In class we discussed the need for a business to create a cascade by forcing the demand for the product past an early critical point. If such an accomplishment is reached, then users will most likely continue demanding the product until another critical “point of saturation” is reached. The key issue was how to get a new product into the mainstream. We brainstormed ideas and one such idea was to give away the product to early users. That could prove to be difficult if there isn’t an actual product a company is trying to promote because the company wants to provide a service. For example, a wide range of new “Web 2.0 companies” are trying to gather users they service via the internet.

Instead of giving away something, these companies use other incentives such as providing some payment to the users. However, this presents an interesting question as to the legitimacy of intentions. In the recent post on VentureBeat, certain companies are featured for their questionable campaigns to overcome the first critical point towards a cascade. In fact, the post questions these companies as outright pyramid schemes that don’t provide actual substance.

Sometimes the pyramid scheme concern is fair. The case for KushCash as a pyramid scheme is convincing. The follow-up post, regarding Weblo, also makes a compelling case. But using a legitimate marketing campaign, how does a company avoid even the mere impropriety of such a pyramid scheme? It is hard enough to focus on the business and creating path dependence so that the second critical point is attained, and then to throw in the obstacle of differentiating its marketing from pyramid schemes just makes everything even more difficult. I suppose that makes a true cascade all the more impressive.