Scarcity

(From https://www.vidyard.com/blog/attention-economy-marketers-killing-not-capturing-attention)

There's a principle in economics that lies at the heart of how the entire economy works: scarcity.

Scarcity is the simple concept of something being in short supply. It's the idea that there is not enough supply of some resource to meet the demand of that resource.

We face scarcity when there are no bananas left at the grocery store, when we wait in line for hours to snag the newest iPhone, or when we want to go to yoga and walk the dog, but there's only 1 hour left in the evening. Scarcity is everywhere. We even face scarcity when we want our partner's attention, but they're all-consumed in their devices.

As marketers, we face scarcity when we want the attention of our audience, but are competing with thousands of other marketers, companies, people, and things for that finite resource.

While all this may sound a little grim, and like we're in a constant battle for, well … everything. Scarcity isn't a bad thing. It's what makes the world go round, it's one of the principles that drives our economy and how prices for goods and services are set. Without scarcity, no one would ever pay for anything. There would be an infinite supply of everything, no one could make money, which means we couldn't exchange it for goods and services. But then, why would we need to, if there was an endless supply of everything? Theoretically, no one would go hungry either, but I digress.

One thing's for sure: the nature of scarce resources is nothing to be afraid of. Even when it comes to our audience's attention.