WOM and Limited Availability

Some of my readers may recall a point I made a few weeks ago:

"You may also be intrigued if the product is somewhat 'unavailable' to you, wondering if it must be so good that the company doesn't even need to make it readily available."

In an article this week on MarketingProfs.com, "Marketing Challenge: Let's Give 'Em Something to Talk About", Meryl K. Evans and Hank Stroll wrote:

"An excellent example of limiting the product is when Google got many people craving a Gmail account. When the company launched Gmail beta, it limited accounts to invitation only. Soon, people auctioned off the accounts."

Interestingly, I used the same example: Gmail.

You're more likely to generate powerful word of mouth by creating the perception that your customers are an exclusive club instead of begging everyone to use your product.

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