Chapter 1

Add-On

Additional charge for extras

A man standing while holding the roof railing of what looks like an inside of a train coach. His suitcase, a window seat and an aisle seat in the coach are tagged $60, $20 and $35 respectively. The exit at the rear end of the coach is tagged 0.50.

The pattern

In the Add-On business model, while the core offering is priced competitively, numerous extras drive up the final price. In the end, customers pay more than originally anticipated, but benefit from selecting options that meet their specific needs. Airline tickets are a well-known example: customers pay a low price for a basic ticket, but the overall cost is increased by ‘add-on’ extras such as credit card fees, food and baggage charges.

A triangular model with its vertices labelled what, how and value, while its centre is labelled who. Line segments from the centre meet the arms of the triangle forming three parts. ‘Value’ and ‘what’ vertices are highlighted.

The Add-On pattern generally requires a very ...

Get The Business Model Navigator, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial