Idea for Giveaway?

[muflichkamil]

Hello all,

I want to ask something.

Assumed that i'm the owner of paper craft company, and i would like to give something away for free (or a very small cost) in paper crafting range. What's on your mind regarding to this?

[Rubenandres77]

Does the people who will receive the gift already know something about papercrafting?

Or is it an item to attract new people to the art?

Maybe in any case, a free item should convey the characteristics of being nice, simple, and meaningful:
Something very simple to build, so that anyone could build it easily even if they don't have previous knowledge of paper crafting. And if they already know how to make paper models, so simple that it represents a fresh time for relaxation.
Niceley colored or designed, so that the people feels it was worth to spend sometime building it when they see it finished.
Meaningful, so that the people can feel attached to it in some way.

[airdave]

People should stop expecting things for free and you should not feel as though you should offer anything for free.

Anything you do decide to offer for free should be considered a gift and not demanded.
So in that sense, give away anything you want to freely share, not what others expect or desire.

Consumers have to realize that not every designer can afford to give everything for free.
Sometimes projects take a lot of time and effort to produce and compensation is
necessary to cover the costs of production.

If you want to give a free item to attract attention or promote another project
then you should consider something that relates to your product.
As the designer, you should make sure that your biggest effort goes into the projects
that you will sell.
Your questions should be about those projects
and the feedback you receive should help you offer the most from those projects.

The free stuff is just bonus.

But remember one thing...as soon as you offer free stuff, the public will expect more free stuff.
They will not be as responsive to what they have to pay for.
Put out your "for sale" product first.
Then add free gifts later.

[war artisan]

I offer a free sample from each series of models I design. This is because my target audience is naval wargamers, most of whom have never even heard of paper modeling much less tried it. I would be unlikely to convince many of them to try them out by just explaining that they are much simpler to build than they look. Admittedly, the free samples have been downloaded hundreds of times for each one paying customer, but on the other hand almost every paying customer tried the free sample before purchasing. I take this to imply that many of them would not have bought anything unless they tried it first.

Airdave's cautions are well advised, but don't be afraid to dangle a little something out there that is complementary to your other work and will tempt potential customers to explore your offerings further.

Jeff

[airdave]

Agreed...if you are putting some product in the store
and also offering some samples...thats the best way.

Thats exactly what I do.

[ashevilleangler]

One idea might be business card size models as give-aways. They could be small scale low-resolution versions of your regular models or simplified versions of those models.

Curt

[airdave]

Originally Posted by ashevilleangler

One idea might be business card size models as give-aways. They could be small scale low-resolution versions of your regular models or simplified versions of those models.

Curt

oooh I like that idea.

[willygoat]

Originally Posted by ashevilleangler

One idea might be business card size models as give-aways. They could be small scale low-resolution versions of your regular models or simplified versions of those models.

Curt

The old FG trick. Cram a bunch of planes onto business cards and offer them up. I have a few old FG cards saved somewhere.