Time is Running Out...

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Continuing the look at Dr. Cialdini’s book Influence, the next rule we will look at is the rule of Scarcity.

Scarcity:

Scarcity is the concept that when things are less available to us we see them as more valuable.

This is something that influences us because we take it increases the likelihood that we are to take action towards obtaining a valuable item or not miss out on an opportunity.

An example used in the book is this thought experiment.

Imagine that a store sells Louis Vuitton hand bags. Scenario 1, the store has plenty of bags and is restocked regularly. Scenario 2, the store only has 3 bags left and they don’t know when they’ll get another shipment of bags.

Which scenario are you more likely to actually go to the store to pick up a bag?

Scenario 1 obviously.

Not only did the example have a scare quantity of bags but also has an implied time constraint.

Since the only have a few left, the implication is that the others they had were sold already so if you don’t act now your opportunity for a bag would be gone.

Time constraints are a form of scarcity that marketers use a bunch.

In my opinion, I think the reason time constraints are influential are because of the loss aversion bias.

Dr. Cialdini does talk about the loss aversion bias in this chapter but doesn’t connect it to the time constraint aspect.

The loss aversion bias is our tendency to avoid the pain of losing something we already own than we are to pursue something we want.

For example, a friend calls you at midnight saying Discount Tire is selling brand new tires for $50. While that is a good deal, you hang up on your friend and try to get back to sleep.

But if instead your friend called you at midnight and said that somebody was outside stealing the tires off your car, are you going to stay in bed or try to stop the people in your driveway.

I think this relates to the scarcity time constraint because we feel like we have the opportunity and knowing that we will lose the opportunity soon makes us afraid to lose it.

So we take advantage of the opportunity in an effort to not lose it

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