A provocative expression crossed my consciousness recently. Someone wrote, “Free costs too much.”

I size those costs with at least two measures, and there may be more.

For starters, giving away your product/service for free lowers the overall set of expectations at play in the markeplace. It hurts everyone when someone reduces the perceived value of what they provide to nothing… and it raises the bar on what people believe they are entitled to for free.

As if that weren’t enough, offering a product/service at no cost diminishes brand stature. The most cherished brands rarely even have a sale event, let alone consider no cost at all. Free is the enemy of brand differentiation and brand distinction.

There are some who advocate ‘free’ as a business model for leveraging other revenue streams. Seems more a bait and switch deception than a genuine strategy.