Freebie Hand Outs By Companies

Freebies are samples of products from companies that they give away to potential customers to lure them to buy their products. It is generally something that you get for free. Most freebies are given when you apply online through the various freebie websites available online by filing out survey questionnaires.

In the past, in the U.S literature, some saloons would offer free lunch to customers with the purchase of more than one drink. The lunch varied from simple to elaborate foods and were sometimes worth a lot more than the price of a single drink. The saloonkeeper mostly depended on the customers to buy more than one drink.

Gillette, the founder of the famous company that produces blades, found that he needed to deplete his stock of razor blades that were initially very expensive. He did this by selling them at a reduced cost in order to make market for the newer ones. At this time, the competition in the market for the blades was very harsh.

John D. Rockefeller and his company, Standard Oil, after enjoying a long time of American monopoly in the domestic market, he wanted to expand the business outside of America. He sent representatives to China. In an effort to increase the demand for kerosene, they gave away about 8 million kerosene lamps almost for free.

Comcast, the largest mass Media Company and internet service provider in the United States, gives away DVRs as free samples to its subscribing customers. The cost however is recovered by an installation fee of about $19.95 and an additional fee of $13.95, which is a monthly subscription for the machine. If the cost of one DVR box costs around $250, the loss would be recovered in about 18 months, after which it now starts to generate interest.

Big computer printer manufacturers often sell their products with partially filled cartridges as freebies at below costs to create sales for their external cartridges. In most cases, the cost of the printer with the partially filled cartridges almost equals the cost of buying one cartridge. The producers sometimes make the machines in such a way that if a non-proprietary ink cartridge is put into the machine, it completely disables it.

Giving out freebies can also be dangerous, as some consumers find side uses for the products they are given, other than the initial intended purpose. This tends to affect the revenue flow for the company. When for example some companies offered free personal computers which were accompanied with expensive relational internet services, the consumers used them for other home purposes.

A kind of practice called tying has recently been criticized as an anti competitive act. This happens for example when a company requires a book store to retain an unpopular book before allowing them access to the best seller. The end result is that consumers are harmed by being forced to buy a good that they do not need. This kind of tie could harm the other companies in the market if the company doing this has a large market share, or if the other companies only deal with single commodities.

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