The library at my kids' school does a very interesting thing...
They limit the number of books that the littlest kids can check out to one per day.
This strategy has both positives and negatives. For a kid like me, who had to be dragged away from his books to come to dinner, this is a major tragedy.
But for most of the kids, this is a major advantage.
It actually causes the kids to want to read the books faster so that they can come back the next day to get the other tomes that are clawing for their attention.
This tactic has a name - it's called "scarcity marketing." We use it when we tell people that:
- They can only have a certain number of an item
- There's only a limited supply available
- Something's only available at that price for a limited time.
You're going to see this tactic used liberally right after Thanksgiving. You'll see door crasher sales, while quantity lasts sales, and limited quantities available at this price.
All of these executions fall under the definition of scarcity marketing, but they're all usages that make people feel cheated because they're artificial. These tactics cause people to say "hey, if this product was $9.99 this morning, why is it $19.99 now? What changed? It's the same product that was on the shelf this morning, so why is it now worth twice as much?"
The best scarcity tactics are real, not artificially created.
|
|
It's a product that sells out because that's all they've been able to make so far. (The launch of the newest video game)
It's a product that is limited in availability by some set factor (seats in a concert hall, openings at a university)
It's a product that everyone understands is in limited supply (scratch and dent damaged goods, truffles, seats on flights into space)
It's a product that's artificially limited but for an understandable reason (I'm only selling 300 copies of this training manual to restrict this knowledge to a select few.)
True scarcity, properly marketed, incites action. It creates lines (literal door-crashers), thousands of people pounding web servers to buy before the first come first served sale ends, and most importantly, the ability to charge a higher fee than those who don't use this tactic.
It's also a great PR tool - True scarcity gives you the opportunity to tell the story behind the scarcity, while building the demand to an even higher pitch than before. It's a back-story paradise!
Think about it. How can you build scarcity into your marketing and PR?
Are you looking for more ways to get attention and to differentiate yourself with the public and the media? Check out Media Relations Power: 199 Ways To Get Free Publicity for Your Company, Cause or Product
Posted November 22, 2004
More Public Relations / Publicity Comments:« Identifying Story Hooks: How Good Are You?
Public Relations and Publicity Blog
