I’ve been recommending Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, to friends and colleagues since I read it. Whether or not you agree or disagree with his conclusions, the book is filled with interesting historical and anecdotal accounts of online business model evolutions and the economic, technical and sociological changes that have precipitated an unarguable shift in how we conduct business. Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine, an active blogger, and the author of the highly regarded The Long Tail, is an entertaining and engaging writer.

My desire to promote Anderson’s book to those interested in understanding more fully the sea change that we’ve been living through the past 10 years came over coffee this morning. Garmin and Tomkin, companies who develop and sell GPS navigational products watched their stock prices plunge by 16.4% and 20.8% in one day – erasing billions of dollars of market capitalization. Yesterday, Google announced a free voice navigation application.

Garmin and Tomkin’s woes reminded me of a sidebar example in Free where Anderson described the effect that Craigslist.com has had on the traditional newspaper classified advertising business. Craig Newmark’s largely altruistic project, which has never been a runaway revenue generator, is credited with evaporating $30 billion in receipts from our hometown newspapers.

Throughout the book, Anderson illustrates how savvy businesses are succeeding with indirect routes from product to revenue . He shows that a generational and global shift is at play and highlights the challenges that we face as marketers in this new economy.

He also notes, and I’m sure the C-suites residents at Garmin and Tomkin can now attest, that Google has mastered this concept. A company best known for its free services continues to post record revenues, profits and climbing stock prices. Even in a tough economic climate, Google posted Q3 profits up 27% over last year.

Anderson is an entertaining writer and dedicated observer of the online marketplace and related technologies and behaviors. This latest book, actually offered for free through a number of online promotions, is an interesting read.

Posted in: Online Marketing
Tags: advertising, ecommerce, good business, google, integrated marketing strategy, wired
No Comments