Scarcity induce psychological alluring attribute in customers towards goods and services. Psychologists argue that the only way to make a product desirable to customers is by making it scarce (Sobel.A, 2013). Rebecca Ratner, A professor of marketing At the University of Maryland’s Robert Smith School of Business, in an article presented to the Science Daily argues that when a bunch of scarce goods and services are presented to customers, they choose their favorite items.
Customers explore fewer options; as a result, they only concentrate on their favorites (Zhu, 2015). On the other hand, abundance goods offer a variety of options to customers. The customer becomes explorative before picking their final goods of preference. Ratner in company of Meng Zhu an associate professor from the John Hopkins University conducted several experiments in an online survey asking individuals to select an array of goods and presented them with the photographic representations of these goods.
Customers picked different flavors of vegetables, yogurts, and gift certificates. For the same case, these goods were presented as scarce. They noticed that customers picked from only categories of their favorite goods giving such goods a high rating. From this finding we can state categorically that scarce goods induce a mild psychological arousal in consumers making them favor some gods than others depending on their list of priorities.
Scarcity can present itself in a variety of forms; these scarcities can be contributed by changes in factors of production that include; supply, demand and time. Previous research conducted has brought with itself a lot of theories trying to explain causes of these scarcities. However, no theory has been able to explain and diagnose these classifications of scarcity. It is still a challenge to identify, understand and provide an elaborate remark on the effects of scarcity on consumer. Scarcities contribute to both negative and positive effects to consumers.
References
Sobel.A. (2013). International political economy in context. Carlifornia: CQ PRESS.
Zhu, R. R. (2015). Consumer preferences and the power of scarcity. Science Daily.
