one with advertising and less functionalities… (This example works for me but not necessarily for others, however people will be ready to pay for other useful products / services)

Thoughts anyone?

[Pic Via]