Almost every game in the mobile market is free. But not every free game breaks even.
After seen Emily Greer talk on casual connect, I realized that you don't need to have a good game to make money. You can sell crap to. It's just the way HOW you sell it.
But why do people buy stuff? And is there any difference between selling virtual goods and real world goods? Let's try to find out.
After seen Emily Greer talk on casual connect, I realized that you don't need to have a good game to make money. You can sell crap to. It's just the way HOW you sell it.
But why do people buy stuff? And is there any difference between selling virtual goods and real world goods? Let's try to find out.
Being a salesman
In a free game, players can enter a world without paying upfront. They can run around freely and have fun as much as they like. But sometimes they have to pay for some things they want. It's the same as walking into a store. You can run around and enjoy watching everything in the store, but if you want something, then you need to buy it.
Since the freemium model, designers had to become salesman. And I don't think that most designers are born to sell stuff. Being a salesman just isn't obvious.
Since the freemium model, designers had to become salesman. And I don't think that most designers are born to sell stuff. Being a salesman just isn't obvious.
I myself have some experience as a vendor and salesman. Several years ago I worked as a vendor in the o'cool (deep freeze food store), dreamland (toy store) and aldi (a normal food store). A year before those jobs, I tried to be a door-to-door salesman. One job was to try to sell cleaning products and the second job was to try selling a set of pots and pans.
I loved working as a vendor. Yeah ... well, it depends on the things they sold in the store. O'cool was horrible. Bad food that was sold for lots of money. No wonder that it went bankrupt in 2013. Dreamland and aldi are still doing well. They have fine products, decent priced and a good selling technique.
My experience as a door-to-door salesman was of a different category.
To make a long story short, i was not fit to do the job. Salesman often hide the truth in order to sell their products. For me, hiding the truth to sell something is the same as lying. And that is something I just can't do.
Both companies had a different selling strategy. I didn't like the agressive way Jamar sold their cleaning products. But I will never forget the way T&T design sold their pots and pans set for more then 2000 euros. A salesman received 30% of the products he sold. The technique they used garantied 3 sales out of 10 customers. Putting it all together, a salesman could easely earn 2400 euros a month selling only pots and pans.
I loved working as a vendor. Yeah ... well, it depends on the things they sold in the store. O'cool was horrible. Bad food that was sold for lots of money. No wonder that it went bankrupt in 2013. Dreamland and aldi are still doing well. They have fine products, decent priced and a good selling technique.
My experience as a door-to-door salesman was of a different category.
To make a long story short, i was not fit to do the job. Salesman often hide the truth in order to sell their products. For me, hiding the truth to sell something is the same as lying. And that is something I just can't do.
Both companies had a different selling strategy. I didn't like the agressive way Jamar sold their cleaning products. But I will never forget the way T&T design sold their pots and pans set for more then 2000 euros. A salesman received 30% of the products he sold. The technique they used garantied 3 sales out of 10 customers. Putting it all together, a salesman could easely earn 2400 euros a month selling only pots and pans.
Selling is a science
Have you ever heard of Robert Cialdini? No? Just listen and enjoy this video below. :-)
Stunned? I know I was.
If you want to know more about this, check influenceatwork.
I'll talk about the practicle side later. (in the next post)
If you want to know more about this, check influenceatwork.
I'll talk about the practicle side later. (in the next post)
Why do people buy?
Why do we buy things? It's a question many people are trying to answer. Therefore i found a lot of answers. Clickz has found 20 reasons. Our shared resources points to the human emotions. NASP reduced this to 2 reasons.
I think they are all right. But is there 1 single anser for this question?
Don't ask me where if found this anser. But someone answered: "We buy things to solve our problems."
And that's just it. You can check it. Someway, somehow, we always buy things to solve our problems.
Ironically a game is a problem solving activity. So do we really want to pay for something that we want solve for ourselves?
I think they are all right. But is there 1 single anser for this question?
Don't ask me where if found this anser. But someone answered: "We buy things to solve our problems."
And that's just it. You can check it. Someway, somehow, we always buy things to solve our problems.
Ironically a game is a problem solving activity. So do we really want to pay for something that we want solve for ourselves?
I will finalize things in my next post. We will look at the experience, casting theory into practice, create new lenses and cite examples.