Great Example: Why Would They Pay For It When They Can Get It Free?

by marciayudkin

Posted: 13 years ago 28 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Language instruction is now a $1 billion industry and growing rapidly.

Yet, there are a multitude of FREE language-learning resources online. I remember learning Chinese in the 1980s from cassettes of the State Department's famous Foreign Language School (or Institute?) course. It cost about $300 at the time. Now almost all these taxpayer-funded language courses are available free online.

Let's see how many great reasons we can come up with for why so many people pay for language learning when there are top-notch lessons available at no cost.

This is an instructive example whose lessons carry over to so many other subject areas.

I'll start the list...

* Some people don't know there are free resources available online.

* Many people need personal one-on-one or small-group instruction to learn a language.

* Some people want to learn specialized vocabulary only (Spanish for travelers, Vietnamese for healthcare workers)

Please add to the list!

Marcia Yudkin

#free #great #pay #public domain #resources

VanessaB 13 years ago

Marcia,
Even people who are aware of free resources, think free means worthless.

-Dani
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Peter Clark

13 years ago

People value what they pay for.

Simply put, the higher the price, the higher the perceived value.

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seasoned

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Peter Clark

People value what they pay for.

Simply put, the higher the price, the higher the perceived value.

If ONLY that were true. One of the biggest illnesses is BUYER'S REMORSE! The realization that you paid too much!

With regard to the rocket series, they claim to make it easier to learn faster. There are TONS of courses and forums, etc... to learn languages. From the very prevalent/popular to practically worthless and rare. And YEAH, the AF courses are finally offered for FREE.

As for the $150000 premium for an MIT professor, sadly that is true. In REAL terms, it is WORTHLESS! You can generally learn the stuff on your own, and an A from MIT doesn't really mean you ever learned the subject. And MIT would be better than some lesser school because they believe an A from MIT means more than an A from most other places. Sadly, they may be right. That doesn't really mean MIT is MORE valuable, maybe the others are simply worth less. HECK, employers may never look at your grades. They look at your work history first.

OH, and I interviewed people from a university that is supposedly far better than MIT. I turned a number of them DOWN! Interestingly, I heard one guy at a customer say WOW, he is from THERE! He must be a GENIUS! HIRE HIM! Even if he WERE a genius, it doesn't mean he can do THAT work any better. INCREDIBLE!

Steve

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marciayudkin

13 years ago

Don't know where you got the $1 billion figure from.

From Inc. magazine:

Best Industries to Start and Grow a Business, 2011: Language Schools

Martin, "Foreign students" are quite a bit different from the market for learning languages. When I learned Chinese as an adult, I was not a "foreign student."

Nice to see all the debate and great points made on this topic.

Marcia Yudkin

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marciayudkin

13 years ago

As for the $150000 premium for an MIT professor, sadly that is true. In REAL terms, it is WORTHLESS! You can generally learn the stuff on your own, and an A from MIT doesn't really mean you ever learned the subject. And MIT would be better than some lesser school because they believe an A from MIT means more than an A from most other places. Sadly, they may be right. That doesn't really mean MIT is MORE valuable, maybe the others are simply worth less. HECK, employers may never look at your grades. They look at your work history first.

Steve,

I think you may be missing the point that there is no such thing as "real" value. All there is, is "perceived" value.

Think of real estate prices, for example. Is there such a thing as the "real" value of a house apart from what someone is willing to pay for it at a certain point in time?

Same thing for a car. When gas prices turn sharply up or down, the very same hunk of metal and other materials changes in value almost right away. What is its "real" value?

If that's true for tangible objects, it's even more true for intangible things, like a college degree or a membership program.

Make sense?

Marcia Yudkin

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Martin Luxton

13 years ago

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

Marcia,

Your opening sentence was about "language instruction" being a market worth more than $1 billion. Nothing about the demographics of the students.

Would you rather try and sell Chinese lessons to a few hundred thousand Americans or English lessons to 300 million Chinese?

bookofjoe: 'By 2025 the number of English

Maybe the figures from anyresearch.com were for one US state?

Martin

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ladywriter 13 years ago

I'm a little starstruck--been reading Marcia Yudkin stuff for years, who knew she posted in here, wow!

Anyway,

*among the free stuff, it's hard to determine what's good. It's like looking for a white sock in a pile of white socks. If they pay, they assume they're getting better quality.
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jiantastic 13 years ago

people don't want to look around for information. They like to for it to be taught. why should we go to school? why should people attend consulting courses?
everything plus more can be learned from the local public library or on the internet.

people don't mind paying for faster access to information.
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Joe J 13 years ago

Some people would like to hold the actual product in their hand.

Cassettes,discs,books,etc,so they can take it with them whether there are electonics involved or not.

When they're done with it, they have the choice to try to sell their products and recoup some of their initial costs.

Joe
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- marciayudkin 13 years ago
  
  Here's another one...
  
  * Some people may need a formal certificate of completion of a course that they would only receive with paid learning.
  
  This can be worth a surprising amount of money. For example, I've read that all of MIT's course materials are posted free online. Consider the difference in cost between mastering all that material on one's own and doing it under the formal guidance of MIT professors. That's what, a $150,000 difference?
  
  Marcia Yudkin
  
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Moneyerr 13 years ago

Free or cheep things don't satisfy the people. They think the free material or resources to be missing something important related to their actual objective. So they pay to learn for their mental satisfaction.
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Zeus66 13 years ago

Sometimes a person can get exactly the same information but explained in even just a slightly different way and that makes all the difference to them. People learn differently. Free doesn't necessarily matter if it doesn't get through to the person.
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John Romaine 13 years ago

How much does an apple cost if you pick it from a tree?

Nothing.

Yet millions of people pay for apples every day.

People want convenience.
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- JohnMcCabe 13 years ago
  
  I'm told that some people still believe what they see in ads...
  
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  Chance2427 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe
  
  I'm told that some people still believe what they see in ads...
  
  This.
  
  Maybe they've done their research, maybe they know about the quality,
  free alternatives... but at some point during their research, they've been
  greeted, charmed -- and, should I say SHOCKED -- by a halbertesque
  headline, which pulled them into a copy that hit their main emotional
  buttons... and promised them something they all want: an easy and
  effective way to learn their target language in the shortest time possible.
  
  And that sold them.
  
  Perhaps most commercial courses don't have anything close to a great
  copy, but still, it will often be more persuasive than what's used to
  describe these free resources. And as someone mentioned above, the
  price often implies higher value. They would be worried whether they
  are losing something by settling for some freely available info.
  
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  There are no mountains in Holland.
  
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- seasoned 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by ramone_johnny
  
  How much does an apple cost if you pick it from a tree?
  
  Nothing.
  
  Yet millions of people pay for apples every day.
  
  People want convenience.
  
  BAD example! If you can legally pick an apple from a tree, it is probably NEAR you! My father probably hasn't bought lemons or oranges for over a decade because they grow just YARDS from his home. WHAT is more convenient? Going a few yards to get an orange, or going a LITTLE bit shorter distance to get in a car, drive miles to a store, shop, wait in line, and drive back?
  
  For ME, I have no apples here. I have to go to a store.
  
  Steve
  
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Mike Hill 13 years ago

It's not about whether it's free or not... it's about what a person gets when they pay for things and that my friend is you. The way you help your customers, the experience you give them, the techniques you use to teach them is worth paying for.
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Jake Gray 13 years ago

People have to have the best, the most high tech...

Free isn't good anymore. Although there are plenty
of educational papers out there that will teach you
much more than a regular paid book.
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KingOfContentMarketing 13 years ago

Marcia speaks Chinese? Woah.

I remember when I saw Sandra Bullock on TV speaking fluent Spanish. I had no idea. The things you learn.

To the question: Many people don't want to go mucking around in state department websites to find language tapes. If you can put it all together nice and easy in one place they will pay for it.
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Bruce NewMedia 13 years ago

One Reason: The advertising presents a believable set of reasons why this method is EASIER to learn that most others. Most, I think, would assume learning a language is difficult.... I know feel that way.

That alone would probably convince me to 'buy' rather than use a free source.
...or, having failed using a free method already.
_____
Bruce
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- Bennette 13 years ago
  
  Free means you have to spend the time looking and researching. I know people that buy things and never even crack the seal but they say they know it's better because other people told them.
  
  It's been said people pay for time and convenience.
  
  You can also take a free conversational class at a community center, that's what I did. The instructor that taught the class charges corporate exec's big money and she would volunteer her time. We never had more than 8-10 people.
  
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Charliebee 13 years ago

I wasn't aware I could get free language training on the internet. Was thinking about trying the rocket thing. Had a trial version of Rosetta Stone but couldn't figure it out.
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rahmat 13 years ago

Are there good free language learning websites out there?
The one with comprehensive learning module and has a sense
of community?

I think it can also be more on social aspect. I would pay for
a language learning, because I have my friends join in the same
group, to learn together and motivate each other. In this way,
I can 'force' myself to learn the foreign language.
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Macksheppard 13 years ago

It's possible the paid option for learning a new language is being advertised and the free option is not. People don't know the free option exists or they would use that. Case in point - Look how many people in this forum clammer for "review copies". No one wants to pay for something they can get for free.

If it takes time and effort to get the free thing then I believe most people would choose convenience and pay.
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- Martin Luxton 13 years ago
  
  Marcia,
  
  Don't know where you got the $1 billion figure from.
  
  The OECD valued the global market for foreign students in 2000 at
  US$30 billion
  
  from figures on this site
  
  The UK's Education Travel Market - the Potential
  
  Even if we say only 10% of that figure was comprised of fees . . .
  
  Let's see how many great reasons we can come up with for why so many people pay for language learning when there are top-notch lessons available at no cost
  
  Two simple reasons.
  
  1. The core of language learning involves feedback. You don't get much (personalised) feedback from cassettes.
  
  While there are some people who can learn a language from a self-study course, the majority of people can't.
  
  2. A qualified, experienced teacher knows what's useful and what's not. The internet is full of crap, so it's a good idea to pay someone to filter out the rubbish. And, related to the first point, most students don't know 'how to learn', they need motivation, pep talks etc.
  
  Martin
  
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Naanajud567 13 years ago

It is assumed that a customer is given more value, time and attention if they are paying...however, free is a good alternative if you don't want to shell out money.
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HelpingYouBeAnExpert 13 years ago

The #1 reason I like to pay and not use free, is because I learn better (even if it's the same exact thing) and in the long run make more money and take myself to the next level. Because when I pay for something I value it more, it's the reality. Capitalism is better then Communism. Loosers graviate twards trying to make the world free, Winners gravitate towards paying and getting paid. If everything was free the economy would collapse.
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celente 13 years ago

no no silly way to think about it.

Over the years I have learnt, this.

The prospect learns to think like this.....

wait for it....

wow if this is his free stuff....imagine how good his paid stuff will be

so yes if you want them to think this, you better start giving away your best stuff for free.

but what do I know right?
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Great Example: Why Would They Pay For It When They Can Get It Free?

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