Why “Free” Costs You a Lot More Than You Think

The problem is, "free" could be costing you a lot more than you think.

1. "Free" Short-Circuits Your Brain. In a study students were offered a Lindt Truffle for 26 cents and a Hershey's Kiss for 1 cent and observed the buying behavior: 40 percent went with the truffle and 40 percent with the Kiss. Then price was dropped of both chocolates by just 1 cent, then suddenly 90 percent of participants opted for the free Kiss, even though the relative price between the two was the same. We concluded that FREE! is indeed a very powerful force.
2. "Free" Costs You Time. It's easy to assume that anything free is a no-brainer: you can't lose by having something that's free, right? Actually, you can. You could end up spending a lot of time and energy on something which would've been a lot simpler if you'd paid a few dollars.
3. "Free" Draws You In and Gets You to Buy. Marketers have been using free to get people to buy for decades. In the age of the internet, this is becoming even more prevalent. 
4. When "Free" is Good. I'm certainly not suggesting that we all turn our backs on free products. I'd suggest that free options are a good idea when: You're just dabbling your toes into a new area, you're deliberating between different options and want to try out several, the person or organisation offering the free item has a great reputation etc

Original post created by Pick The Brain and Summarised by Craig. (Read Original) - Updates via RSS