A Fun Read on Marketing Tactics
How Does Hunger Marketing Strategy Get Into Your Head?
You could pre-order a pair of shoes, and pay $70 for that pre-order fee. I am talking about Yeezys. But how about a Cronut from Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York? Bakery owner Dominique Ansel created the pastry out of dough similar to that of a croissant with flavored cream inside. Now, you either pre-order the Cronut online or you got to wait in line in front of the store. Craving is real.
Scarcity, the limited supply of goods, affects the perceived value of specific products or services and may increase consumers’ favorability toward them. In recent years, more and more brands have successfully boosted their sales by using the scarcity strategy in their marketing campaigns. Specifically, companies limit the quantity or time availability of the product to give consumers the impression that the products will soon be sold out, thus stimulating them to purchase. Brands in multiple industries have had success with this strategy, including but not limited to clothing, cosmetics, food, and many more.
On February 8 in 2015, American rapper and music artist Kanye West revealed his collaboration with Adidas on the newest trendy sneaker — Yeezy Boost 750. Two days later posters were all through the Adidas flagship stores but the actual release was on February 14, where Yeezy Boost 750 was only available to people who confirmed a reservation through the official mobile application and lined up in the flagship store. Two weeks after the reveal of the sneaker, Yeezy Boost 750 was finally become available in stock with a wider range of retailers, priced at $350 per pair.
To illustrate further, when a brand offers limited edition products, it starts with two different types of scarcity signals: limited-quantity scarcity (LQS) message and limited-time scarcity (LTS) message. Prior research has discovered that underexposure of resource scarcity, in other words, the limited-quantity scarcity message, consumers develop rather competitive psychology that would cause people to act more selfishly. The LQS message tends to be relatively more effective than the LTS message for consumers.
Through several mediating variables such as perceived sacrifice, assumed expensiveness, perceived quality and perceived uniqueness, the signal of scarcity would raise a certain offering’s perceived value. Due to the impact of the perceived variables, there is a correlational increase in perceived value that will ultimately increase consumers’ purchasing motivation.
Adidas has been collaborating with Kanye West on the hunger marketing strategy for several release. However, last year, for the Triple White Yeezy Boost, Adidas decided not to use any more hunger marketing strategy (limited stock-LQS), with stock counts being around 1,000,000 pairs released worldwide (no exact confirmation on that number, but we heard rumors). With stock released nearly 100 times of the previous several releases, Triple White Yeezy has become the second most popular “Instagrammed” shoe and has been the best-selling variation on the retail and resale market. Thus, it is interesting to look into that if a limited stock marketing strategy could result in driving more sales than the large amount releases marketing strategy (traditional way of marketing), in terms of how consumers perceive these two different strategies and what their associated purchasing intentions are.
Motivation is influenced by several factors. The first factor is personal relevance, which includes self-concept, values, needs, goals, and self-control. The second factor is the perceived risk, and the last is moderate inconsistency with attitudes. Limited edition offerings could satisfy both the social need that motivates consumers to feel accepted into a group or the need to be unique and respected by peers. Also, symbolic needs could become part of the motivation through its achievement in consumers’ social standing, where limited edition shoes or limited edition food products could drive consumers’ purchasing intention by expressing unique identities. These motivations derive from our basic needs that can be classified by psychologist Abraham Maslow.
In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow published A Theory of Human Motivation, which classifies human needs into five categories, set in a hierarchal order. Firstly, the theory begins with the basic needs for bodily functions, such as eating, drinking, and defecating. For the next level of needs to be reached, a person’s physiological needs must be satisfied. The second is the sense of safety and the knowledge that a person’s physiological needs will be fulfilled in the future as well. The third tier is a person’s desire for love, friendship, and company, while the fourth tier considers their desire for social recognition, status, and respect. Finally, once the previous needs are met, one can consider the need for self-actualization, personal fulfillment, and self-perceived destiny, and needs progress from the tangible to the intangible.
But, if you think I am going to talk about how psychology could interact with marketing, you are WRONG!
After all these theories, what are the takeaways that could be used in managerial implications? Well, it could be used to target certain consumers with areas under Maslow’s Pyramid depending on the type of the item. For example, because Adidas Originals finds that around 30% of their consumers usually snap photos of the shoes, they could attempt to make the packaging more appealing for the sake of social media. If Dominique Ansel finds that many consumers are waiting in line for the cronuts because they enjoy each other’s company, the bakery could initiate a new promotion that focuses on sharing cronuts (bringing a friend for a discount or a dessert that centers around enjoying with someone). They could also try to make the waiting process more pleasant such as creating a waiting area, giving out samples, or interacting with people in line. Also by identifying how consumers hear about the product, this could benefit the business by concentrating more on the medium that generates the most purchases. For Adidas Originals, this would be generating more media attention and for Dominique Ansel, this would be trying to utilize word of mouth more (perhaps offering a discount for a referral if they want to attract new customers).
However, there are major risks for implementing hunger marketing too intensively nowadays. Consumers would never be sure if the products are truly available, while interested buyers would be forced into lucky draw and unsure time of wait. Online customers have been complaining about the difficulties of purchasing the items they want, thus there are more doubts than the truth about the actual boosted number of sales resulted in hunger marketing strategy. There are cases when consumers lose patience waiting for the product because of the predicament of supply shortage for quite a long time. Hunger marketing strategy works well when the product meets with the high anticipation built up, but would backlash the sales if consumers get tired of the approach, and uncertain factors such as product market competition, the degree of consumer maturity and product substitutability could bring more risks the sales.
All in all, what is your definition of Uniqueness?
