Extremes are often the best starting point when thinking of a marketing strategy.

When it comes to product distribution and its associated marketing, two extremes are most likely to be successful: being hard to get or being everywhere.
You might call it scarcity and routine, or novelty and staple, or treat and necessity, or a number of other synonyms.

Using the dog park analogy, dogs thrive on a mixture of routine (knowing the rules, having something reliable and safe that’s always consistent) and special treats (something that’s worth getting excited about).

In recent headlines, a good example is the auto industry.

Which brands and models have been the most successful in getting consumers excited, driving sales, and generating profits?
The Scarce: early Hummers, Minis, the launch of the New Beetle, early PT Cruiser, hybrids, clean diesel, many Harley Davidson bikes…
The common: Civic, Golf, Focus…

Scarcity doesn’t necessarily mean rare, expensive, or highly exclusive.  This isn’t just about those “only 50 ever made, million dollar cars” — there were tens or hundreds  of thousands of the above “scarce” vehicles available, more than enough to be worth creating.   And the scarce models aren’t necessarily the best of the best either.  Hummers, PT Cruisers, and many hybrids are actually a bit unimpressive.  Even the butt of jokes.  Likewise, common models aren’t necessarily the worst.  These aren’t always lowest-common-denominators, but are just generic and compromising enough to have wide appeal.

Following the auto industry example, there seems to have been a lack of focus for many years (especially in North America).   While there are many examples of “scarce” and “routine” models, such as the above, there have been far more somewhere-in-the-middle: completely forgettable and unremarkable.  Why even produce these?
The designers and marketers must have known from day one that there was virtually zero pent-up demand for yet another generic new sedan.  How many different pickup trucks does a single company need to produce?  Are consumers’ needs and wants really so diverse that more than a couple of different minivans were ever actually needed from a single company?

Tough times have finally forced some of the largest auto companies to take action: cutting extra brands (why market the identical car under two different names to an identical audience?), reducing distribution points (why have more than a handful of dealers in a single market for a product that people only buy once or twice a decade?), and focusing on a smaller number of old standards and special new releases.

Again, it’s not just about production numbers.  In fact, actual production and distribution is secondary to customer perception.  Marketing’s job is largely to create a ~sense~ of either scarcity or routine.

Consumers are the main variable.  What do they think is special, and what do they trust as an old-standard (or likely-to-be-a-new-standard)?

A recent very good blog post by Seth Godin touches on this subject.  As usual, Mr. Godin summarizes the concept very succinctly.

Moving away from the auto industry example, Apple is an interesting case where the brand is actively transitioning from scarce to routine.  A few years ago, Apple computers were for the hard core fanatics.  Their limitations were no obstacle for the people who saw their benefits.  As the limitations decreased and popularity increased, the company didn’t immediately drop prices, ramp up production,  drastically increase their distribution network, or even increase their marketing by enormous amounts: they remained scarce (or at least had the illusion of scarcity and exclusivity) for quite a while.  Of course, now you can’t enter a college lecture hall, a professional seminar, or a coffeeshop without being surrounded by MacBooks.  And the most impressive thing is that these consumers still feel somewhat special for having chosen a Mac.

Now that Apple stores are becoming quite common and you can buy a Mac at Best Buy or Future Shop, have they finally made the leap to “routine”, or will they soon see backlash and begin to seem less “special”?  There is even talk that Apple computers will soon be available at Wal-Mart…  If true, this would very clearly answer the question.

Of course, even as the overall Apple brand switches from “scarce” to “routine”, the company can perhaps maintain some degree of specialness through product innovation, exclusive offers, and so on.  “Everybody owns an iPod, but only a true Apple fanatic will know how to get an iPod+”

And, of course #2: Apple is also at the mercy of the marketing departments of Microsoft, Dell, and many many other competitors.  Even if – perhaps especially if – Apple is nicely making the transition to becoming a staple, then a relatively easy message from those competitors may be “Is your Mac really that special?“  A wrong move by Apple (deep discounting? not enough discounting? delays in new product launches? a serious bug? over-distribution?) could quickly give these competitors’ claims some legitimacy in consumers’ minds.

“Routine” is pretty easy to aim for.  It’s extremely difficult to achieve, but the goal is clear.  “Product X is a standard in the field of X for people who Y”.  Make a good, truly reliable, reasonably priced, accessible product and… voila.  The challenges are: a.) It usually takes a lot of time and experimentation to make something this universally appealling, and b.) How the heck do you convince people that “everybody else is buying one” is a good thing, and that safe isn’t boring?

“Scarce” is trickier to define since it’s so reliant on perception.  But it might actually be easier to achieve.  The scarce product doesn’t necessarily have to be a good value, easy to get, reliable, or even “good”.  It just needs a hook to make it special…  Maybe it’s only available in a local area, or was formerly only available in a certain place (I’d be curious to try a Mexican Coke and compare it to an Israeli Coke…).   Or maybe it’s a matter of redecorating — remember the big fuss about the 7-11 locations that re-branded as Kwik-E-Marts for the Simpsons Movie?  Or there’s always the easiest of all approaches: the limited time offer, the waiting list, or the signed limited edition.  Anybody want to buy my Franklin Mint plate collection?

One caveat that comes to mind when dealing with scarce is to resist the urge to jump the shark and try to capitalize on a successful “special” product.  Remember when people would drive all day to pick up Krispy Kreme donuts?  Or back to the auto example: remember when the new Minis were in such high demand that there were waiting lists for months and people would crowd around when they saw one on the street?  When’s the last time any large group of people got excited about a Mini?   It’s still the same car (if not better, actually), but it’s become a bit of “just another small vehicle”.  The car companies seem to understand the basics of this, such as their efforts to bring back models like the Charger or Thunderbird.  But they often don’t keep this “specialness” going.  They start mass producing something as soon as it proves itself.  I wonder what would have happened if production of Hummers was immediately cut by 90% for the next five years.

The sense of specialness itself is its own attraction.  Sure, if a car company released a 2015 Delorean as a Back To The Future tie-in, it would be huge news  (and a great idea, by the way).  But I bet that if someone release a 2011 Gremlin or Pacer, it would be just as newsworthy and sought after.

Promotions, too, need to follow one extreme or the other — a promo has got to be something that everyone understands and appreciates (“$5 off coupon”, “Boxing Day Sale”, “Gift with Purchase”), or something really different (my favourite recent example: Long Beach Lodge Resort offered rooms at the price of each scorer’s jersey when the Vancouver Canucks won games during the NHL playoffs — if a Sedin scored, you might get a room for just $22 or $33 per night…)

Promos that fall somewhere in the middle don’t resonate for long.  Does anyone really care about “Employee Family Pricing” anymore?  Once every company in an industry starts offering something, it reaches a point where it will either become a standard, or disappear into meaninglessness.

Going back to the Dog Park…

A dog without structure and routine is a handful.  He won’t listen.  He’s hard to train.  He’s unpredictable and will act on instinct.

A dog who finds nothing scarce simply won’t appreciate anything.   Oh, another treat?  Thanks.  I’ll just take that.  Yawn.

It’s the combination that matters: everybody needs both.  Nobody will be satisfied by the “scarce” or “special” alone, and nobody wants merely the routine.