B2 – Upper Intermediate
Companies and businesses use the tactic of scarcity marketing to stand out. The idea is to make product scarce in order to attract customers and boost sales. It’s based on a psychological principle that the more difficult it is to obtain something, the more people want it.
Watch the video on how scarcity is used in marketing strategy and be able to express your opinions by answering the questions that follow.
Discussion Questions:
- Why do you think scarcity marketing has been effective and why has it become a powerful sales and marketing tool?
- What are some of scarcity marketing do you know of? Cite some examples.
- Share an experience you had when you fell for scarcity marketing which led you to purchase a product.
16 replies on “Using Scarcity in Marketing Strategy”
1. Why do you think scarcity marketing has been effective and why has it become a powerful sales and marketing tool?
As seen in the video, it is a pure psychological game that could be based on our ancient past as hunters and gatherers when human beings did not know when they would have the opportunity to eat.
2. What are some of scarcity marketing do you know of? Cite some examples.
Well, it would not be a marketing strategy, but in recent times with failures related to supply chain and Urania’s war, scarcity is a recognized characteristic for example in cars and microchips, followed by increasing prices.
3. Share an experience you had when you fell for scarcity marketing which led you to purchase a product.
I am not an impulsive consumer and do not fall for this strategy. Not even at the beginning of the pandemic did I buy a lot of sanitary paper.
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Why do you think scarcity marketing has been effective and why has it become a powerful sales and marketing tool?
It is a human behavior. Fear of missing out phenomenon it is a sensation that you are going to lose a great opportunity, for instance, crypto currencies. Therefore, use the sensation of missing something it will be always a powerful tool.
What are some of scarcity marketing do you know of?
As it was mentioned in the video, booking shows you how many rooms are left, how many people are checking the same hotel … so it creates yo a FOMO feeling that it would lead you to book the room in advance.
real state business often use this technique, they usually tag the house with “reserved”
Share an experience you had when you fell for scarcity marketing which led you to purchase a product.
It does not affect me so much in product purchase, it affects my buy behavior in stock market, it is one of my weaknesses.
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1 – It is not a secret people like to feel as part of something or “being normal”. The minimal sensation that you can be the one who don’t have or bought something that is becoming popular could be like the death for a lot of people, that’s why I think it is effective and a powerful sales and marketing tool, because they take advantage of people like that.
2 – The first example that comes to my mind is the milk sales technics at the supermarkets in my city. Sometimes they use to leave only one brand, it sounds like, the others are over. Sometimes they use to do the same and with few units, so the concept is the same, people will think it is over when, in fact, it is not.
3 – I don’t remember the last time it occurs with me, but I would like to mention some interesting experience. I think that it was a world reaction., At the beginning of the pandemic, people just went to the supermarket and started to buy uncontrolled and, I remember someday at the supermarket a woman just start to fill her “shopping cart” with a product that no one was having for, but at the same time she starts to talk about the importance of that product for her. People around her started to buy that product with “an apparently” fear that “tomorrow” it will over. The point is the mass follow the normal reaction as “normal” without reflect why, I have an opinion that, whenever we fell as being forced to buy something we really don’t need, a good solution is to ask ourselves: Why I’m buying it?
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1. Because of the greedy human nature. We are always thinking of what will we have in the future, and if we think that something is not going to be available, then we tend to buy it now.
2. In the hotel page “Booking”, there is always a message in the rooms you are looking for about how many people are watching and how many rooms are left. This creates the necessity to book ASAP to avoid ending without a room.
3. It happened to me when booking a room in online booking pages, seeing that there are a few rooms remaining in the hotel I like, hurried me to book the room.
Thank you for writing your responses to this lesson’s discussion questions.
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1. Because it seems that humans value more such things which are uniques or than at least, nobody could purchase.
2. Apple products somethings follow this kind of strategy.
3. I remmember a similar situation when I was buying a new shoes. They only have 1 shoes and it was my size so my mind go directly from them.
It is good that you have started practicing your writing. Also try to be more expressive in your responses.
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1. Because it puts on you a sense of urgency to get the item right now. And since we live in an urgency and immediacy society, it’s a pretty effective marketing strategy.
2. Limited offers in shops like BuyVip, Voyage Privèe or any clothing company with flash offers or limited in time. I’ve also seen it at Amazon many times.
3. When I bought my MacBook Pro, I waited until Black Friday because it was the only chance to purchase it with a very good discount. This is a good example of good use, because I had already decided to buy it.
Many thanks for taking the time out in writing down your answers here. Well done!
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The scarcity marketing is effective among the consumers because it is linked with the psychology of the human being. When something is limited either in time or quantity, it turns into special. People usually show interest if the things are difficult to get or replace. It makes them more valuable. The scarcity generates exclusivity, it distinguishes between those who have and do not.
This strategy can be found almost in every product or service susceptible of being sold or hired.
On the internet, sometimes the number of articles of a product on sale are minimum, others the time to buy a product is limited in the time.
If someone tries to buy a plane ticket or book a room in a hotel, there usually is a little screen informing about how many people are looking for the same ticket or room and how many are left.
On some occasions, the seller offers a promotion or discount in the product just if the purchase is made in that moment.
Service companies such as electricity, phone or gas are other examples. They try to sell their services on the phone giving attractive discounts just if the person accepts it immediately and they do not leave them time to think about such promotion and much less, the contract conditions.
I am very cautious person and I do not usually buy anything without thinking carefully on the necessity. I think that nothing is free because everyone has to get a benefit from their products. Therefore, when they try to attract us with something I know that there will be something behind it. Even so, I recognize that I have also fallen in the temptation of this strategy when I have booked a hotel room on the internet, thinking that I could miss the offer if someone did the reservation before me.
You did very well in writing your answers.
See how this sentence can be revised:
Keep up the good work in your writing practice.
Why do you think scarcity marketing has been effective and why has it become a powerful sales and marketing tool?
I’m quite familiar with this principle, which is used alongside others in so-called social engineering. Social engineering is designed to manipulate people and to make them behave in a way that normally they wouldn’t. To do so, 5 principles could be used, Authority, Intimidation, Urgency, Scarcity and Trust. I’m familiar with them due to my IT security background, however, they could be used in other ways to cause the same effect.
What are some of scarcity marketing do you know of? Cite some examples.
The first example that comes to my mind is the one that you can see when booking at booking.com or either edreams.com, they both use the same passive-aggressive messages like “there’s only 1 room left”. That puts you in a hurry to book without thinking about it twice, even once!
Share an experience you had when you fell for scarcity marketing which led you to purchase a product.
Aside from booking.com or edreams.com, I’ve usually experimented with the same feeling while trying to purchase a concert ticket. To be more precisely I suffered from both Urgency and Scarcity to be as fast as possible to buy my ticket without thinking too much.
You did a really good job writing your answers.
Here is a slight revision you can make in this sentence to improve it:
Revised version:
Social engineering is designed to manipulate people and make them behave in a way they normally wouldn’t.
Keep up the good job in your writing practice!