Let's say today that you are planning a sale of an item in your store...
The "Principle of Scarcity" states that individuals are more attracted to products or opportunities when they are less available." (Cialdini, R. B. in Influence: Science and Practice)
This means on a practical level that when you choose to advertise that product, you are going to need to have statements such as “limited time offer” and “as long as supplies last” or "we may have some, or we may have already sold out" or something similar in your marketing messages.
Thankfully, they are very powerful weapons of choice when done right, they will influence, lead, and motivate your customers, because they lead consumers to act quickly if they are interested in the product.
Why?
Because individual customers will naturally conclude that things with limited quantities or limited time offers are more valuable, since they are more difficult to obtain.
They really hate it when and if an opportunity to purchase a limited product is missed.
Any advertisement using the limited-number technique is a great motivator to use, as it does urge consumers to act quickly.
BUT, to inform as many customers as you can that this really is a limited time offer, you need frequency of advertising to build need and urgency.
The sooner consumers act, the less time they have to think of objections and construct doubts about their decision.
It may be considered cut throat, but that is the reality of sales and business in a nutshell.
So my question to you is... Can you build a scarce product into your next marketing campaign?
This post was written for the B4C by the extremely limited, and one off Earl Pilkington.
