Living in a capital city certainly improves your chances of getting a freebie. Not only is the population larger but these places are often considered the trendsetter for retail purchases. So if you live in London, Paris or Beijing you'll probably see a new promotional campaign launched there first. The hope is that the fashionable city dwellers will try and like the new item and endorse it on social media. Eventually everyone around the country will know about it. 

How businesses give away freebies is also of interest. According to behavioural economist Enrico Trevisan, they have three different approaches: "future selling, cross-selling and up-selling". The first is about giving something away assuming we will like it and buy more later. "With cross-selling, the company tries to gain new clients through an entrance product, with the intention of selling them additional products during their life cycle" and 'up-selling' happens when a basic version is given away for free but charges a client for more advanced and complete versions. Maybe you've experienced one of these approaches?

Of course a freebie is not actually free – someone has to pay for it and this usually comes from a firm's marketing budget which is funded by the products we buy – so the expression 'there's no such thing as a free lunch' could be true!

词汇表 a freebie 赠品，免费品

complimentary （公司）免费赠送的

marketing 销售，营销

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