Harry Potter Goes into the Vault – A Vent About Scarcity Marketing

I got some bad news this week. Warner Bros has decided to follow in Disney’s evil footprints (I use the term “evil” in jest. I absolutely love Disney and everything about them.) and declared that as of December 29th, 2011… all of the Harry Potter movies will be put in the “vault.” WHAT?! BACK UP! Warner Bros has a vault?! You mean I won’t be able to get my beloved HP DVDs any time I want?

Being the sole 123Print employee who would quit if given the opportunity to attend Hogwarts for real, I am outraged. I am so distraught at how much money I am going to have to dish out because of this that I cannot function. If my understanding is correct, and someone please correct me if I’m wrong, once something is in the “vault,” it can’t even be rented or streamed. So Netflix won’t have the HP movies to stream until they are out of the “vault,” and neither will Amazon or Hulu. You seriously have to own the DVD or Blu-Ray if you want to watch wizards battle it out. Unless of course you’re an internet pirate in which case, I don’t want to know anything about it. So there you have it. Get that insane amount of cash ready. I know I am.

Alright. So I’m being dramatic. Truth of the matter is that I have the first seven movies already. I just need the eighth which comes out November 11th, 2011. However, people that were holding out hope for the entire eight disc collection are going to have a little more than a month (that is if there is an eight disc box set that will be released. No official word on this yet) to shell out hundreds of dollars to have it in their hot little hands. Now, I had no intentions of pre-ordering the second part of Deathly Hallows. I was going to wait for it to be out for awhile and try to find it on Blu-Ray cheaper than the $19.99 it’s listed at on Amazon. I guess $19.99 really isn’t that bad, but I figured eventually it would come down in price. Then I heard about WB and this “vault” nonsense and immediately felt compelled to pre-order the movie, just to make sure I get one. I’m ridiculous and I know this. I fell right into the trap that Disney has successfully used for years – scarcity marketing, causing people to be fearful of a shortage all in the name of selling more.

Sitepoint defines “scarcity marketing” as:

motivating people to buy something by telling them there is a shortage in what is available and a limited time to act. The goal is to create a sense of urgency through an aggressive call to action; to make people scared that they will not be able to acquire something that they want if they don’t act fast.

So with this in mind, it makes total sense why WB hopped on the “vault” bandwagon. Now that there won’t be any more Harry Potter movies to bring in millions upon millions in the box office, all that is left is merchandise, movie replicas, books and the beloved movies on DVD or Blu-Ray. It makes sense to put the fear of Voldemort in Potterheads minds. Get as much money out of them as they possibly can NOW while HP is still hot. Not only that, but it sets the stage for future Harry Potter DVD and Blu-Ray releases.

Remember Disney’s “The Lion King?” I saw that movie in the theaters the first time around. After it had been out on VHS for awhile, and every child had a Simba stuffed animal (mine is safely stored in the attic, thank you very much), “The Lion King” went into the dreaded vault. I don’t remember when it first came out of the “vault” and was finally released on DVD, but when it was it was for a “limited time only,” and would be “put back in the vault” after a certain date. Parents switching from VHS to DVD raced out to make sure their kids had the movie on DVD. My friends and I relived our childhood and marveled over how nice the picture looked compared to the well-loved VHS we had. Back into the vault it went, and for those that missed picking up the DVD in stores, were now forced to pay an astronomical price from sites like EBAY and Amazon. Fast forward to 2011 where suddenly the movie is “out of the vault” again, but this time for two weeks only and in theaters alone. A brand new generation of kids suddenly had to see the movie and beg their parents to get them every piece of “Lion King” merchandise possible. My generation, the generation that were amazed that heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas was the voice of Simba felt obligated to go because this was our movie. See what Disney did there? They unleashed the fear of “you know… this probably won’t happen again. It’s special. It’s worth the money because who knows when this will be available again.” And we all fell for it. I imagine WB will do something similar in a few years.

Once HP mania calms down a little bit (it will never truly go away), WB will want to introduce Harry Potter and the Golden Trio to a new generation of fans and will probably slowly release the movies for a “limited time,” before they go back into the dreaded “vault.”

As evil as this entire marketing scheme may seem, it works. Yeah, it reeks of trickery because most adults recognize what’s going on – yet we still fall victim to it. Because the product (in this case the movies) are such a hot commodity, allowing them only to be available for a certain time drives up the perceived value of what is being sold. There’s a huge sense of urgency which causes people to act faster.

Scarcity marketing will not work for everyone. Ask yourself, “Do I offer a product or a service that can utilize this tactic?” You’re not Disney or Warner Bros with a special “vault”, but you can use scarcity marketing for a limited time service or discount for brand new clients, or put an expiration date on proposals you send out to clients – meaning if the client doesn’t act by a certain date the quote will be invalid.

Whatever you do, don’t force it. If done wrong, scarcity marketing may potentially hurt your reputation or inadvertently push your customers away. Be smart!