Scarcity is a strategy to increase desirability of products by indicating supply is limited or has a time constraint.
The Universal Design Principles states the following tactics that are applied to this principle: exclusive information, limited access, limited time, limited number, suddenness.
Example: Event at H&M has limited time to shop. Shoppers only have 15 minutes to grab what they want and can only pick two items per style.
Example found online: Pliney The Elder Beer is a craft beer that is available in limited quantity. The company doesn’t market the beer and doesn’t provide release dates. The scarcity causes consumers to hunt for the beer and make a purchase because they know that it will sell out quickly.
Example found in the real world: Safeway advertising items that are only on sale on a specific date. It was posted a couple of days before the sale to entice the customer to come back.
This strategy is great for consumer products, especially when people want to own things others cannot. This effect also creates an after market for the product, this is evident in the billion dollar sneaker resell market (http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-billion-dollar-sneakerhead-resale-economy-2016-5). Rare sneakers which originally release for $200 can enter the aftermarket starting at $500 – $2000+
@Jennifer @Mia – Great examples! Thanks for point out the “aftermarket” effect of the scarcity strategy. This can create an even stronger sense of scarcity because they market see how much the product costs in the secondary market. I wonder if companies take advantage of this or try to stop it?
One of my past clients was in beauty/makeup and through competitive research, I found Kylie’s Lip Kits are a perfect example of scarcity! She uses social media to promote and launch her “limited supply” kits. Then they sell out within 10 minutes! And you see them on eBay for hundreds of dollars (retail at $29)…incredible!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/03/02/kylie-jenners-lip-kits-social-status-and-the-economics-of-scarcity/#cc5ec8b2960c
I think your examples do a great job of demonstrating the scarcity strategy in action, especially in terms of motivating the consumer because of the concept of scarcity of a certain item. The beer example shows this off extremely well; typically people would not be motivated to make a special attempt to go around in search of a certain beer, but because the beer is scarce and limited, consumers of that beer feel pressure to find the beer to be able to buy it. A similar use of scarcity can be seen in the music world when it comes to physical releases. There is a certain artist/composer whose vinyl releases are known to sell out extremely quickly due to the high demand and very limited number of records pressed; the end result of this is a number of the records going for sell after the record has already sold out for double or triple he original selling price because the record is so scarce but is in such high demand. The linked record originally sold for about $30, and now is typically sold for over $100-$200. https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=338796&ev=mb&format=Vinyl