Gratis is the process of providing goods or services without compensation. It is often referred to in English as "free of charge" (FOC) or "complimentary". Companies, producers, and service providers often provide certain things free of charge as part of a larger business model A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value - economic, social, or other forms of value. The process of business model design is part of business strategy or pricing strategy There are many ways in which the price of a product can be determined. The following are the foremost strategies that businesses are likely to use.

Etymology

The term gratis in English comes from the Latin word "gratis" meaning "for thanks".^[1]. In several languages, including Afrikaans Afrikaans is a South African language originating from the Dutch spoken by settlers in Africa in the seventeenth century. Despite the fact that Afrikaans developed in Africa and is unique to the region, it is classified as Low Franconian West Germanic due to the fact that it originates from Dutch. Aside from English, Afrikaans deviates the, Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken in the, Danish Danish (dansk, pronounced [d̥ænˀsɡ̊] ) is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages), a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, Dutch Dutch ( Nederlands ) is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language and over 5 million people as a second language. Most native speakers live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, with smaller groups of speakers in parts of France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. It is closely related to other, French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in, Galician Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, as well as in small bordering zones in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and León and in Northern Portugal, German German (Deutsch, [ˈdɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Globally, German is spoken by approximately 120 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers, Bahasa Indonesia Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries, Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 62 million people in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and France. It is spoken as a first language by many Italian citizens and immigrants abroad, for a total of approximately 70 million native speakers. In addition, it, Norwegian Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants (see Danish language), Polish Polish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner throughout most of Poland, Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated from a fusion of the dialect spoken in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal with closely related dialects spoken in territories to the south which had not yet been reconquered by the Christians to the Arabs by the time Portugal was born as a Christian kingdom, Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə] ("the Romanian language") or româneşte (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania,, Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population and Swedish Swedish ( svenska ) is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish (see especially "Classification"). Along it is the equivalent to "for free".

Marketing

In a standard business model where goods and services are exchanged for a monetary compensation, pricing Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a fundamental aspect of financial modeling and is one of the of the goods is a fundamental element The term "marketing mix" was first used in 1953 when Neil Borden, in his American Marketing Association presidential address, took the recipe idea one step further and coined the term "marketing-mix". A prominent marketer, E. Jerome McCarthy, proposed a 4 P classification in 1960, which has seen wide use. The four Ps concept is of the marketing Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves process. While it would defeat the business model if companies provide all of their goods and services free of charge, it is common for them to provide limited amount of free goods in their promotional mix. Many companies often provide free samples to the press in order to generate media coverage for their products. Depending on the product, companies may provide free samples to prospective buyers.

In addition, many companies would often provide complementary goods and services A complementary good in economics is a good which is consumed with another good; its cross elasticity of demand is negative. – It is two goods that are bought and used together. This means that, if goods A and B are complements, an increase in the quantity demanded for good A results in an increase in demand for good B. An increase in the price free of charge. For example, coffeehouses A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on providing coffee and tea as well as light snacks. Many often provide Internet access free of charge to attract more customers. Hotels often provide free shuttle services. Restaurants often provide valet parking Valet parking is a parking service offered by some restaurants, stores, and other businesses particularly in North America. In contrast to "self-parking", where customers find parking on their own, customers' vehicles are parked for them by a person called a valet. This service either requires a fee to be paid by the customer or is service free of charge.

Companies may also distribute branded stationery Stationery has historically meant a wide gamut of materials: paper and office supplies, writing implements, greeting cards, glue, pencil case etc, refrigerator magnet A refrigerator magnet is an ornament, often whimsical, attached to a small magnet which is used to post items such as shopping lists or report cards on a refrigerator, or which simply serves as decoration. Refrigerator magnets come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, including but not limited to images die-cut to a specific shape or tiny, or similar items free to promote their brand instead of any specific line of products.

Mass media

In certain industries, such as the mass media Mass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries where major part of the revenue comes from advertisers, it is often in the company's interest to reach as many people as possible. In this model, companies would often distribute most of their products and services free of charge, so it can reach the largest possible audience. The companies would then attempt to recoup all costs from advertising.

Software

In software development, where the cost of mass production Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. The concepts of mass production are applied to various kinds of products, from fluids and particulates handled in bulk (such as food, fuel, chemicals, and mined minerals) to discrete solid parts (such as fasteners) to assemblies is relatively small, it is common for developers to publish software under free of charge licenses.

One of the early and basic forms of this model is called freeware Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee. Software referred to as freeware is almost always proprietary. Software that is commercial is occasionally referred to as payware. Under a freeware, software is licensed free of charge for regular use, the developer does not gain any monetary compensation.

With the development of the software industry, other license schemes arose similar to limited free products in standard marketing. These licenses offer users limited use while attempt to recuperate development cost through the full product. Two common examples are shareware The term shareware refers to proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a periodical such as a newspaper or magazine. The and trialware Demoware is commercial software released for free (shareware) in a version which is limited in one or more ways. Some of the most common limitations are:.

With the advent of the free software movement The free software movement is a social movement which aims to enable users to access and modify software free of cost. The alternative terms "software libre", "open source", and "FOSS" are associated with the free software movement. Although drawing on traditions and philosophies among members of the 1970s hacker, license schemes are created to give developers more freedom in terms of code sharing. Distinction has to be drawn between "freedom" and "free of charge", the latter also referred to as "free as in beer". This distinction is often called Gratis versus Libre Gratis versus libre is the distinction between two meanings of the English word "free"; namely, "for zero price" and "with few or no restrictions" (libre). The ambiguity of "free" can cause issues where the distinction is important, as it often is in dealing with laws concerning the use of information, such.

See also

• Pro bono Pro bono publico is a phrase derived from Latin meaning "for the public good". The term is generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms. Pro bono service,
• There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" is a popular adage communicating the idea that it is impossible to get something for nothing. The acronyms TANSTAAFL and TINSTAAFL are also used. Uses of the phrase dating back to the 1930s and 1940s have been found, but the phrase's first appearance is unknown. The "free lunch" in

References

1. ^ "gratis". The Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gratis. Retrieved 2008-09-02.

Categories: Business models Categories: Strategic management | Business | Marketing strategies and paradigms | Specific models | Latin adjectives in current use Categories: Latin words and phrases | Latin language

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• Gratis
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• Gratia: Dictionary
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