Sample Lab-

Did anyone see Nightly Business Report last night? There is a new business in Japan called the Sample Lab that is going to have as much impact on marketing as blogs! Its so simple that it's absolutely brilliant and better yet, people actually pay to get free samples!!!

So the idea is a store is set up with free samples, people pay a nominal fee to be able to visit the store to get the free samples and then earn the right to keep coming back by giving feedback about the products via their cell phone. OMG- talk about perfect marketing!!! Stores are planned in Asia - nothing here in USA yet- but you know they are coming!!!

Makes me think again about the idea of marketing libraries and makes me wonder what are we missing? Free is good. It always has been. I went to Barnes and Noble the other day and bought two books for $25 and all I did the whole time I was there was sigh that I wasn't in the library where I could fill my arms with all the books I found interesting. And maybe that is the point... maybe we've been too busy trying to market our libraries as something else - research centers, third places, computer labs, the list goes on and on. Not that those aren't great supplements but aren't we really about free books?