Big brands getting even bigger by giving it away

Posting looks as if it may be thin here today, so a quick comment on the economics of the internet.

The usual story is that the big, bad, old organisations could be in trouble now as the internet whistles into existence a million new nimble players to run rings around the big, bad, etc. … blah blah.

But how about this for a train of thought?

Selling text on the internet is working, okay, sort of, but it hasn’t really taken off. There’s too much free stuff, and anyway, people don’t want to pay. Maybe they’re scared that if they start surrendering £30 here and £30 there, it will never stop and they’ll be bankrupt. Maybe they just reckon the prices will come down, and they’re waiting.

But what if you are a huge, globally celebrated organisation which wants to be able to swank even more than you do now about how much beneficial impact you are having on the world, to your donors, charitable or political, and would actually quite welcome the simplicity of not having to be too businesslike about it all, and to have to chase every last cent for every bit of virtual stuff that you part with?

What if you are the BBC? Despite all that our bit of the blogosphere may say, the BBC still counts for a hell of a lot in the world; that’s why our bit of the blogosphere complains about it so much.

Or what if you are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology? I finally took a look a long overdue look at the MIT OCW site (OCW = OpenCourseWare) today as a result of my Education Blog activities, but it seems to me that the give-away principle is far broader than merely educational – and incidentally that education itself will gain from many other institutions besides straight-up educators giving their stuff away. (Like the BBC.)

I still don’t think it’s right that the BBC should be paid for by me, in the form of a tax on my television viewing of over £100 per annum, and I hope they lose this privileged economic position no matter how generous they now say they want to be to the world. Nevertheless, as a matter of fact (whether business or political) rather than of morals, it seems to me that we may see a lot more of this kind of reputation-building giving-it-away stuff.

I reckon that for the right kind of global institution, basically an already globally leading operator which is eager to stay out in front of the pack, and which has a big archive the selling of which is not (as it would be in the case of, say, a big record company) central to its economic success, a huge give-away could be the smartest possible move.

The BBC is fighting for the current version of its life, and their give-away may only be talk, as part of that fight.

But MIT have, I reckon, taken a huge leap into the educational twenty first century with their great, global give-away, in a way that can only secure their position as global brand leaders in higher education.

There must be big organisations whom it would suit to do the same. There must be others who are doing the same.

The blogosphere is going to love it.