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Apple announced this week that they are dropping the price of their tiny mp3 player called the Shuffle to $49. This price and the allure of all things iPod makes this a great marketing tool.
Here’s what I mean. If you have a product or service that already includes or could easily benefit from the addition of audio content, then why not dump it all onto a Shuffle and make that part of your pitch - get an iPod Shuffle with you order seems a lot sexier these days than a bunch of CDs or downloads.
At that price point it makes it a great sales tool for the right prospects. Sign up to go through our demo and we will send you a free iPod Shuffle packed with our favorite podcasts covering the latest industry trends.
Speaking of podcasts, if you do a show, what about loading up your ten hottest episodes and running a contest where people can win your show.
How about that really big fish you’ve been trying to get in front of - imagine your message delivered via FedEx and an iPod Shuffle. I’m thinking that one makes it to the top of the pile! (You know, you could do worse trying to impress that guy or girl you’ve been trying to get to notice you too.)
What a killer instruction manual delivery tool for how to put together or get more out of your product.
Authors, want to get your book reviewed by a couple really big sources? Try sending an audio overview with you reading a couple of really great passages.
The uses are countless and I believe that even though you may increase your product or service expense, the appeal of the iPod will actually help you sell more units. Big companies have been using this pitch as a giveaway for some time now, but the Shuffle at $49 makes this trick affordable to even the smallest of businesses.
I intend to use this is several creative way in coming months.
Comments
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at Feb 21, 08 | 6:09 am and is filed under Branding, Marketing Materials, Marketing Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I’ve been holding back on doing this based on price, but $49 looks attractive …
One question - without a screen to tell you which track you’re on, wouldn’t the shuffle be a little confusing for figuring out what tracks are available and where you are?
dude that a super simple and great idea!
wonder if you can set up an rss feed to a pod cast in there as well so your stream is pre-populated and they get further ones if they don’t wipe it.
Shane - you could certainly suggest the feed idea in your audio but they would have to subscribe on their own using iTunes or some other podcatcher.
Dave,
Yes it’s not perfect from that standpoint - heck, let’s go for it and get the video one and just create a bunch of video messages, of course the $399 price tag would change the ROI a bit.
The trouble is, the Shuffle is just not that good for things like podcasts, audiobooks, etc. But the good news is, I actually replaced my old-style Shuffle for just this reason with a 2GB Sansa which I got for only $35, and it *does* have a display. So if you weren’t set on the idea of giving away an Apple product, you could probably find a low-cost MP3 player with an actual display that would work just as well for this idea.
The Shuffle is brilliant for music, but since I listen to more audiobooks than music, it wasn’t as good for me as I’d hoped.
A great marketing idea. It would be even better if iPods would allow users to have access to the files. Giving them an iPod would allow them to listen to your audio, but only on the iPod. There are very few easy ways to get the audio off of the iPod to keep/archive.
Using a simple zip drive would also be another similar solution. It might actually be better to use a zip drive because if the recipient wants to quote your audio or reuse it somehow, they will need access to the files.
Hey Susan,
Fine idea and the display is a good add-on - part of the appeal of course is that people are a bit gaga over iPod anything. I think the device itself would sell some product.
What an amazing idea! Now if only I had something to market I would definitely use it…
Darn. I thought I was unique
I actually deliver the latest 8GB nano pre-charged and with our content pre-loaded. Since we use audio and video, a screen was requisite.
We actually don’t tell the clients about this “bonus” we offer. We simply send it out with a bunch of other goodies to sear our brand into their brains.
Our subscription price supports this $200 “freebie”. If your business model will support a mere $50 Shuffle giveaway…you’ll certainly be more memorable.
We do the same thing with web cam/mic combos so our clients can video chat with us. Granted, IT departments sometimes don’t allow it, but that doesn’t stop the client from having early meetings from home with us…or just using the web cam to chat with Grandma in Peoria. For the $20-$50 investment…we believe we’re being more sticky.
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