Bradley Chong had a McRib for lunch on Nov. 13. He had another the next day, and the next day, and the next. In fact, he claims to have eaten a McRib practically every day since McDonald’s brought back its sauce-laden, processed pork patty earlier this month.
Chong knows his access to the McRib won’t last forever. On Dec. 5, it will disappear from the McDonald’s near his home in Honolulu and from every McDonald’s in America. When will it return? No telling.
Is a McRib shortage to blame? No. McDonald’s sells the sandwich year-round in Germany. But despite fans clamoring for it in the United States, McDonald’s spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling explains that it’s available for just a few weeks at a time.
Welcome to Artificial Scarcity, Consumer Edition. The tactic is used so often in American marketing that you might expect consumers to be immune to it.
The Gap sells limited-edition jeans. Thomas Kinkade is big on limited-edition prints. And in recent months, Frito-Lay has been offering “Cheesy Enchilada” Cheetos with the words “Limited Time Only!” printed on the bag. Could that availability be limited by anything other than their desire to grab our attention? And yet, rather than ignoring the ads, consumers enthusiastically encourage the practice by jumping for limited-edition goodies.
How is it that people still get so excited when they’re manipulated by the threatened disappearance of something they want? It’s a mix of old instincts and modern challenges, says psychologist Marie C. Gray, who teaches at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa.
“Our nervous systems get activated,” she says, “and we move into that hoarding, greedy thing even though we know it’s not true.” In announcing that the animated film “Beauty and the Beast” would be available on DVD beginning in October, a Disney website uses the phrase “Finally Releasing from the Disney Vault for a Limited Time.” Fans know the drill: When a movie emerges from the “vault,” they grab a copy before the company pulls it again from store shelves. It’s received as an opportunity, rather than a marketing gimmick.
“There is an element of appealing to scarcity that always works in every human being,” says Jayanthi Rajan, who teaches business at Albright College in Reading, Pa.
But why are some campaigns more successful than others in getting people to buy? Sometimes, it’s because we like being in on the joke, says Jim Arnott of West Palm Beach, Fla., who started Facebook’s “McRib Moments” page.
Joining the crowd when a product is getting buzz has its perks. “We want to be a part of something,” says Tommy Hintz, who has eaten numerous McRibs in the Tucson area this month. “There’s a general need for people to feel connected.”
