Quick snippets from our morning read on Tuesday, 23rd February 2021
Today’s morning read by Brendan Gahan focuses on specialization.
“Opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited.” — Robert B. Cialdini
How did Coco Chanel turn Chanel no 5 into the best-selling perfume of all time?
In Robert Greene’s “The Laws of Human Nature,” he wrote that Chanel would slip bottles of the perfume “into the bags of her wealthiest and best-connected clients.”
Soon word of her fragrance spread like wildfire and women flocked to her store. She deliberately kept stock in short supply. This made it even more popular. Now it’s the best-selling perfume in history.
Scarcity drove up demand.
Today this may work even better than in Chanel’s time.
Just look around. Doesn’t it feel as though everything is accessible? We’re used to overnight shipping, food delivery in minutes, and movies on demand.
This has created a need for the inverse. There’s opportunity for the contrarian.
Savvy marketers recognize this. As the saying goes, “one is an example, two is a coincidence, and three is a trend.”
In the last few months:1) Clubhouse exploded in popularity (it is invite only)2) Luxury fashion brand Botega Veneta left social media3) Travis Scott’s McDonald’s meal (available for a limited time) was a hit
What do they have in common?
They all leveraged scarcity. They all had cultural impact.
Clubhouse is the most buzzed about new app. They’ve never spent a dime on advertising. How’d they do it?
They manufactured scarcity by making it invite only. It became the ultimate humblebrag to share on Twitter that you were ‘in’ Clubhouse. It’s become so sought after that people are paying for invites on ebay.
Scarcity = valuable
Ironically, a number of tools are emerging making it easy for anyone to create exclusivity. Discord and Onlyfans, in particular, stand out.
These communities are filling a void in the market. They’re creating turnkey exclusivity in an era of ubiquity.
I see this as the beginning of a growing trend.
For brands, this will result in VIP services for specific clientele.
Read the rest of the article here.
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