That challenge faces many of us in this age of information and knowledge marketing. In advertising and other marketing communications, we have to convince prospects to respond to words and ideas. Intangibility is a challenge I often face as I promote my communication products and services. My prospective customers can't touch or see what I'm selling.

It's a factor in employee communication, as well as in marketing communication. After all, what are you selling when you ask employees to get behind new plan or to work safely?

Every once in a while I come across something that bridges gap between tangibility and intangibility in a single bound.

One of my former newsletter client companies developed software that provides stereographic (like 3-D) views of oil and gas reservoirs. Now, I've seen many of this company's developments in reservoir simulation over past 10 years or so, but this one was special.

Why? Because to use this software, you put on 3-D glasses. Like kind we wore in movie theaters in 1950s, albeit much more sophisticated.

What Exactly Does Free Mean? Realistically, consumers subconsciously assume free means free, and while that might be initial intent, rarely is it truly case.

Why do Companies Offer Things for Free? Companies or individuals may promote a free offer or service for any number of reasons. From branding to ad revenue, companies often use "free" to attract attention or interest. As a consumer, it is important to realize what "free" might really mean.

Reasons Things Are Free:

Linking Companies may offer something in exchange for a link back to their website. As web becomes increasingly more competitive, linking can effect more than just search engine placement, and providing a product, service or information free of charge in exchange for a link can be a good business decision. Often, publishers will create articles like this one and make it available for syndication, with stipulation being that author resource box that follows article remain intact, providing links back to author's website. Bottom line, authors often make content available for syndication in exchange for links back to their websites, which they benefit from.

Ad Revenue Some companies provide a product or service free of charge and generate money from advertising. Perhaps they sell banner advertising on their website. A free product draws web traffic so that number of visitors seeing advertisement increases. The more visitors a site attracts, typically more revenue generated from ad space. Perhaps a software application is free of charge, but has embedded advertisements. When ads are clicked, software developer earns a percentage of revenue paid for serving advertisement.

Goodwill Branding / Public Relations On occasion, companies will provide a product, service or information free of charge. If offering is extremely magnanimous or socially sensitive, they will often receive significant press exposure, generating free publicity for their brand. Pepsi Cola sponsors a number of athletic events and generates enormous amounts of brand loyalty and positive PR with their target audience.