How To Put Songs From Shareaza In

The law of scarcity: How to increase their impact to sell more

PUBLISHED BY the Psychology Corner

The law of scarcity: How to increase their impact to sell more Posted: 03 Jan 2011 12:30 AM PST In a previous article had referred to a well known marketing strategy: Out of stock = want it! as he had outlined the bases psychological effects of low z . This time delve into the psychological law that supports this strategy of marketing and advertising: the law of scarcity. us pause a moment and think how we would be willing to pay for an old piece of paper printed a 4 X 4 cm, which by others, is printed with defects. Probably very little. If you also know that the original price was about 24 cents a dollar, would pay even less, but ... In October of 2005, the collector Bill Gross bought four copies of this paper for more than 2.7 million dollars. Obviously, it was a label called "Inverted Jenny" which was printed in 1918 and accidentally, the figure of the plane had been reversed. Okay, if we are rational may question arises: how is it possible that there are people able to pay so much money at the end is but a piece of paper? The answer really is quite simple: the stamp is not just on paper but a rare object, and therefore precious. From this reasoning, psychologists have coined a principle: the law of scarcity , according to which we perceive as more valuable opportunity if its availability is limited. This applies to all types of products, services, activities or thoughts that may be constrained in their supply and therefore its value is not intrinsic but is due to limited availability. As you can assume, collectors are the most classic examples of the law of scarcity but this principle is also widely used by sellers to raise the perceived value of products. But ... what happens in our mind when someone tells us they are the latest products? The first trick of the mind takes place through the establishment of a linear correlation according to which weigh that if a product is scarce, it is certainly valuable, but in practice this relationship is not necessarily true. The second deception comes from the hand of our reactions: when a product is limited, restricted our purchasing decisions, and usually hate to lose the choice. So, when we feel threatened this possibility, we tend to feel the need to retain it, but its cost is higher. These "tricks" (if you can call them that), reduce our logical thinking, we make hasty decisions subjectively and increase product value. A curious example of the law of scarcity was seen in the U.S. when a group of psychologists in collaboration with the authorities through an ordinance banning the use and possession of phosphate soaps in Dade County, Florida. Before this ban citizens reacted in different ways, some even brought phosphate soaps from neighboring counties. But psychologists found another effect even more widespread and more subtle than it included people who respected the ban, compared with residents de condados vecinos (usados como grupo de control), los ciudadanos de Dade comenzaron a evaluar (después de la promulgación de la ley) los jabones con fosfatos como más suaves, más efectivos con agua fría, más frescos y más poderosos frente a las manchas. Si bien los jabones con fosfatos seguían siendo los mismos. La explicación de este comportamiento y del cambio de percepción es siempre el mismo: el efecto de la ordenanza fue limitar el acceso al jabón con fosfato y como resultado, la gente perdió su libertad de acción, lo cual a su vez generó un mayor deseo de tener esos jabones. Y como generalmente queremos que nuestros deseos tengan sentido, Dade residents began to assign positive qualities to the soap justified. purposes of sale, the law of scarcity is used in two basic forms: 1. Limiting the number of units of the product showing the classic ad: "Offer valid for this week" or 2. Limiting the time in which the product is available by using the sign: "there are only 50 copies." But other ways to promote the perception of scarcity are - Limiting the purchase of the product, each consumer can buy only a certain number of each object. - Exhaustion of a product because the demand exceeded all expectations. - Advertising to "limited series" that generally commemorate a special occasion. - A product that has a "feature limited" (which can be color, like Apple did in his time with the release of the white MacBook which cost $ 150 more.) - A club "exclusive" that limits the number of partners who can join. These strategies are widely used, especially when going to bring new products to market as a general rule, the first prototypes are not perfect, so if subjectively their value increases, the customer will feel more willing to buy but also feel more satisfied with your purchase. Beyond these "rules" easy to increase the effect of a shortage, there are other ways to manipulate the market. One of the most popular and recently used in the campaign of Iphone is "Information crisis." As in any case, if information is limited (restricted or confidential), people perceive it as more valuable and, therefore, when produced, it is assumed to be more credible and persuasive. Thus, the fact of advancing the release of a phone that would revolutionize the mobile market but to postpone its sale six months later without providing much information about its features, aroused such curiosity of those initial sales soared. Another way to increase the desire to buy the product is the strategy of "Growing crisis." The effectiveness of this tactic is evaluated through a simple experiment: a people were presented with a cookie jar with a request that they appreciate how tasty they were. Immediately appreciated a generality: the fewer cookies were presented, they were perceived as more palatable, but ... If a person is given 10 biscuits, they were removed and he had only 2, its attractive power increasing , being much greater than when people were presented directly only 2 cookies. Thus, the gradual reduction in the amount helps to increase the effect of the crisis causing an almost irresistible urge to purchase. A final strategy referred to the Competition Appeal . The classic example of the implementation of this technique are the auction sales, where people compete for the acquisition of a special product. When we know there are others interested in the product, almost automatically acquires a new value before our eyes. Knowing these sales techniques, probably next time we go to the supermarket or when we are thinking of buying a home, we will be more rational in our decision to purchase. ;-) Or not ... Fuentes: Ditto, P.H. & Jemmott, J.B. (1989) From Rarity to Evaluative Extremity: Effects of Prevalence Information on Evaluations of Negative and Positive Characteristics.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ; 57: 16-26. Lynn, M. (1989) Scarcity Effects on Value: Mediated by Assumed Expensiveness?  Journal of Economic Psychology ; 10: 257-274. Brehm, S. S. & Brehm, J.W. (1981)  Psychological Reactance: A Theory of Freedom and Control . New York: Academic Press Inc. Mazis, MB, Settle, RB & Leslie, DC (1973) Elimination of phosphate detergents and Psychological reactance. Journal of Marketing Research, 9: 390-395.