The concepts of The Long Tail and “Free” aren’t necessary new, but they have become the new way of thinking about marketing, business and longevity of a career or product.
Frequency distribution has been studied for the past 60 years in statistics, but the Long Tail finally put a term to an idea of selling less for longer compared to selling more for shorter. Think of the Long Tail like a hockey stick on its side. It isn’t about selling products fast and furious like blockbuster movies or one-hit wonders. Instead, the Long Tail idea is about cultivating the relationship between the product and the fans of the product. The idea is to selling small volumes of product over a long amount of time compared to selling large amounts of a limited product in a short time. A great example is how cult films stay relevant and still sell over many years. Films like The Big Lebowski or Donnie Darko may not have been box office hits, but they continue to sell because of the Long Tail theory. There are small groups of people who continue to watch and love those films. One of the greatest descriptions of this concept is a track from rapper, Bavu Blakes, called 50K. The point of his track is that all he needs is 50,000 hardcore fans at one time and he needs to just sell to them. By having a smaller number of fans, he could increase the longevity in his career. He wouldn’t be spending money on 2-3 million albums that may or may not sell. Instead, it’s a small volume of product to the fans he “knows” are going to buy the product. So instead of shotgun marketing, where you spray the marketing material everywhere and you hope it hits, the marketing based off the Long Tail idea is pinpoint and to the people who are the supporters. If an artist can keep 50,000 fans for 10 years, release 5 albums and make 5 dollars off of every album, the artist can make $1.25 million. Now that’s just off the album sales! Now, add in the pricing for tour tickets, which your hard-core fans will attend and possibly bring their friends, and merchandise sales and the artist can make even more money. No need to worry about Gold Records…just ask Skee-Lo.
The Long Tail highlights that you can go after smaller populations or sub-cultures and still be successful. The idea of success where every household would own the same thing goes away with this thinking. It is more about creating a niche for your product and making your fans/users/owners happy with it.
The Power of Free is something that wasn’t quite understood until technology really allowed things to be “free”. At a store, there was always “buy one, then get one free.” However, the new sense of “free” is just that. Give it away for FREE. The free giving creates users who are “fans” of the products. Everyone loves something for free. Now the product might be free and basically create “good blood” between the product and the users. From that point, other things can be charged for. With new technology, it is easier and cheaper to send products, make products and market products that won’t be actually sold.
Staying with the music example from earlier, a band can give away an EP of music for free. A band can’t expect people to buy music they have never heard, so giving it away puts it in the hands of possible fans. Those fans who love the music may then in turn buy tickets to shows or buy other merchandise from the band. The free part of the equation helps create money in the long run. The same example could be used with software or freeware companies who give away free services, but then you can pay to upgrade those services. Wordpress is an example of that model. The inital blog is free, but if the blogger wants more bells and whistles, the user can pay for them.
The “free” model is a hook to get the person’s attention and as long as the hook is a good product or experience, the company can hold on to the person and sell them other things. It is a way to develop trust between the customer and the company. Marketing is easy when it’s free; it practically sells itself. However, the product has to be really good. A free piece of junk is still a piece of junk.
