Noel Capon, R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing at Columbia Business School, is offering his independently published textbook for free online. The catch? At the end of the semester he will ask students to pay what they want based on how much they think it was worth to them.
Fifty percent of the proceeds of “Managing Marketing in the 21st Century” will go towards scholarship funds, and a standard printed copy is available for $45.
"These are difficult economic times for college students in the midst of a credit crisis and they have less patience for textbook prices that exceed $150." says Capon. "The traditional textbook industry has always seemed to have an implicit agreement not to compete on price. Instructors who care about their students' pocketbooks will surely take a serious look at alternatives."
Sounds more like a hidden lesson plan for his class than a serious marketing strategy, but surely the students will have no problem with the deal.
And it’s hard to imagine many of them dishing out the cash after the course when they have a whole new semester’s worth of books to purchase.
A number of publishers lately have tried following in Radiohead’s footsteps, including the music magazine Paste and Good, a magazine focused on social issues geared towards young people.
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