The Four Types of Scarcity

The Four Types of Scarcity

Mindy Weinstein's The Power of Scarcity splits scarcity into four types: supply (only a few were made), limited edition (this version will not return), time (the offer ends soon) and demand (other people are buying it up). Each speaks to a different motive, and her practical rule is to match the type to the motive of the customer.

What it is

In Weinstein's mapping, supply and limited editions serve the wish to stand apart, demand serves the wish to fit in, and time serves the fear of missing out. Her sharpest point, at page 129, is that a product scarce because it is popular does not satisfy the need for uniqueness and actively counteracts it.

The external evidence partly supports the split. Heribert Gierl and a colleague reported in 2010 that supply-based scarcity did more for products suited to conspicuous consumption, and demand-based scarcity for products that were not, measured as attitudes in two survey studies. A 2022 meta-analysis led by Belinda Barton, pooling 416 effects from 131 studies, found the most effective cue depended on the product: demand-based for utilitarian goods, supply-based for experiences, time-based for high-involvement purchases.

In effect

For a shopper, naming the type is most of the defence. Ask which of the four you are looking at, which motive it is aimed at, and whether you have that motive for this purchase. Time claims can be checked by waiting; demand claims rarely can.

For a brand, a popularity cue on a product people buy to express their taste may work against the sale.

What it does not say

It does not rank the types. Across all studies in the 2022 meta-analysis, the differences between types were not statistically significant overall.

It does not establish the mechanism. Weinstein proposes reactance for all four, without the caution the wider literature would attach, so reactance is better used to explain why scarcity appeals backfire than to predict how strongly they work.

Sources

  1. Weinstein, M. (2023). The Power of Scarcity. McGraw Hill. pp. 129, 183-184, 187-188.
  2. Gierl, H., & Huettl, V. (2010). International Journal of Research in Marketing, 27(3), 225-235. doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2010.02.002.
  3. Barton, B., Zlatevska, N., & Oppewal, H. (2022). "Scarcity tactics in marketing: a meta-analysis of product scarcity effects on consumer purchase intentions." Journal of Retailing, 98(4), 741-758. doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2022.06.003.