"The marketers can compete with free; it just has to be better. Look at bottled water if you don't believe me"
About this Quote
A small, sharp provocation: “free” isn’t the unbeatable rival we pretend it is. Potter’s bottled-water example lands because it’s both absurd and painfully ordinary. Water is the poster child for “you can get this without paying,” yet marketing routinely persuades people to purchase it anyway. The line works by puncturing the comforting idea that markets win only when they offer something materially superior. Often they win by reframing what “better” means.
Potter’s intent, coming from a psychologist, is less about celebrating clever branding than about spotlighting how value gets built in the mind. “Better” can be taste, purity, status, convenience, identity, or simply the feeling of control in an uncertain world. Bottled water sells the promise of safety and cleanliness even in places where tap water is perfectly potable; it sells a lifestyle cue (“I’m health-conscious,” “I’m on the move”), and it sells frictionlessness (a sealed bottle you can grab, carry, and trust). None of that is H2O’s chemical upgrade. It’s a narrative upgrade.
The subtext is a warning to anyone who assumes “free” is a stable category. Free is often invisible, inconvenient, socially messy, or cognitively taxing. Marketing competes by reducing doubt and decision fatigue, swapping an abstract public good for a branded micro-transaction that feels personal and certain.
Contextually, this fits an era where digital products compete with free information, free entertainment, free tools. Potter’s point is bracing: if you want people to pay, don’t fight price. Redefine “better” in human terms.
Potter’s intent, coming from a psychologist, is less about celebrating clever branding than about spotlighting how value gets built in the mind. “Better” can be taste, purity, status, convenience, identity, or simply the feeling of control in an uncertain world. Bottled water sells the promise of safety and cleanliness even in places where tap water is perfectly potable; it sells a lifestyle cue (“I’m health-conscious,” “I’m on the move”), and it sells frictionlessness (a sealed bottle you can grab, carry, and trust). None of that is H2O’s chemical upgrade. It’s a narrative upgrade.
The subtext is a warning to anyone who assumes “free” is a stable category. Free is often invisible, inconvenient, socially messy, or cognitively taxing. Marketing competes by reducing doubt and decision fatigue, swapping an abstract public good for a branded micro-transaction that feels personal and certain.
Contextually, this fits an era where digital products compete with free information, free entertainment, free tools. Potter’s point is bracing: if you want people to pay, don’t fight price. Redefine “better” in human terms.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marketing |
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