
Everyone must have a CD, even if free - tortilla
http://sivers.org/livecd
======
n8agrin
I used to work at a clothing store. I always hated (and still do) having
salespeople approach me when I first enter a store and pitch the current
sales, new items, etc. so I never did that. I did however greet them for three
reasons 1) to acknowledge that we see them and are available for help, 2) to
let them know I was an employee, which wasn't very obvious with the casual
dress attire allowed and 3) to let potential the thieves know we are watching
them.

This always pissed off my district manager who would insist on demonstrating
to me how to greet customers by basically attempting to instruct them on what
to buy. Anyways I don't have any explicit proof that my approach produced
better sales, all I know is that when I enter a store and feel like someone is
trying to help me solve the problem which prompted me to come to their store,
I'm less anxious about buying things. On the other hand when I feel like
someone is pitching a problem to me that I'm not interested in solving I just
feel disgusted and often leave.

In my mind that roughly translates into building an emotional attachment. It's
the difference between listening and talking. Good salespeople make you feel
like they are listening to you even if at the end of the day they're just
trying to take your five dollars.

~~~
nopassrecover
Similar experience - it is essential to greet each customer ("good
afternoon"), and you can let them know that you're available if they need
help, but don't start selling them before they are ready.

~~~
smokinn
I don't know if it's just because I've become more numb to the aggressive
greets (or gotten better at brushing them off) but I used to despise shopping
precisely because of the badgering.

Now it seems that in most small stores I walk into, they simply greet and
shuffle off after offering assistance if necessary. It certainly makes
shopping there much more pleasant.

I wonder if shops noticed the exodus towards large stores (where you're never
bothered but can barely get help if necessary) and adjusted accordingly. For
years I refused to enter any small clothing boutique because I _knew_ at least
1 but probably more people would try to pressure me into buying something. If
they did notice, good for them.

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petercooper
Not quite the same but some years back my parents bought chickens for eggs. A
lot of people nearby sold eggs from their house, but my parents set up a
stall, put all the eggs out and a sign saying people could take eggs and pay
what they liked. They ended up averaging more per egg, even with the
freeloaders, than other people were selling their eggs for.. with none of the
sales labor!

Back to Derek's story though, yeah, I've heard a lot of bands that were "so
so" but I could probably get into their music on CD, but the mandatory $10/$20
put me off straight away even thought I might have donated that anyway!

~~~
herval
That's a very interesting Freakonomics-ish experiment! I've worked in a
company where they left a fruit basket for people to pay whatever they wanted
- the outcome of the fruit lady, in that case, was pretty good (people
overpaid a lot).

In another company, the cleaning lady used to bring cookies. Until she stopped
since people were not paying (and taking all the cookies)

Wonder if that's because people tend to pay for non-processed/industrialized
goods (like eggs or fruits) but would rather steal processed goods (such as
cookies)? Nah, disregard my theory... :-)

~~~
pyre
Cookies are more addictive than fruit for most people. They probably
disappeared so quickly because more people were willing to take more than 1 or
2 cookies.

While people that took a fruit or two were willing to pay (or over-pay) for
what they took, people that took multiple cookies were probably only willing
to pay for the first cookie or two (if at all).

Also, I'm of the view that most people that would be willing to 'steal' in
such a situation are people that are less attracted to 'eating healthy' (i.e.
less attracted to the fruit and more attracted to the cookies).

~~~
derefr
In other words, eating fruit was positively correlated to conscientiousness,
while eating cookies was negatively correlated.

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dpcan
I have a serious problem with this. About half-way down on the comments he
THEN writes that he doesn't know what band it was and he doesn't know what the
actual numbers were.

What?!?!

Basically he just assumed this was a great idea, that it worked, and that it
"probably" made all that money.

This is theory only right now with an "example" being his own guess.

~~~
sivers
This isn't serious journalism. It's just passing on an idea worth trying.

Terry McBride from Nettwerk talked about this at a music conference I was at,
and while I didn't write down the exact numbers, I think these are correct.

Since the experience will be different for everyone, it doesn't really matter.
Someone else in the comments (#80) said this technique has already pushed them
from 5-10 CDs to 150 CDs per show.

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byrneseyeview
_How could this be done online. What approaches/forms could this take on
Myspace, facebook, ect?_

I love this comment. Yes, _I wonder_ how we could find some way to _share
music, for free, on the Internet_.

~~~
whatusername
When you tell me how to have an emotional shared concert experience on the
Internet, then we can talk about sharing the music.

~~~
dschobel
I don't understand this comment. It's like talking about sharing the pub
experience on the Internet whereas the article was more of an affirmation of
the AOL style of distribution/publicity from the 90's.

As others have pointed out, Sivers may have over-cooked this example a bit.

Statements such as: _The people that took a CD became long-term fans and
brought their friends to future shows._ may make you feel good but there's no
way the evidence suggests that.

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mseebach
The Terra Bite lounge in Kirkland tried this when they opened (and got a fair
amount of press out of it), but it appears it didn't work.

<http://www.terrabite.org/press.htm>

Commentary indicating that they stopped: <http://www.yelp.com/biz/terra-bite-
lounge-kirkland>

~~~
pyre
It's not quite the same. If bands attract more fans, these fans are more
likely to pay to go to another concert the next time they go through town (the
concert tickets are _not_ pay-what-you-can). Even if Terra Bite was selling
coffee accessories, but the actual coffee was pay-what-you-can, I would expect
that they would have a hard time making ends meet.

In the case of bands, they are 'giving away' one product to promote another.
Not only that, but when people come to a concert they are committing an entire
slot of time, and throughout the concert the band builds that emotional
bond/connection with the audience. When you go someplace for food, a _lot_ of
people are just going to pop in, grab some food and pop out. I'm sure that a
lot of the 'coffee-house regulars' type people paid a fair price (or more) for
what they got at Terra Bite, but not nearly the same.

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spyrosk
I wonder if this, or a variation of this method, could work with a product
that the customer was not used to it's price/value. Almost everyone expects
the price of a cd to be in the $10-$25 range, but what about something that
it's value is completely relative to the customer's attraction to it, and his
knowledge/expertise on the subject, e.g. a painting or _maybe_ a consumer
electronic device?

(I suspect the need to create an emotional attachment plays a vital part in
succeeding with this)

------
delano
_How could this be done online._

It has been done online by many independent bands and also by Radiohead in
2007:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Rainbows#Release>

