How is it that good salesmanship can defeat a brand?  It happens because good salesmanship, at its roots, is somewhat contradictory to good branding.  Problems occur when master salesmen set brand strategy.  The master salesman isn’t wrong…but his job is to sell a product, not build a brand.  Selling a product and building a brand are two distinctly different tasks.  Selling is short-term.  Branding is long-term.  Branding should outline what the salesman sells and how it’s sold.  Selling (as a strategy) leads to short-term rewards, but long-term identity crisis and price wars.  Branding (as a strategy) means slower growth, but creates longevity and higher price points.

This series of posts will deal with 5 areas in which good selling contradicts good branding.  This post deals with the idea of SCARCITY.

From Dictionary.com…

scar-ci-ty

insufficiency or shortness of supply; dearth.

rarity; infrequency.

A good salesman will take a good product to as many people as possible, flooding the market, inundating prospects with his/her message.  It’s unheard of…near treason…for a good salesman to run out of supply or pass on an opportunity to make a sale or to cut himself out of a segment of the market.  However, scarcity is a fundamental tenant of our economy.  It impacts supply and demand.  This is difficult for the master salesman to swallow.  From a sales perspective, it’s important to push as much as possible…build a store on every corner…open 24/7…yada yada yada.  But when you’re brand-building, there’s alot to be said for scarcity.  In fact, scarcity can be your greatest ally.  Scarcity creates perceived value and drives demand.  When something is everywhere, then the perceived value is less, and demand begins to lessen.

By way of example, I’m going to pick on Starbucks in this post because it just happens to be on my mind and it’s a relevant example.  I’ve nothing against Starbucks…I happen to enjoy Starbucks.

Anyway, out of the gate, Starbucks was a premium product designed for the relatively small (at the time) market of gourmet coffee drinkers.  They stuck to their core strength- gourmet coffee.  They didn’t do alot of fancy advertising.  They were rare.  They were relevant.  They were an idea whose time had come.  But then they got successful…and greedy.  Next, there was a Starbucks on every corner and in every department store.  Not long after, Starbucks began to show signs of weakening.  More mistakes followed….pastries, breakfast, music, price-cutting, one-day specials, price-justifying, etc.Why?  What went wrong?

In my opinion, Starbucks failed to understand the basics of consumer psychology and- perhaps most critically- how scarcity plays into that psychology.  Today’s culture is one driven by materialism.  As consumers in this culture, we express our unique selves through what we choose to eat, drink, wear, drive, listen to, watch, etc.  We, as consumers, buy something because it makes a certain statement about us…a statement that we like and wish to reinforce.

That’s what made Starbucks successful early on.  Consumers liked the way that cup of gourmet coffee made them feel…they connected with the statement it made about their social status, their taste, their individuality, their personality, and so on.  But when everyone suddenly had the same green and white cup in their hands, the statement was less impressive.  The statement became less about being an individual and more about being a blind sheep.  When everybody’s doing it, suddenly it isn’t quite so cool anymore.  We get burned out and bored.  And we move on to something else.

Consumers don’t stop drinking coffee…they just drink something other than Starbucks.  Consumers don’t stop driving cars…they just stop driving GM brands.  Consumers don’t stop wearing jeans…they just move on to something besides Wrangler or Lee or Levi.  Consumers don’t stop eating doughnuts…they just get tired of Krispie Kream.

Understanding this psychology is very important in creating a brand- particularly a premium brand.  So, in this view, the biggest mistake that Starbucks made was to be so readily available that they were no longer unique, rare, and…scarce.

The famous Seinfled episode “The Soup Nazi” was based on real-life New York soup vendor, Al Yeganeh.  Al Yeganeh ran a small soup stand and was renown for his bad mannerisms.  He also closed his store for the entire summer while he vacationed in Argentina.  Yet, even though he was rude, brash, and closed for half the year, Al Yeganeh had a near-cult following of loyal consumers that raved about his soups.  He was a “best-kept secret.”  As is often the case with best-kept secrets, as soon as the secret is out, they’re doomed to no longer be the best.  Thanks to the Seinfeld episode, the Soup Nazi became an overnight celebrity.  His expressions and mannerisms were copied time and again…until it wasn’t funny anymore…until it was no longer unique and interesting.  The original location for Al Yeganeh’s soup stand is out of business.

Anyway, back to scarcity.  Remember: if you satisfy your Consumer’s thirst, what will bring them back again?  Tease, invite, share, engage, withdraw.  It’s a delicate dance.  When demand begins to ebb, step to the left, and move on.  Don’t press the issue until you’re irrelevant.  Scarcity is an ally…it creates value and drives demand.