Columbia House, the company that was famous for one of the most successful irresistible offers ever, filed for bankruptcy this past August. Ending their business was mostly due to the changing of customers’ buying and listening habits. With the advent of digital downloads, traditional music sales have plummeted over the past decade.

Columbia House generated billions of dollars when they launched their record club back in the mid-1950s. Their entire business model was based on the concept of creating an “irresistible offer” so appealing that customers would agree to a continuity membership. Columbia House would draw the customer in, have them a free to the membership in order to receive the offer and then add that additional records need to be purchased to fulfill the offer. Columbia House understood how valuable new customers were to their company over time.

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