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Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Psychology of Scarcity with Dr. Mindy Weinstein
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- [00:00]
Podcast Host - Sponsor Announcer
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- [03:05]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
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. And so again, the way that our brains operate, you just get into high gear of like, we gotta fix this situation. There's been so many studies where people were hooked up to MRIs and faced with a scarce situation 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.
- [03:45]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
I'm on this journey with me each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow.
- [03:54]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Tomorrow I'm ready for my close up.
- [03:57]
Podcast Host - Sponsor Announcer
Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus confidence classics episodes we've been dropping on you every week? We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to. So these bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones you may have already missed. I hope you love this one as
- [04:13]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
much as I do. 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.
- [04:59]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
- [05:01]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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. Right? I grew up poor and so my, my whole life I'm always trying to think, okay, get away from scarcity, Heather. Right? So when I hear, like, you're an expert on this, you're, you have this amazing new book about scarcity and how I can leverage it to drive revenue and sales. There's some type of like, internal conflict when I hear it.
- [05:34]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
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, you know, does that just mean something's hard to get? You know, and oh, well, that's. 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, you know, as we're thinking about it, even physiological reactions to scarcity. And that is really what caused me to want to study this topic in depth.
- [06:06]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Really.
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Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
It was surprising to me that you
- [06:08]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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.
- [06:22]
Podcast Host - Sponsor Announcer
Why is that?
- [06:23]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
What is so interesting about that? There's a lot of information in academic journals. So for me, like, 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. And I had that time, had realized that, you know, I was interested in influence and persuasion, like, what, what drives us, because that's always been something that, you know, I was thinking about and realized really quickly that scarcity, out of all the different factors that motivate us so that one is the most powerful. And yes, like you said that 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 like, in the academic journals versus like what's out there in the mainstream. And I think that happens though, with a lot different, you know, topics, you know, there's, there's the academic world, but then it's not always translated to what does that mean for us in business. And that is one of the many reasons why I wanted to write this book. So if you don't mind, I'll even get into some, like, what my trigger was to actually like 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, like, of defending it when Covid hit. And I remember at the time, like thinking, oh my gosh, I'm like watching all of this stuff that I've been studying for years play out, like with toilet paper, like of all the things, like, you know, you would not have anticipated that with my studies and research. And I thought for a one minute,
- [07:55]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
will you break down exactly what you mean by that for people listening that might not understand what you just said?
- [08:00]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Yeah. You know, so when I said playing out basically, like with the toilet paper and the craze with that, what was happening from a psychological perspective is, well, there's a couple 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. And that's something that's actually innate in us. And it's something that even our early ancestors, you know, 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 scans, they start to, you know, all this activity starts happening that, okay, this is urgent. This needs our attention. We got to rectify the situation. So that's a lot of what I was coming across. So 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, like, they kept saying there's no supply issue, like, 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. And also, just on a side note, I mean, 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. And so again, the way that our brains operate, you just get into high gear of like, we got to fix this situation. And as I keep seeing our brains, it's. This is research. So there's been so many studies where people were hooked up to MRIs, you know, and faced with a scarce situation. And I'm not talking about scarce situation of like not getting food or water, like, scarce situation where they're bidding on a product on an Auction, you know, and watching what their brain does. 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 and just immediately go to like, okay, we gotta, we gotta make a purchase or we're gonna value that particular product higher. And there's just skin, it's the brain. And that fascinated me when I first started coming across those studies. Cause I thought we're not just talking about focus groups where people are telling you like we're seeing it in the brain. It's hard to argue with that.
- [10:47]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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 wanna be that person that's driven through it sounds like something I can't even control.
- [10:58]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
You can. So I mean there's, there are things that you can do. And so 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? And if that's the case, wait. And what has also been found through a lot of research is that that fear of missing out or the regret we think we're going to have, it's very, very short lived. We're not going to continue to regret or feel that, like FOMO feeling it goes away. And so 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? So that is a big thing. So just waiting, you know. And 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, you know, caught up in the frenzy and the competition with everyone else? So you can go. Because a lot of the things I was talking about, subconscious, but you can, it's subconscious. So it means you can access it. You just have to kind of stop, you know, step back, let's take a breather, let's figure out what's going on that is really important. And so that's really how, I mean, you can overcome it. But I mean there's stuff, I mean I still, I say all that, but every now and then I get, you know, caught up in buying like 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, you know, pursue something because it seems fun. Everyone's, you know, everyone's getting this product and you want to be part of it too. But like you kind of asked. I mean it's just having that control.
- [12:37]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
So to me I've noticed the scarcity marketing from Kylie Jenner with her lip kits or my watching my 15 year old with shoe drops. Like they, oh, you know, they do these certain shoe drops and you can only get it on a certain people. He's setting alarms for midnight to wake up and you know 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, you know, 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?
- [13:11]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
I think so. It has been around. I mean if you think about anything that as 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. So I mean 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 like the shoe drops, oh my gosh, like we have to have this special app, you know, so that they find out about it. So those kind of 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. You know, information is readily available. You get a text message, you see it online, people are talking about on social media. So there's that easy access to that information. But then the other thing with scarcity is that if like in our example that we're talking about like with you know, the shoe drops, those are very much, you know, supply related scarcity. So only a certain amount of supply is going out or limited edition, which is also a type of supply, that what happens then in that scenario is the people who are really drawn to those kind of products, they tend to be ones that are a bit more conspicuous. You know, shoes, you're going to see those. Or it could be clothing or a bag or sunglasses or a car. Right. And so those kind of things, they are conspicuous consumption and it's a form of self expression. So when this all comes around to your question. So on social media, you know, you have your latest shoes that you're showing off, you're expressing yourself that way and that's a huge thing. Even like for those people who have a need to be unique, they're able to show that on social. So there is a. I do think that there's a lot more, you know, 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.
- [15:08]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Are you seeing more traditional types of businesses now gravitate towards scarcity marketing?
- [15:14]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
You know what I. It's interesting how many don't really incorporate it. I would say, you know, some do and some don't and some of it actually just even happens naturally. So that is something I want to make sure and point out, kind of stepping back is that you know, really there's four types of scarcity. So I talked about supply related, there's limited edition, there's demand related scarcity, which is the toilet paper, you know, situation. And then there's also time related scarcity. And so those are sales and things like that. I mean that's one that's been used a lot and it works. And it is scarcity because it's a time restriction, because scarcity is any type of restriction or unavailability. So 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 do scarcity marketing. That just seems so like, you know, trying to trick everyone. But you can actually have like good experiences for customers. And in my book I interviewed a lot of different executives. So 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. You know, think about the McRib then McRib is a good example. Then they even had their adult Happy Meal 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. So 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 and David expanded exclusive groups you can join and they only they limit the amount of people that could be in it, but they'll let you know if they have some kind of special gourmet products. Like the example I included was this butter that this woman only turns so much butter, but this group, these people get excited about it. So there are some again, traditional companies 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 oh, I'm going to put out a coupon or I'm just going to tell people that this is like almost sold out.
- [17:31]
Podcast Host - Sponsor Announcer
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- [20:42]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
confidence. I asked you to try to find your passion.
- [20:46]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
She's done.
- [20:47]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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 of the Kylie Lip Kit, right. I had to get it, you know, before it sold out and you had 24 hours or whatever. And 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? Like, I couldn't wrap my head around how this research could apply to something like a more traditional person.
- [21:24]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
So. And I like even thinking about the book example again because there's so many different ways. I mean, there is the drop, you know, and like you said, I mean, she's got so many followers, so of course it's gonna grab attention. But even doing like the example like Harry and David, it doesn't matter if you're a big company or even your product have some type of like exclusive event. Maybe it's like an exclusive, you know, 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. You know, but what happens, though, that's still a scarcity because it's exclusive. It's hard to get the, the whole mentality. Playing hard to get. That's where that comes in. And 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. And so there's things like that that's not. You don't have to be a huge company or have millions of followers. You can just implement it that way.
- [22:19]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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 like, be.
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Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Tell the truth.
- [22:26]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
This is awful to hear.
- [22:28]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
No. So, okay, I actually do have a chapter that's kind of about that. But that is something. And I'm glad you just brought that up because I actually included an interview and he's. He writes for. Of a doctor. And so he, he's the attraction doctor. Like, that's what he's termed as. But that was something that we talked about because I also have the same feeling as you of like, okay, don't just, like, play hard to get just for the sake of it. Like, then you're going to get people that you wouldn't really either wanted to work with or d. You know, because that's not right. And so one of the things that him and I were talking about and he brought up, he said, you know, I tell my, you know, 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. And so that is still the idea of playing hard to get, but not in a weird, manipulative way, but like, you value yourself, you know what you're worth, you know who you are, you're genuine. And you know what, you can be just a selective too. And so that's really. When he said that I'm like, that's really interesting. And I've seen that play out with some even consultants that will do that. And they're not trying to be manipulative, but they end up playing hard to get without realizing it. Of if you're a consultant, you only have so much time because time is finite. Like, you only have so much and so it's automatically scarce and you can only work with so many people at a time. And so I know of consultants who, during a meeting with A prospect, you know, as they're talking, just being honest and saying, you know, I really am interested in this project. You know, I only work with a certain amount of people at a time. Again, you're being honest. And 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, you know. And again, it's not, it's playing hard to get, but not in a way that's like you're just valuing yourself and just saying, like, I know my value. I know this is how much time I have. That's huge even. Okay, not. I'm on a roll, sorry. I'll give you one more example. I am really excited about this topic, as you can see. Like, I can totally just keep going about scarcity. But the other thing too, like job offers, like, that's one of the things that's really interesting. I think people don't realize that they're either playing hard to get, which is again, as part of scarcity with job offers. So if you get a job offer and you want to think about it, you don't have to jump on it right away saying like, give me some time. I'd like to think it over. That's actually is a bit of scarcity because you're not making yourself so easy to get. You're really taking that time. And so I know a lot of just stories of people who've done that because they just naturally wanted to think about it and it turned into the little bit more push of like, okay, well, you know, we really want to make sure, we really want to hire you. And so those are things again, it's just, it's value. You know, knowing your value, knowing your business value, knowing your personal value, it's so important.
- [25:15]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Okay, two examples. And you tell me if this is scarcity. I think it is. 1. I've seen a lot of people on social media and I actually, I did this myself for my book launch group that I had to help me promote my, my book when it was coming out. Apply here. So 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. Okay. So that's one way that I think of that, like sort of reframing it, that, oh, what an honor if she'll accept me versus that, you know, I'm just going to sign up and I'll get the link, whatever. So 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. And in 72 hours after that she was leaving the country because her sister had something going on in India. Whatever, she's gonna be gone for two weeks. And 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. So 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?
- [26:23]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Oh, 100%. 100%. Both of them are. And you talking about that book example actually made me think about this agency and I can't speak to how well this agency has done. It's just a really interesting approach. But they are based in the Netherlands and if you go to their website, it actually says that you have to fill out like, it's just a form. Like you have to fill out the form to even like 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. And it. When I. And again, I can't speak to it, I don't know how they're doing. But I did, you know, kind of laughs like it feels really.
- [27:01]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Yeah. Exclusive.
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Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
And you want to be part of that. And so we want to feel special. And that's like what you're talking about, the apply, you know, having the. To apply, to be part of this. So they're the little things. And that's what I really find fascinating about Scarcities because it is so multilayered and there's so many different things that we just don't realize that that's the principle at work. That's either like 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, you know, offer over to the person you want to hire. But it's a big driver.
- [27:42]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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
- [27:50]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
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. And that was just a huge thing because, I mean, all research I think is, you know, or a lot of research is really great. But you know, sometimes you wonder when you're reading, like, oh, this participant filled out this questionnaire, you know, I mean, again, all there's, I'm not talking bad about any type of research, but when you actually see that like this is how the brain is getting activated, it's just like, whoa. Like this is just insane and interesting. And so that to me was what was like, okay, wow. I think like digging into this more. There's a lot here.
- [28:35]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
I mean, it can't be contested when you can see the mri, right?
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Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
You can't. Yeah, I mean, you can see it.
- [28:41]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
So that's it. It's total validation. Which you don't usually have, right?
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Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Exactly. Because I feel like so much in marketing, we're like, you gotta try it, maybe it'll work. But then, yeah, when you see that,
- [28:51]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
you're like, okay, apparently this does work. Okay, how does social media play into this? And how can people leverage social media with scarce space?
- [29:01]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Of course, if you're doing any kind of sale, I mean, that's a huge thing. So 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 like, let's say you're in a product business, so you're a business to consumer, you got products, you're doing a flash sale, you know, also understand that yes, you can pay for ads, you can get some sales, but people are going to also do their due diligence. And so making sure that you know what, you are providing that good customer service, you are providing those quality products because people are going to search you out online. Like 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. And so I think sometimes, like 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 mess. And so if you do have someone that is an influence in your space doesn't mean that they have to have millions of followers. They could be a micro influencer. People are listening to them and that's your audience. But having them, you know, tout your product, talk about your product and then you could still have some kind of promotion or something like that. But because the, the source is trustworthy, people do make purchases. So that's a big thing with social. But of course, you know, we all love user generated content on social. So having people post that like hey, I got the McRib sandwich today. Okay, that's if you're McDonald's.
- [30:37]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Right.
- [30:37]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
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.
- [30:44]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
So that idea that you're in a part of a club or an exclusive group is really leveraging scarcity.
- [30:51]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Absolutely, yes. And so really like with scarcity, you know, I talked about the different types but they all those different types, they speak to different people, some of them. So like with supply related, that's people who do want to have self expression, you know, and so like they want people to admire them, you know, they want to have something that makes them stand out. But then there's people who want to feel really included as a group, you know, and then there's people who just want something exclusive and that is also an exclusive group. So it's that sense of belonging we have. So we know all these different things like that humans, we have sense of belonging. Like we, you know, sometimes we'll want to stand out but it when coupled with scarcity and understanding that that's when you're like, okay, you know, showing that people be part of this, you know, that's really going to use scarcity plus speak to other human components.
- [31:42]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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?
- [31:50]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
So 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 like 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 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 we don't, you know, it's not worth it. But just realizing that, my gosh, like all these different companies, these businesses, these marketers that could really increase their business, you know, their revenue, but build those communities. So the whole idea with like building communities and fun and excitement, like I learned from McDonald's or the communities, that's I learned that from a couple different companies. That wasn't something in my academic research. So I felt like I had a good handle on scarcity. And 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. And so once I had all that, that's I was like, this really just needs to be out there because it's a great way to approach, you know, building relationships with your customers, with increasing your sales, building those communities. And 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 like a way that you're helping and informing customers. So like let's say that you do, you are business to consumer and you have a product that's your best seller that actually helps people, you know, when you have that label because it helps them make that that quicker decision mental shortcut. And so it was really with all of that that made me think like this is such great information for businesses. So it's 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 still you'll get a lot from it.
- [33:42]
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- [37:59]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
I asked you to try to find your passion. So can you overuse or over leverage scarcity in your marketing?
- [38:09]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
You can. So 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. And I think about like there's even a restaurant out here that puts out a promotion of like, you know, dinner for too 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. And so it can be overdone. And so it's important if you are doing something like that approach that you are mixing it up, you're not doing it, you know, all the time because that's really going to get people a little bit more excited when they do see something that's, you know, scarce and you're taking some approach versus you're doing it all the time.
- [38:56]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
What's the cadence that you would recommend to a business to do something like a sale?
- [39:00]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Yeah, if they were going to do a sale. I mean it's going to of course depend on the business. But you know, a sale every quarter, general rule 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, like I'm thinking of a med spa that I've worked with that they do, they do different sales every month, but they switch them up. So it's not the same thing every month. It's a mix of things. And so for them doing one every single month makes sense. But if it's like this Big sale, you know, having more of that separation and time is, is ideal.
- [39:35]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
What type of scarcity marketing are you going to leverage for the book?
- [39:41]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
I love that. So I actually did start a little bit of a wait list for the book. So 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 is my, am I going to get my exclusive copy of this book? But the other thing that actually I did do and so is a book incentive. And so if people, certain period of time, if you bought and pre ordered the book, you get access to this exclusive webinar. And so, and, 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.
- [40:21]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
You know, similarly, I use those same strategies. I didn't know it was scarcity marketing. Right. 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 class, like, I'm gonna emulate this and see how it works. And so it worked really well. I just didn't understand that's what I was leveraging when I did it.
- [40:41]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Right. So it's that whole mentality and now it's what you'll find too. You know, 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, it's everywhere.
- [40:56]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
When I see it, I'm going to pause. As a consumer, I mean, as a consumer, as a company, I'll look at it and say, how could this apply to my business? Of course, and relate to my business, but as a consumer, if I want it, 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.
- [41:21]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
I even still have to do that for myself because again, I fall into that. You know, I'll get the alert on my phone that I have first access to a sale, let's say. And you know, next thing I know, I went from watching TV with my boys to like filling up my shopping cart. You know, I've done that and had to stop and go, do I really need this, you know, laptop case? Because I already have five. Or you just thought, I mean, that's silly. Example. But, but yeah, like just pause, pause and ask yourself, is this something you truly wanted? You know, and the other thing too, especially like 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 kind of something to think about too.
- [42:21]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
So the more you do research ahead of time, it takes that emotion and that reaction out of it. So you're instead prepared and kind of prepping yourself so that you can fight against that MRI reaction.
- [42:33]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Yes. And that, 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 that product should be, that helps with that. Plus, as I talked about the decision making, you know, that gets skipped. Well, you're actually doing it ahead of time. You know, you're doing your homework. And so it can help with all of that.
- [42:53]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
I would imagine that social media makes scarcity 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.
- [43:09]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
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. And so, and that is, I mean, that's some of the examples I talk about is social media. We don't want to miss out if we find out that like 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 that. And I know I did say this, but like, 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. And that's also supported with research.
- [43:48]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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, I've done it. But when they sent me this, 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 make it up. I don't know, Beyonce, whoever was coming to the, you know, Miami arena. And you have 24 hours to purchase your tickets. The offer stands for immediately. I'm like, click, click, click. I. I never did any research to find out were they even available to anybody else. Were the pricing, you know, was it competitive pricing wise to. I just reacted immediately, okay.
- [44:26]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
And I'm glad you even said the word reacted. So that's actually one of the big theories associated with scarcity. It's called reactance theory. We have a physiological reaction. So 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, you know, 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. And you had probably, like, felt it. Like, you maybe your hands are a little sweaty and you're like trying to press and you're like, oh, my gosh, you feel your heart pounding a little bit more.
- [45:02]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
They had a clock running at the bott. Like, there was a, like, putting more pressure on you. Yes.
- [45:08]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
So there was also time related on top of everything else. And there. Yeah, there was a lot. I had that happen and actually included the story in my book. I went to Disney World with my kids and it was like right during COVID And so they were restricting certain amount of people going on rides. And it was the rise of the resistance. Like, 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, the travel planner in my household. And so I got up, set my alarm, like the morning we were gonna go to the park to get on the list to get our spot. And like, right on the dot, it was already all filled up. And it was like, try again at 2 o'. Clock. And I spent the entire afternoon, like, up until that time, like, obsessing about this ride. And I even found, like, a place with good WI Fi and sat down. And right at 2 o', clock, I like, press the button. And we got put on a wait list to be on the list. But it was funny because all around me, because I wasn't paying attention to anyone else. Like, we're at the park and I'm still just thinking about this ride up until 2 o', clock, but all these people around me were doing the same thing. So here's some people cheering because I got in, some people booing and, you know, through this whole thing. And I had actually already been working on, you know, all of this research at the time, so I knew what was happening. But when we actually did finally get on the ride, but when we were in line to get our spot on the ride, I actually turned to my son, my teenager, and I was like, why did we do all of this? And he goes, because everyone wanted to ride it. And 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 write. So what you just said, I didn't never want stop to think about anything, you know, and the ride was good. The ride was good. It was. It just. Quick decision.
- [46:44]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Well, just so you know, Disney's 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 like essentially wait. Listed to the next window. And the kids were going crazy. And I feel your pain. You're like, I'll get us on. I'll make it happen. Yeah, they definitely leverage scarcity there.
- [47:10]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Oh, totally. It just makes you want to go on that even more and. Yeah, and hearing that cheering in the crowd, like around me, like people who got on the list and then the booing people who didn't, like, oh, look at all of us.
- [47:21]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Yes. This is insane. Okay, so what are people going to get from the book when they buy the book?
- [47:26]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
So the way that I set up the book is, you know, I talked about, like all this academic research, but I was really trying to put together a book that, you know, it's built on psychological frameworks. Right. And so this is information, as we already talked about, you know, that it's grounded in theory. We've seen it through studies yet that can be sometimes hard to digest. So 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. So it doesn't even leave it to your imagination. You know, I'll present the theory why it works. Here's an example. Here's how you can do it. So 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 that better connection. And 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.
- [48:29]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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?
- [48:40]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
So you can go to power scarcity.com and that'll take you to my website. And so I have all the different booksellers listed there. And of course you can go to your favorite bookseller near you. It's going to be available November 8th.
- [48:54]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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.
- [49:02]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
Thank you so much.
- [49:03]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
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.
- [49:15]
Podcast Host - Sponsor Announcer
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- [49:17]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Inevitably something will happen. No one succeeds alone.
- [49:22]
Mindy Weinstein, PhD - Scarcity Marketing Expert
You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.
- [49:26]
Podcast Host - Interviewer
Come on this journey with me.