Adapted from AdPrin.com

When Scarcity Works in Ads

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Adapted from AdPrin.com 2

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter ProblemWhen the butter substitute “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” was

introduced to the U.K. in October 1991, the Butter Council threatened legal action against ICBINB because of their use of the word “butter.” Was this a good idea for the Butter Council?____NO ____YES

Why? Write your answer. When you finish click this slide for what happened and why.

ICBINB ran ads showing the storyboard for the “banned” TV commercial along and said that the butter interests were trying to remove ICBINB from the market. (Scarcity) Within a month their brand awareness was 38% and they had trouble meeting demand. The ad campaign won an IPA award for effectiveness.

Other experiments found that scarcity only led to higher demand when the product was already attractive.

Otherwise, subjects left the scarce product for someone who wanted it more. (See Verhallen 1982 in Persuasive Advertising, p 72-4)

State that an attractive product is scarce when it is true. (Principle 2.3.1)

Adapted from AdPrin.com

Based on this exercise, write a small application step for yourself, and set a deadline, preferably within one week. If you are working with someone else, share your application plan and the results of your application.

• For example, consider making your attractive product scarce with respect to time, quantity that can be purchased, type of customer, or type of store.