Airlines use staged boarding to create exclusivity: Platinum, Gold, and Bronze members board first, making people chase loyalty status. The same scarcity trick works in retail. A pharmacy buyer's club that rewards customers at $500 or $1,000 spending thresholds triggers the same drive to spend more.
There's another technique you can use. It's called exclusivity and scarcity. I wanna tell you how these work 'cause it's a huge motivator for people to buy from you. And airlines are masterful at doing this. Last year, I fly, anyone else fly United? I fly United. Yeah, pfft. So me too, I gotcha. I fly United, but this time I got bumped to a different airline because the United flight was canceled. Surprise, surprise. I show up to this other airline, and I found there is two ways to move humanity en masse. Literally, we can get everyone to leave this room very quickly if someone announces that there's a fire going on. Oh, we'll move. But I found there's a second way to move people very quickly, and it's simply this. Make an announcement you're gonna board an airplane in 5 minutes, and people will jump up and run to the gate. So this airline says, the flight attendant comes on and says, we'd like to announce that we'll be boarding the airline in, the airplane in 5 minutes. Please locate your luggage. People jump up, they run to the gate. There's this wall of humanity blocking the entrance. There's no way on this plane now unless you can pierce this veil of human flesh. Until they make the next announcement. Flight attendant comes on, says, "We'd like to welcome on anyone that needs extra time boarding or has children under the age of 3." And this small crevasse, I guess would be the word, opens up and, you know, that woman that was at the elevator, she comes walking. I'm like, "What the hell is she doing here?" She comes, yeah, and I'm like, "She can pummel that thing!" I'm yelling. They're like, "Who is that guy?" This other woman walks in with a child who has a full-grown mustache, and I'm like, "Okay, kudos to you. Well played, madam. Well played." And then the wall of humanity closes again, and the only way through this is when they make the next announcement. "We'd like to welcome on anyone traveling with a Platinum card." Right? And all the Platinum members come in and, you know, they show their card to everybody. "Yeah, I'm a Platinum member. Yes." Yes, look at me, look at that, yes, yes. And then the closes down, and then they're like, we'd like to welcome on any gold members. The gold members don't hold their cards as high, it's kind of like half-shelf, just like, yeah, like alligator claws, yeah, I'm a gold member, right? Then we'd like to welcome on any bronze, semi-precious metal, plastic material, here. And then at the very end of this particular boarding, There was one guy left, this yucko, and the flight attendant had to make a scene out of it. The room was about as big as this. There's no one there. It's late at night. It's just me. And they're like, "We'd like to welcome on our general boarding." And that's when I'm like, "Yeah, thank you." And I walk on board. Airlines are using a behavioral technique that's hardwired into all of us. It's the power of exclusivity. When something is limited in its availability, it becomes more desirous. People go to extraordinary measures to keep that platinum card. Literally, at the end of this year, the last week of December, it's always fun to go to the airport and just ask people, where are you traveling to? A lot of people travel, like they leave their airport and they circumnavigate the world to land back in their airport to keep their points up. We go to extraordinary measures to belong to a group. We in the pharmacy industry have the exact same opportunity. You can start a buyer's club. Tell your customers, please keep your receipts. You know, once you do a certain purchasing volume, $500, $1,000, we have a special gift we award to our premium clientele. And watch how people will go an extra mile for you to get that award. It is shocking. Start a buyer's club.
