This page is overseen by the Marketing Group

This page is a 'sandpit' for ideas to be developed (or not) later.

Paul Crosland is sharing his experiments in engaging neighbours with freelending on this google document

Some of the marketing strategies to be developed are as follows:

• Pay people to add items for lending.  For example, pay £5 to people who add 50 items. Limit this to people with a 'BS' postcode, and to the first 200 people.  If fully subscribed, this campaign would result in 10,000 items being added in the Bristol area, at a cost of £1000, providing a solid library of items.  People would have to add 50 items, then apply for payment via the Contact Freelender page, then be sent a cheque.  Hence, the payments could be 'moderated'.  This is an easier way in for people than paying them based on a number of times their items are lent, hence more likely to attract people.  It could be abused (e.g. by people deleting all their items after receiving payment), but part of the learning would be to find out the extent of such abuse, and whether that invalidates such schemes.
• Freelend users to be provided with downloadable leaflets / posters and ways to order/customise more (see also the couchsurfing business card approach)
• Buddhfield Festival 2010 - deliver a report on the successes of 2009 and plan a leaflet that lets people knowin advance of entering the site that they can drop off items for others at the freelender tent. (also plan for a reserve depot or a more efficient use of limited storage space).
• Prepare a presentation about the cultural change involved in freelending. (Include anecdotes, history, wider vision, interesting new ideas, great visuals and calls to action). (NB see Seth Godin here as a possible example of the kind of presentation)
• Is there an organisation with a product that it wants to offer on a trial basis to people -and can freelender.org co-ordinate this? (NB Ethics)
• When grown large enough, apply for awards eg catalyst or Observer Ethical Award
• -Freelender song
• -Freelender parties
• The last Saturday in October  Clocks Back Campaign -why not use your extra hour to build connection via freelender.org
• Celebrate Buy Nothing Day on Saturday November 28th 2009! $HOP L£$$ - LIV£ MOR£!!!
• Consider the causes function here: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/help?m=b33040f8
• A 'Freelender-Freelander' campaign (aimed to challenge 4x4 (and other vehicle choice) prejudice. (The leafleting and competition is being started to see whether more freelanders than hybrid cars are made available on freelender.org in the first year).
• Calculate (and promote) possible savings from borrowing: We'll be looking at possible savings on this spreadsheet:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApPMF60tyDWedEJtQ0NTMWpJZ1pzcUtiTjFkT2M3SVE&hl=en

From the Tipping Point (By Malcolm Gladwell, -NB available on freelender.org in BS7):

The progression of a new idea - Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority & Laggers

Innovators [were] the early ones. The slightly larger group who were infected by them were the Early Adopters. They were the opinion leaders in the community, the respected, thoughtful people who watched and analyzed what those wild Innovators were doing and then followed suit. Then came the big bulge of [individuals], the Early Majority and the Late Majority, the deliberate and skeptical mass, who would never try anything until the most respected had tried it first.

They caught the [new idea] virus and passed it on, finally, to the Laggards, the most traditional of all, who see no urgetn reason to change.

The message [in this case, the potential of new seeds] was highly contagious and powerfully "sticky". A farmer, after all, could see with his own eyes, from planting to harvest, how much better the new seeds were than the old. It's hard to imagine how that particular innovation couldn't have tipped. But in many cases the contagious spread of a new idea is actually quite tricky.

(Gladwell, p196 & 197)