Sumer Morenz: We’re in the San Francisco Bay Area asking: Are free marketing campaigns profitable? Come with me and take a look.

Michael Furlong: You know, it’s really interesting, because we just had one with our company and what we did, we gave away free pancakes. Pancakes with…it was during the 4th of July with red, white and blue…you know, blueberries, that sort of thing and we had a tremendous outpouring from people. It was amazing. It really was beyond our expectations.

Carla Horton: I think it depends what you’re actually trying to market. If you’re actually giving some freebies, I think it will bring in some people and sometimes there’s a disadvantage and an advantage, depending on the situation.

Kaya Fujiwara: Yeah, I think it does. It’s like an incentive to buy something if you know you’re going to get something else with it.

Kurt Klose: There is one company I can think of in particular online that got my exclusive business because of their free marketing campaign of giving rewards with every purchase and that’s a perfect example that I can think of.

Jillian Jaff: I think they work because people are broke right now and they want free stuff.

Michael: Well, of course. I mean, because it’s like connection. You connect with the product, you connect with the people and it exposes you to the people. Once they see that you’re interested in providing the quality product and the service and I believe that gets you back in. At least it gives you the opportunity and the chance and so it’s really up to the customer after.

Carla: Well, I think if your product is good, yes.

Mark Warmus: My name is Mark Warmus. I’m the manager-owner of the Z. Ciocollato in San Francisco on Columbus Street. We make and sell fudge here. We’re a barrel-candy store. We have over 500 varieties of candy and we also sell gelato. We make our own chocolates. We have a lot of fun. unique gift items also.

Mark: The sign outside says free fudge samples. We put that sign out and our business increased 20 to 25 percent overnight and it was great. We had to hire more people immediately to handle the workload. It was pretty impressive.

Sumer: One thing I know, I’m always a sucker for a deal. I’m Sumer Morenz with D&B Digital TV and I’ll see you next time right here.