Scarcity Marketing: 6 Innovative Tactics You Need to Know

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The girls all get prettier at closing time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At least according to American country music artist Mickey Gilley in his 1976 hit. As opportunities, and the items they present, become scarcer, they are perceived as more valuable. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This principle accounts for studies showing that: </span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Tasters rated cookies as more desirable when they were scarce rather than abundant; </span></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Consumers rated phosphate detergents as better once their use was prohibited by government decree; </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">College students rated their cafeteria food higher when they learned that it would not be available to them for two weeks; </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">And young lovers rated themselves as more in love with their sweethearts as long as their parents tried to keep them apart.</span></li> </ul> <p><strong>Scarcity marketing</strong> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">is the idea of limiting the supply of a product, whether it be through restricting availability to a certain timeframe or decreasing production—oftentimes both.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The principle is sound—we all want what we can’t have and love to flaunt when we have something others don’t. Scarcity marketing takes advantage of this desire, creating demand through mystique and enticement. It’s an excellent way to ensure that a product is swept off the shelves with the hype that every brand wants to create.</span></p> <p><strong>We tend to associate limited availability with exclusivity. </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If things are difficult to get, we know it’s because they’re better than the