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With scarcity, the whole idea of FOMO is pretty big with scarcity because it is that fear that we might lose a chance. We might lose the freedom to purchase that. We might lose the freedom to take this opportunity, whatever it might be. Again, the way that our brains operate, you just get into high gear of like, We got to fix this situation. There's been so many studies where people were hooked up to MRIs and faced with a scarce situation mission. And the way that the brain would react is the activity where quick decisions are made would just light up, and the activity where we would value something just would light up, meaning we'd skip the normal decision making steps that we take.
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Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited for you to meet my guest today. You have never heard about this topic, I promise. Mindy Weinstein, PhD. She's a leading expert in digital marketing and has been named as one of the top women in the industry globally, founder of the digital marketing firm, Market Mindshift. She has trained thousands of professionals from organizations of all sizes, including Facebook, The Weather channel, and World Fuel Service. She has a doctor of philosophy degree in general psychology with an emphasis in technology and is a marketing instructor at Grand Canyon University at the University of Denver, as well as a program leader for the Wharton School and Columbia Business School. Mindy, thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you so much for having I'm so excited.
Okay, let's jump into scarcity, which is like your homeboy. First of all, I want to say this. The word in and of itself seems so negative to me just because of this whole abundance versus scarcity mindset. I grew up poor. My whole life, I'm always trying to think, Okay, get away from scarcity, Heather. When I hear you're an expert on this, you have this amazing new book about scarcity and how I can leverage it to drive revenue sales, there's some type of internal conflict when I hear it.
And that happens. And so even what you're talking about now, that's a reaction I get from a lot of people is like, Oh, scarcity. Does that just mean something's hard to get? And, Oh, well, does that even work? But there's so much that really goes into the psychology behind scarcity, and there's a reason why it does trigger certain reactions as we're thinking about it, even physiological reactions to scarcity. That is really what caused me to want to study this topic in-depth, really.
It was surprising to me that you shared that this is studied a lot, that this is not... Because I was in media and marketing for over 20 something years, no one was ever talking about scarcity marketing. It was always very much traditional and then digital and social, but I was never hearing a theme of scarcity marketing. Why is that?
What is so interesting about that? There's a lot of information in academic journals. For me, I ended up getting into this subject and diving deep and starting to do my own research and studies when I was working on my dissertation. I, at that time, had to realize that I was interested in influence and persuasion. What drives us? Because that's always been something that I was thinking about. And realized really quickly that scarcity, out of all the different factors that motivate us, that one is the most powerful. And yes, like you said, it wasn't from studies. I mean, studies have been going on for decades on scarcity. But there is a bit of a disconnect in the information that's in the academic journals versus what's out there in the mainstream. I think that happens, though, with a lot of different topics. There's the academic world, but then it's not always translated to what does that mean for us in business. That is one of the many reasons why I wanted to write this book. If you don't mind, I'll even get into some like what my trigger was to actually put this whole book together. But I had been studying, so I'd been working on my dissertation.
I had finished my dissertation. I was in the process of defending it when COVID hit. I remember at the time thinking, Oh, my gosh. I'm watching all of this stuff that I've been studying for years play out with toilet paper. Of all the things, I would not have anticipated that with my studies and research.
Will you break down exactly what you mean by that for people listening that might not understand what you just said?
When I said playing out, basically, with the toilet paper and the craze with that, what was happening from a psychological perspective is, well, there's a couple of things. One, when something starts to feel like it's a high demand and there's a risk that we can't get it, that does cause a reaction in us. That's something that's actually innate in us. It's something that even our early ancestors, they were trying to survive when resources were scarce. You think about empires and governments over the years, the ones who had control, it's because they controlled water and they controlled food, so they were able to control that. Then you fast forward to today, our brains are still wired in a way that when something is hard to get or we fear that we might not be able to have the option for whatever, if it's an opportunity, if it's something you're trying to buy, if it's a person you're trying to date, our brains that actually we've been able to see the activity on brain They start to... All this activity starts happening that, Okay, this is urgent. This needs our attention. We got to rectify the situation.
That's a lot of what I was coming across. Then when I saw the whole thing with toilet paper, I thought, We're seeing this with toilet paper. Because if you remember even the news, they kept saying, There's no supply issue. There's enough supply. But the demand was so high that that was just causing people of that fear. You don't want to miss your chance to get toilet paper and a lot of that came into play. Also, just on a side note, really with scarcity, the whole idea of FOMO is pretty big with scarcity because it is that fear that we might lose a chance. We might lose the freedom to purchase that. We might lose the freedom to take this opportunity, whatever it might be. Again, the way that our brains operate, you just get into high gear of like, We got to fix this situation. As I keep seeing our brains, this is research. There's been so many We've seen studies where people were hooked up to MRIs and faced with a scarce situation. I'm not talking about a scarce situation of not getting food or water, scarce situation where they're bidding on a product on an auction and watching what their brain does.
The way that the brain would react is the activity where quick decisions are made would just light up, and the activity where we would value something just would light up, meaning we'd skip the normal decision-making steps that we take and just immediately to like, Okay, we got to make a purchase, or we're going to value that particular product higher. And it's just the brain. And that fascinated me when I first started coming across those studies. I thought, We're not just talking about focus groups where people are telling you. We're seeing it in the brain. It's hard to argue with that.
What does that mean and how can you... Is there a way to override that? Because when I'm hearing you explain that, I'm like, I don't want to be that person that's driven through. It sounds like something I can't even control.
You can. I mean, there There are things that you can do. From a consumer perspective, we'll talk about it from that perspective. From a consumer perspective, it's stopping and being aware of, Okay, am I purchasing this because I'm worried I won't be able to purchase it later? If that's the case, wait. What has also been found through a lot of research is that fear of missing out or the regret we think we're going to have, it's very, very short We're not going to continue to regret or feel that FOMO feeling. It goes away. I think even knowing that can help you step back and say, Why am I really doing this? What is causing me to make that decision? That is a big thing. So just waiting. Then the other thing, too, is to ask yourself, and these are just more of the standard things of like, Is it something I truly need? Or am I just getting caught up in the frenzy and the competition with everyone else? You can go because a lot of the things I was talking about is subconscious, but it's subconscious, so it means you can access it. You just have to stop, step back, let's take a breather, let's figure out what's going on.
That is really important. That's really how you can overcome it. But there's stuff. I say all that, but every now and then I get caught up in buying the latest and greatest, whatever it might be, because you just get excited, which sometimes that's okay. It doesn't mean you can't pursue something because it seems fun. Everyone's Everyone's getting this product and you want to be part of it, too. But like you asked, it's just having that control. To me, I've noticed the scarcity marketing from Kylie Jenner with her lip kids or watching my 15-year-old with shoe drops.
They do these certain shoe drops and you can only get it on us. He's setting alarms for midnight to wake up and the kids are going and you're put into a lottery. I don't even know. It's very confusing, but It's so stressful, and they're all sitting by their computers trying to get it. Is this just happening now with the digital age, or has this been a theme in marketing for years?
I think it has been around. If you think about anything, even a sale, having a sale is actually scarcity because it's a time-related scarcity approach. It's only for a certain period of time. There's a restriction there. There's been things like that that have been around for a long time. But the whole thing with drops, with what you're talking about, which I have two teenage boys, the whole thing with the shoe drops, oh my gosh. We have to have this special app so that they find out about it. Those things, like with the drops and very limited supply, I do think that from what I've seen, that that's bigger because of where we're at with the digital age. One, you can find out about it so quickly. Information is readily available. You get a text message, you see it online. People are talking about on social media. There's that easy have access to that information. But then the other thing with scarcity is that if, in our example that we're talking about, like with the shoe drops, those are very much supply-related scarcity. So only a certain amount of supply is going out or limited edition, which is also a type of supply.
But what happens then in that scenario is the people who are really drawn to those products, they tend to be ones that are a bit more conspicuous. Shoes, you're going to see those, or it could be clothing or a bag or sunglasses or a car. Those things, they are conspicuous consumption, and it's a form of self-expression. When this all comes around to your question. On social media, you have your latest shoes that you're showing off, you're expressing yourself that way. That's a huge thing. Even for those people who have a need to be unique, they're able to show that on social. I do think that there's a lot more draw to it just because we have so much information available to us. We can see what's happening and we can see what other people are doing.
Are you seeing more traditional types of businesses now gravitate towards scarcity marketing?
You know what? It's interesting how many don't really incorporate it. I would say some do and some don't, and some of it actually just even happens naturally. That is something I want to make sure and point out stepping back is that really there's four types of I talked about supply-related. There's limited edition. There's demand-related scarcity, which is the toilet paper situation, and then there's also time-related scarcity. Those are sales and things like that. I mean, that's one that's been used a lot, and it works. It is scarcity because it's a time restriction, because scarcity is any type of restriction or unavailability. Some of that has been around a while. But what is interesting is that a lot of companies, either they just don't really know how to incorporate it or they just have the mentality of like, Oh, I don't want to use scarcity marketing. That just seems so like, I'm trying to trick everyone. But you can actually have good experiences for customers. In my book, I interviewed a lot of different executives. I had an interview with the former VP of Global Marketing at McDonald's. He was with the company for 40 years, and he talked about how McDonald's has been using scarcity marketing, but they use a lot of the supply-related and the time-related.
Think about the McRib. The McRib is a good example. Then they even had their Adult Happy Mill recently. But their whole approach to it wasn't necessarily just, Okay, we need to spike in sales. It was with the purpose of, Let's create some fun and excitement for our customers. There are companies like that, that traditional companies, they've been doing this type of thing for a while. I also even interviewed the founder of 1,800 flowers, and they also own Harry and David, and they take a different approach. They actually have for Harry David, exclusive groups you can join. They limit the amount of people that could be in it, but they'll let you know if they have some special gourmet products. The example I included was this butter, that this woman only churns so much butter, but this group, these people get excited about it. There are some, again, traditional companies that have been doing it, but a lot of companies I still feel like don't really get it and don't think about it in the terms of the examples that I gave you. They just think of it as, I'm going to put out a coupon, or I'm just going to tell people that this is almost sold Meet a different guest each week.
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She's When I was reading about your book, and obviously I'm so intrigued by it because I don't understand it and I haven't applied it in my business models, I immediately applied it back to... I can see it in these other examples that I'm exposed to, and I've been a purchaser the Kylie Lip Kit. I had to get it before it sold out and you had 24 hours or whatever. Then I think, but I'm not Kylie Jenner, and I don't have 90 million followers or whatever it is, how could I apply something like that to a traditional product, like a book? I couldn't wrap my head around how this research could apply to something like a more traditional person.
Even thinking about the book example, again, because there's so many different ways. I mean, there is the drop, and like you said, she's got so many followers, so of course it's going to grab attention. But even doing the example, like here in David, it doesn't matter if you're a big company or even your product, have some type of exclusive event. Maybe it's like an exclusive book reading that you're doing and only so many people can join it. It's not going to cost you anything, even especially if you did it online. But what happens, though, that's still a scarcity because it's exclusive, it's hard to get. The whole mentality, you're playing hard to get. That's where that comes in. People feel like now they belong to something, and they're going to buy from you. They're going to hire you. They're going to feel included. There's things like that. You don't have to be a huge company or have millions of followers. You can just implement it that way.
Don't tell me that this actually works as hard to get in dating. This is like everything that I preach to my son. No, be you. Tell the truth. This is awful to hear.
No. Okay. I actually do have a chapter that's about that, But that is something, and I'm glad you just brought that up because I actually included an interview, and he writes for a doctor, and so he's the traction doctor. That's what he's termed as. But that was something that we talked about because I also had the same feeling as you. I'm like, Okay, don't just play hard to get just for the sake of it, then you're going to get people that you wouldn't really either wanted to work with or date, because that's not right. One of the things that him and I were talking about, and he brought up, he said, I tell people that I'm consulting about dating that, okay, you can be hard to get in a way that you value yourself. You know yourself, you value yourself. You don't have to be readily available to everybody. You don't need to be that. That is still the idea of playing hard to get, but not in a weird manipulative way. But you value yourself, you know what you're worth, you know who you are, you're genuine. You know what? You can be just a selective too.
When he said that, I'm like, That's really interesting. I've seen that play out with some even consultants that will do that. They're not trying to be manipulative, but they end up playing hard to get without realizing it. If you're a consultant, you only have so much time because time is finite. You only have so much. It's automatically scarce, and you can only work with so many people at a time. I know consultants who during a meeting with a prospect, as they're talking, just being honest and saying, I really am interested in this project. I only work with a certain amount of people at a time. Again, you're being honest. In those situations, I've heard stories of it flipping to the prospect being like, Oh, well, here's why you really like working with us. Again, it's hard to get, but not in a way that's like you're just valuing yourself and just saying, I know my value. I know this is how much time I have. That's huge. Okay, now I'm on a roll. Sorry. I'll give you one more example.
It's a bit to me.
I'm really excited about this topic, as you can see. I can totally just keep going about scarcity. But the other thing, too, job offers. That's one of the things that's It's really interesting. I think people don't realize that they're either playing hard to get, which is again, it's part of scarcity with job offers. If you get a job offer and you want to think about it, you don't have to jump on it right away saying, Give me some time. I'd like to think it over. That actually is a bit of scarcity because you're not making yourself so easy to get. You're really taking that time. I know a lot of just stories of people who done that because they just naturally wanted to think about it, and it turned into the A little bit more push of like, Okay, well, we really want to make sure we really want to hire you. Those are things, again, it's just it's value. Knowing your value, knowing your business value, knowing your personal value. It's so important.
Okay, two examples, and you tell me if this is scarcity. I think it is. One, I've seen a lot of people on social media, and I did this myself for my book launch group that I had to help me promote my book when it was coming out. Apply here. Instead of just saying, Sign up here, you can apply here. You're being considered, and we'll see if we're going to go ahead and approve you. That's one way that I think of that, reframing it, that, Oh, what an honor if she'll accept me, versus that, I'm just going to sign up and I'll get the link, whatever. That was one. Two was I just interviewed the lead instructor for Peloton, Robin, and she told me when she interviewed for Peloton, she went in, did the interview, and she was leaving. In 72 hours after that, she was leaving the country because her sister had something going on in India, whatever. She was going to be gone for two weeks. She knew she needed clarity on what she was doing when she got back. She didn't want to go on the trip not knowing. When she left, she said to them, If you need anything else, I have 72 hours, but I need you to make a decision by then on if we're going to be working together.
Otherwise, I'm going to pass. I'm leaving. Are both of those scarcity? Oh, 100%.
Both of them are. You talking about that book example actually made me think about this agency. I can't speak to how well this agency is done. It's just a really interesting approach. But they are based in the Netherlands. If you go to their website, it actually says that you have to fill out... It's just a form. You have to fill out the form to even have them reach out to you. But then it also made it clear on there that most of the people they work with were invited to fill out that form. Again, I can't speak to it. I don't know how they're doing, but I did laugh because it feels really, yeah, exclusive and you want to be part of that. We want to feel special. That's what you're talking about, the apply, having the apply to be part of this. They're the little things. That's what I really find fascinating about scarcities because it is so multi-layered and there's so many different things that we just don't realize that that's the principle at work. That's either helping us get more customers or clients. We don't even realize that we're applying it, maybe even by accident, or that if we just change wording a little bit in an honest way, it brings people in.
Or even some of the decisions that we make that it's only having 72 hours to get that job offer over to the person you want to hire. But it's a big driver.
What is some of the most eye-opening research that you access? Because I know that you've read so much and so deeply into this, what really opened your eyes and you said, wow.
What actually, and I did talk about this a little bit, what really got me to thinking like, Oh, my gosh, this is huge, was just the amount of just MRI scans that were done. That was just a huge thing because all research, I think, or a lot of research is really great. But sometimes you wonder when you're reading like, oh, this participant filled out this questionnaire. I mean, again, I'm not talking I'm not bad about any type of research, but when you actually see that this is how the brain is getting activated, it's just like, whoa, this is just insane and interesting. That, to me, was what was like, Okay, wow, I think digging into this more, there's a lot here.
I mean, it can't be contested when you can see the MRI.
Right. Yeah. I mean, you can see it.
It's total validation, which you don't usually have.
Right. Exactly. Because I feel like so much in marketing, we're like, You got to try it. Maybe it'll work. But then, yeah, when you see that, you're like, okay.
Apparently, this does work. How does social media play into this? And how can people leverage social media with scarce faith?
Of course, if you're doing any sale, that's a huge thing. Having it on social media, we see a lot of those ads. But I will tell you one thing to think about if you are, let's say you're in a products business. You're a business to consumer, you got products, you're doing a flash sale. Also understand that, yes, you can pay for ads, you can get some sales, but people are going to also do their due diligence. Making sure that you are providing that good customer service, you are providing those quality products because people are going to search you out online. They're going to go from Instagram, open up Google, and they're going to look up reviews in your company, or they're going to go to TikTok and look up reviews because that's where a lot of people go now, too, to make sure that you are really a trustworthy company. I think sometimes just understanding that that's going to happen at the same time. You can still even use influencers. That actually does fall into this because one of the things that I talk about in my book is the credibility of the source, the person who's giving that message.
If you do have someone that is an influence in your space, it doesn't mean that they have to have millions of followers. They could be a microinfluencer. People are listening to them and that's your audience. But having them tout your product, talk about your product, and then you could still have some promotion or something like that. But because the source is trustworthy, people do make purchases. So that's a big thing with social. But of course, we all love user-generated content on social. So having people post like, Hey, I got the McRib sandwich today. Okay, that's if you're McDonald's, right? But I mean, those are the things that get people like, Well, I want to be part of that group, too. And so it can definitely snowball.
So that idea that you're in a part of a club or an exclusive group is really leveraging scarcity.
Absolutely. Yes. Really, with scarcity, I talked about the different types, but they all those different types, they speak to different people, some of them. With supply-related, that's people who do want to have self-expression. They want people to admire them. They want to have something that makes them stand out. But then there's people who want to feel really included as a group. Then there's people who just want something exclusive, and that is also an exclusive group. It's that sense of belonging we have. We know all these different things that humans, we have sense of belonging. Sometimes we'll want to stand out, but when coupled with scarcity and understanding that, that's when you're like, Okay, showing that people can be part of this. That's really going to use scarcity plus speak to other human components.
That's interesting. I wouldn't have understood that without you explaining it. So thank you. All right, tell us, who did you actually write the book The Power of Scarcity for?
I actually wrote it for businesses. I mean, that's what I had in mind because that's what I kept thinking about when I was doing my research. I'm like, If only more businesses knew this, and again, using it in an ethical way because I don't want anyone to take it and be like, Okay, I'm just going to create a fake scarcity because that'll backfire. Just for the reason I just told you people are going to look up your company and people talk, so it's not worth it. But just realizing that, my gosh, all these different companies, these businesses, these marketers that could really increase their business, their revenue, but build those communities. So the whole idea with building communities and fun and excitement, like I learned from McDonald's or the communities, I learned that from a couple of different companies. That wasn't I'm doing something in my academic research. I felt like I had a good handle on scarcity. Then when I started doing these interviews with just different executives, business owners, consultants, all these different people, I thought, there's this whole other side that's actually not necessarily in an academic research, but we can see it from actual case studies.
Once I had all that, that was like, this really just needs to be out there because it's a great way to approach building relationships with your customers, with increasing your sales, building those communities. A A lot of it doesn't really cost you anything. It's just how are you wording things and what else can you do for your customers? I also even think about all of this as a way that you're helping and informing customers. Let's say that you are a business to consumer and you have a product that's your best seller, that actually helps people when you have that labeled because it helps them make that quicker decision, mental shortcut. It was really with all of that that made me think like this is such great information for businesses. Businesses and marketers. But really, if you're just a consumer who wants to understand why you make certain purchases or why you're doing what you're doing, it's all you'll get a lot from it.
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Can you overuse or over-leverage scarcity in your marketing?
You can. That's a really good question, actually. And so sales is the best example of that. You don't want to continue to do a sale over and over again. And some companies do that. I think about, there's even a restaurant out here that puts out a promotion of dinner for two, and it's a certain price, and it's you get this, this, and that. Well, most people are now conditioned that they're going to only wait until that promotion happens because they know it's going to keep happening. It can be overdone. It's important if you are doing something like that approach that you are mixing it up. You're not doing it all the time because that's really going to get people a little bit more excited when they do see something that's scarce and you're taking some approach versus you're doing it all the time.
What's the cadence that you would recommend to a business to do something like a sale?
If they were going to do a sale, it's going to, of course, depend on the business. But a sale every general roll of thumb, that should be okay. But you might even change the products that you're going to have or if it's services, the services you're going to provide. But then I also know some companies, I'm thinking of a med spa that I've worked with, that they do different sales every month, but they switch them up. It's not the same thing every month. It's a mix of things. For them, doing one every single month makes sense. But if it's this big sale, having more of that separation in time is ideal.
What type of scarcity in marketing are you going to leverage for the book?
I love that. I actually did start a little bit of a waitlist for the book. That was one of the things that I was looking at. I do have a lot of people that like to joke with me about, Am I going to get my exclusive copy of this book? But the other thing that actually I did do is a book incentive. If people, certain period of time, if you bought and pre-ordered the book, you get access to this exclusive webinar. But it's very valuable. So yes, I used my own tips in it, but there's a lot of great information that is only in that webinar. So you'd have to pre-order and watch it.
I'll tell you that Similarly, I use those same strategies. I didn't know it was scarcity marketing. I saw someone who was ahead of me as an author who had sold millions of books, and they were doing it. So I thought, best of last, I'm going to ovulate this and see how it works. And so it It worked really well. I just didn't understand that's what I was leveraging when I did it.
It's that whole mentality. Now, it's what you'll find, too. The more that you're learning about scarcity as we're talking about it, you're going to see it everywhere. You just didn't realize that's what was happening, but it's everywhere.
When I see it, I'm going to pause as a consumer. As a company, I'll look at it and say, How could this apply to my business? Of course, and relate it to my business. But as a consumer, if I wanted, I'm going to pause and say, hang on, your brain's reacting. This is not necessarily a need. Think about it and see if we can walk away from this for a minute to get our bearings before I make an impulse purchase, right?
Exactly. I even still have to do that for myself because, again, I fall into that. I'll get the alert on my phone that I have first access to a sale, let's say. Next thing I know, I went from watching TV with my boys to filling up my shopping cart. I've done that and I had to stop and go, Do I really need this laptop case? Because I already have five. Where you just thought. I mean, that's a silly example. But yeah, just pause. Pause and ask yourself, Is this something you truly wanted? The other thing, too, especially when we think about holiday shopping and sales, it's really easy to get caught up in that. But you want to even do your homework ahead of time. Find out about... Know what you want to buy and find out what is the normal price, what have been the sale prices periodically that have happened for this product, to understand if it's truly a good deal when you see that holiday sale, because it may or may not be that great of a deal. And so that's just something to think about, too.
The more you do research ahead of time, it takes that emotion and that reaction out of it. So you're instead prepared and prepping yourself so that you can fight against that MRI reaction.
Yes. Because when I was talking about the MRI reaction, too, remember, it was the value that your brain is placing on that item. But if you already know how much that product should be, that helps with that. Plus, as I talked about the decision making that gets skipped. Well, you're actually doing it ahead of time. You're doing your homework. It can help with all of that.
I would imagine that social media makes scarcity in marketing even more successful because the more you see your friends online talking about it or tagging you in something, and like you said, creating content and sharing something, just left here, the place is going crazy, it gives you that sense of FOMO.
Oh, yeah. I mean, FOMO... I mean, I know I alluded to that a little bit, but FOMO is a huge thing when it comes to scarcity. It's huge. That's some of the examples I talk about is social media. We don't want to miss out if we find out that concert tickets are going on sale and all our friends are talking about it. Well, when it goes on sale, we want to make sure we're buying it, too, because we don't want to miss that. But you just, again, have to remind yourself that it's I know I did say this, but pause. Know that any regret you're going to have, if you don't take action, will go away. You're not going to be thinking about that long term. That's also supported with research.
Well, when you just said concert tickets, it reminded me I have an American Express card. I get emails from American Express, and I've activated it. I've done it, but when they sent me this, and I didn't know what was happening, they sent me an email, You have been invited to an exclusive group because you're an American Express card holder. We are giving you early access to... I don't know, Beyoncé, whoever was coming to the Miami Arena and you have 24 hours to purchase your tickets, the offer stands to trade. Immediately, I'm like, Click, click, click. I never did any research to find out, were they even available to anybody else? Were the pricing Was it competitive pricing-wise? I just reacted immediately.
Okay, and I'm glad you even said the word reacted. That's actually one of the big theories associated with scarcity. It's called a reactance theory. We have a physiological reaction. It's what you just said of like, well, in that example, there was a lot of scarcity. It was you got exclusive access because you were an American Express card holder. You only had this certain amount of time, all of these things at work. And so you do take action right away without stopping and thinking about it because we have that physiological reaction to it. That's been another thing we've seen. You had probably felt it. Maybe your hands are a little sweating and you're trying to press it. You're like, Oh, my gosh. You feel your heart pounding a little bit more.
They had a clock running at the bottom. There was a putting more pressure on you. Yes.
So there was also time related on top of everything else in there. Yeah, there was a lot. I had that happen. It actually included the story in my book. I went to Disney World with my kids, and it was right during COVID. And so they were restricting certain amount of people going on rides. And it was the rise of the resistance. We actually had to get on a list to be able to go on the ride. I didn't even know anything about the ride. I was just like, whatever. But I'm the travel planner in my household. And so I got to set my alarm, like the morning we were going to go to park to get on the list to get our spot. Right on the dot, it was already all filled up. And it was like, Try again at 2: 00. And I spent the entire afternoon, up until that time, obsessing about this ride. And I even found a place with Good Wi-Fi and sat down and right at 2: 00, I pressed the button, and we got put on a waitlist to be on the list. But it was funny because all around me, because I wasn't paying attention to anyone else, we're at the park, and I'm still just thinking about this ride up until 2: 00.
But all these people around me were doing the same thing. Here's some people cheering because I got in, some people booing. We did this whole thing, and I had actually already been working on all of this research at the time, so I knew what was happening. But we actually did finally get on the ride. But when we were in line to get our spot on the ride. I actually turned on my son, my teenager, and I was like, Why did we do all of this? And he goes, Because everyone wanted to ride it. I'm like, You know what? That's deep because that's part of it. There's a lot of demand. Everybody wanted to ride it, so we wanted to ride. So what you just I didn't never want to stop to think about anything. And the ride was good. The ride was good. It was. It's just a quick decision.
Well, just so you know, Disney is not new to that because nine years ago, I was there with my son, and they did the same thing to us. Star Wars was the one when I guess that was the hottest ride at the time. And it was the same thing. You had to wake up at a certain time, you had to put your name in. And if you missed it, you're essentially waitlisted to the next window. And the kids were going crazy, and I feel your pain. You're like, I'll get us I'll make it happen. They definitely leverage scarcity there.
Oh, totally. It just makes you want to go on that even more. Hearing that cheering in the crowd around me, people who got on the list and then the booing, people who didn't. Like, Oh, look at all of us.
This is insane. Okay, so what are people going to get from the book when they buy the book?
The way that I set up the book is I talked about all this academic research, but I was really trying to put together a book that it's built on psychological frameworks. This is information that we already talked about, that it's grounded in theory. We've seen it through studies, yet that can be sometimes hard to digest. Have the principles in there, but very, very practical application and a lot of case studies and interviews and different examples of what businesses are doing. It doesn't even leave it to your imagination. I'll present the theory of why it works. Here's an example. Here's how you can do it. Really what you're going to get from it is it's going to open your eyes to all these different ways you might want to think about scarcity in your business and what can you leverage to build those customer relationships and also, of course, to help sales, too, but to have that better connection. Again, none of it is hard to do. It's just knowing how it works, why it works, when to use it, and then you can implement it.
Well, it's so helpful, and I will be implementing it for my business. I'm appreciative you broke this down and even educated us on this because it's a conversation that definitely isn't happening. How can people find the power of scarcity?
You can go to powerofscarcity. Com, and that'll take you to my website. I have all the different booksellers listed there. Of course, you can go to your favorite bookseller near you It's going to be available on November eighth.
Well, we will be running to get the book because I don't want to be the one that didn't get it, booing on the sidelines. I appreciate you being here, Mindy, and thank you for the work you're doing.
Thank you so much.
Okay, guys, until next week, keep creating your confidence.
I decided to change that dynamic.
I couldn't be more excited for what you're going to hear, start learning and growing.
Inevitably, something will happen. No one succeeds alone.
You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.
I'm on this journey with me.
Why do we suddenly need something the moment we hear “limited time,” “only a few left,” or “exclusive access”? In this episode, I sit down with digital marketing expert and psychologist Dr. Mindy Weinstein to talk about the psychology behind scarcity and why it drives some of your fastest decisions, strongest desires, and biggest purchases. Mindy breaks down the science behind FOMO, how scarcity impacts decision-making at a neurological level, and why businesses use ethical scarcity to build demand, community, and excitement. Tune in to understand how scarcity can transform the way you sell, buy, and make decisions
In This Episode You Will Learn
Why SCARCITY instantly changes how your brain makes decisions.
How FOMO activates urgency and overrides logical thinking.
How LIMITED ACCESS increases perceived value.
The 4 TYPES OF SCARCITY used in marketing and business.
How social media AMPLIFIES scarcity and buying behavior.
The PSYCHOLOGY behind product launches, ticket presales, and viral trends.
How businesses ethically use scarcity to INCREASE SALES and LOYALTY.
How to avoid impulse PURCHASES triggered by urgency marketing.
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