Freebie marketing, also known as the
razor and blades business model,
[1] is the concept of either giving away a salable item for nothing or charging an extremely low price to generate a continual market for another, generally disposable, item.
[1] The concept was pioneered by
King C. Gillette,
[1] inventor of the disposable
safety razor and founder of Gillette Safety Razor Company (today known as
Global Gillette, a division of
Procter and Gamble). It is a similar concept to
loss leader marketing.
While working as a traveling salesman in the 1890s for the Crown Cork and Seal Company, Gillette had an idea while attempting to shave one morning. His straight razor was so worn from use that it could no longer be sharpened. His idea was to create thin, cheap, removable blades that could simply be removed from the handle and discarded when no longer usable.[1][2]
As consumers use up the blades they then purchase replacements, potentially going on for years and decades. This ensures a steady flow of consumers.
Freebie marketing has been used in business models for many years. The Gillette company still markets disposable razors in the fashion of their founder, often sending disposable safety razors in the mail to males near their 18th birthday, packaging them as giveaways at public events that Gillette has sponsored, et cetera.
