Nothing Beats Zero! No-one does either.

You might have been intrigued by the title that you clicked through to read. May be the image I used was good enough. But fact is - the statement itself is worth its weight in gold, if we pause for a while to understand what it really means.

I attended the Futurist Business Conclave being organised by Jessie Paul's (Ex-CMO, Wipro, IGate) PaulWriter in Gurgaon last month where Jessie used this in one of her slides. It made me thinking what a powerful marketing technique this is, that I took the liberty in putting together this post.

You can be the market leader in the category. You can be the Top 3 or 5 in your niche. You can have the most innovative intellectual property and may be the most competitive pricing on earth and you are thinking - I am good in my game and no one can beat my pricing. You are absolutely right till someone merrily hops along and throws in the biggest marketing technique which beats everything else - Zero. And offers a competing product (all other things remaining almost equal) at Zero cost. Zero dollars. Zero rupees. Absolute Zero. What do you do? [Other than of course, playing the Wait&Watch and Pray game ]

Zero beats Everything. Your "lucrative" and "competitive" pricing falls flat compared to Zero.

Indians witnessed the biggest fight vs Zero in the last one year with Reliance Jio offering not just the 4G Mobile sim cards but also almost a year of calls and data to any number within the country at Zero cost to consumers. TRAI recently released its report which mentioned Reliance Jio eating into market share of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, other large telcos in 2016 with free voice and data offerings. Jio launched in early September 2016 and ended the year with 6.4 per cent market share and 72.16 million subscribers. Cyber Media Research now quotes that JioFi, the Data-card from Jio stable, had 91% of data card market in Q1. And with JioPhone, Jio's much-touted 4G feature phone becoming available at Rs 500 (~$8), the game is going to change for ever.

Not a long ago in India, in 2013, when no body knew Uber, it started with Zero. Not just Zero market share but also Zero pricing. Uber gave free rides (Any length, Any duration) when a new user signed up. And Uber was paying almost similar number of free rides when you referred someone. You get free rides. Your referral gets free rides too. Last month, Uber India, announced that it had crossed the 500-million trips milestone. The company said it was witnessing a strong growth in India of almost 250 per cent year-on-year as of June 2017.

You would be raising eye-brows on where I am going with this. Of course big players with deep pockets or VC funds would have all the luxury in the world to offer a zero pricing, not you and I. Right? May be.

Zero is Powerful. Zero is Contagious.

It is. Zero helps you to attract attention. That what a marketer always aspires for in his campaigns. Zero helps you to get free mileage. Zero helps you to stay in the news. And the best part - Zero helps you in getting contacts (Can't call them customers or clients yet). Zero helps you quickly scale up your contact or subscriber base. Zero helps you beta-test products (No body complained about the typical 4:1 failed to successful interconnect calls with Jio). Zero helps you refine your product and get client feedback. Zero helps you in unsettling competition. Zero is the starting point for the growth of your market share. Zero forces people to spread the news by e-Word of Mouth because of its immensely high perceived value. Zero is Contagious. Zero is the secret to going viral.

Let's come back to the most important question- What can I offer for Zero?

I think I know what you are thinking. Case-Studies, Whitepapers, Blogs, Webinars. Right? These are your pseudo-sales assets. I am not referring to them.

Possible Zeros!

A Proof of Concept which is used as a Foot-in-the-Door approach, offered at times at No-cost to the client may fall into this category. The bigger the size of the offer, the bigger the size of Zero, the more compelling it becomes. May be an app development project, may be analysis of the data using your platform, may be this or that. No one can stop talking about you if you drafted/created their business growth strategy for them without charging a dime.

How do you then benefit from this Zero?

Zero has the power of reciprocity. If done free, your customers will reciprocate and most often, return your "favor".

Zero has the power to go viral. You co-brand and co-own the product along with your client. Your effort rides on the client's marketing and distribution budget. You attract new eye-balls and word of mouth. You earn from subsequent sales/usage from the end user rather than your immediate customer.

And sometimes, do it just because you want to do it and can afford it. Zero down on who you want to help, who you think deserves or needs your help. Do the work for them. Charge them Zero.

The Zero Economy is almost there.

What do you think? Does it make sense for you to think in "Zero Direction"? :-)

Are you Betting on Zero yet?