“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost”
- G. K. Chesterton
Back in 2003, British Airways announced that it will be no longer operate the twice-daily London to New York Flight. The reason being, that it had become uneconomical to run. Sales, the very next day, took off.
The service did not improve; the Concorde did not fly any faster. The only thing that changed was that the service became scarce, and as a result, people wanted it more.
It’s funny, isn’t it? But humans are wired with such strange principles.
Social Scientist, Stephen Worchel conducted a cookie experiment. Chocolate chip cookies were given to participants in a jar and they were asked to taste and rate them. For half of the raters, the jar contained 10 cookies and for the other half, it only contained two. Now get this,
“ When the cookie was one of the only two available, it was rated far more favourably than it was one of ten”
The cookies were identical, the jar looked the same. The only thing reduced was the abundant supply and that made them tastier, desirable, and expensive.
What we saw here is an example of constant scarcity and we already learned that. But do we find things valuable that recently became scarce?
To get an answer to this one, participants were given a jar of 10 cookies and before anyone can even taste it, the jar was replaced by two cookies. This instant drop from abundance to scarcity produced an even more positive reaction than before.
That my friend is the sacred power of the scarcity principle. Think about it. The lesser the cookies, the more valuable and therefore tasty they are.
There is no surprise that the big giants actively use scarcity to sell like crazy. Let’s look at a few examples, shall we?
Supreme- the scarcity king
Supreme, the American street-wear brand is the scarcity king. They purposely produce fewer products than demand, causing the limited edition product drops to sell out in minutes. When you are wearing a limited edition anything, you’re perceived as different.
From a psychological perspective, the desire to be different and stand out from the crowd is among the strongest desires among humans. Supreme helps its customers achieve this desire when they wear a limited edition shirt.
When a company helps its customers to fulfill deep, often unconscious desires, the customers go from being fully satisfied to emotionally connected brand ambassadors. Emotionally connected customers are 52% more valuable than highly satisfied ones. Harvard Business Review
Not only that, when a product is selling like hell, supreme stops its production. This skyrockets the value of that product and owners sell it for 10x its price.
Zara- the fast fashion brand
Zara is fully aware of how powerful the scarcity principle is. Therefore, this Spanish brand makes small quantities of each style much like its American Neighbour Supreme. By doing that, Zara creates artificial scarcity and retains exclusivity. Does it work?
Zara makes billions and spends $0. The average marketing spend for retail is 3.5%, but this Spanish brand spends only 0.3%, which is close to nothing.
Harvard business review strategy.
HBR people actually know what they are doing, duh. When a non-subscriber visits their website, he/she is only allowed to read 4 articles for free. To read further, you must subscribe.
As we just learned the lesser the cookies the tastier they are. You got the picture dintchya?
Medium strategy
Likewise medium follows the same path.
When I first came across medium, I read one or two articles and I liked them. The next day, I came back just to find out that it is paid. That is where I absolutely loved it. So much so that, I started blogging on it.
James Assael — the pearl business titan
Assael was the Michel Jordan of selling. Selling an already in-demand product is one thing, but creating a demand for a product no one knows about and then selling it to the cream of society is a whole new battle. Among other marketing strategies, he deliciously employed Scarcity to enhance the value of his product. His personal clients included UK’s former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and 1940s TV sensation Elizabeth Taylor. So I think it worked?
Scarcity does not have to be your primary marketing strategy, but more like another weapon in your arsenal. Just like Zara, Hbr and Medium you gotta find the right angle to fire it. This will be different for every business since our targets are different. So think about where you can apply it to your business.
For more psychological a.k.a dark marketing strategies, shoot me an email at m.nomanaltaf11@gmail.com or simply follow me by clicking the cute greenish button below.
It’s that easy, wasn’t it so easy? Wow, what a time to be alive.
