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When in a saturated (饱和的) market, you need a hook that makes your business stand out from the competition. Lower prices could help, but imagine a tactic that could encourage organic conversation about your brand, and actually help you increase the value of your product.

That’s scarcity marketing. And you’ll find it used across numerous industries.

It’s especially common in retail, as companies use several exclusivity techniques, like limited time sales, to encourage consumers further along the buying cycle. It’s also common in the tech industry, whether for promoting apps or devices. Even beauty brands are rewarding consumers with exclusive club membership.

Scarcity marketing is everywhere. But it’s also a risky tactic.

Limited items and restricted membership mean some of your consumers will miss out, leading to frustration, disappointment, and anger. You need to use social media listening to make sure your strategy doesn’t backfire.

The reason why scarcity marketing tactics are so effective is due to our fear of missing out, or FOMO(fear of missing out). It’s driven by the explosive growth of social networking that gives us a greater opportunity to connect with people around the world. But that increased reliance on the Internet encourages people to feel more anxious about missing something important.

Brands can make the most of this in their sales and marketing strategy by the scarcity principle. Consumers place a higher value on goods that are scarce. Or even, just perceived to be scarce. So, by decreasing the availability of your product or service, while still maintaining the demand, your product will be made more scarce. Meaning you can charge a premium price. That’s why scarcity marketing is so effective. You’re decreasing supply, tipping the equilibrium in your favour.

In What Exclusivity Can Do for Your Business Marketing, Rachel Winsted explains how you can use exclusivity as your entire marketing strategy. This relies less on traditional marketing techniques, and more on making your brand appear unique.

This boutique style can be more cost-effective, as you don’t need to advertise to everyone. In fact, it benefits from fewer people knowing about the brand. That way, new consumers get an extra thrill from discovering you and will sell you to their friends, if only to show off what they’ve discovered. The three things for making this strategy work are:

·Networking

With fewer marketing channels available, you want more face-to-face engagement. It’s a more personal way to promote. Therefore, more exclusive.

·A simpler online presence

You want to create engaging social media content, not promotional sales posts. Give clients the opportunity to find out more about you on their own accord.

·An amazing customer experience

This is essential. There’s no point in being exclusionary if what you offer isn’t. It’s easy for exclusivity to go wrong if there’s nothing unique about the brand.

1．Which of the following cases falls into the category of strategy of scarcity marketing?

A．A small cafe in Singapore only opens on random days.

B．A fitness gym encourages people to pre-purchase courses with a special offer.

C．A cosmetic shop sends samples of its latest products to its potential customers.

D．Face masks are out of stock during the outbreak of the pandemic in January 2020.

2．All of the adjectives describe the feature of scarcity marketing EXCEPT ”________“.

A．risky

B．tricky

C．effective

D．eccentric

3．According to the context, which phrase best interprets the underlined word “backfire” in paragraph 5?

A．Let somebody down.	B．Miss a golden opportunity.
C．Have the opposite effect.	D．Go against the principle.

4．Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A．Access to the Internet could alleviate people’s fear of missing out because of the extensive information it provides.

B．Your scarcity marketing would be in vain without the excellent customer experience.

C．Decreasing the availability of your product results in the decline in demand.

D．The more people you target at, the more people knowing about your brand, the better.