One might snigger and wink at a person who says that he bought Playboy for its articles, but chances are that he’s dead serious about it. And he’s not alone. There are hundreds of thousands of them who used to buy that men’s “entertainment” magazine for the same reason.

So, what gives?

The key to understanding this delightful paradox lies in the word “Salience”. The dictionary meaning of Salience is the quality of being particularly noticeable or prominent.

The reason why the articles were memorable was because they were interspersed between titillating pictures. That’s what made them salient.

If you’ve ever made a powerpoint presentation, you’d have noticed that slides that are different from the rest or at least their preceding or following slides are better remembered by your audience. If you’re one of the smarter ones, you’d have leveraged this knowledge to deliberately draw attention to the important points you wish to make.

This principle of Salience could also be the reason why the beginnings and endings of books stick to the mind more than the middle – because there are elements at only on one side of them, instead of both.

Remember, it’s not the kind of stimulus that counts, but how it relates to the other stimuli surrounding it. Learn how to vary the proportions of stimuli, and you will enjoy the rewards of staying on people’s minds and compelling them to act.

Now, we all know how brands leverage the feeling of scarcity to sell their products faster.

“Limited Time Offer”

“Offer open till stocks last”

“Clearance Sale”

“Black Friday Sale”

“Exclusive Dhanteras Offer”

Not just that, many brands like Apple exploit the psychology of scarcity to make people queue up all night for their new phone launches.

But do you know there was a famous brand in US that got doomed due to this same psychology of scarcity.

In 1985, one of the top companies in the world began a historic blunder that Time magazine called the Marketing fiasco of the decade.

The name of the company – Coca Cola.

After years of researching on a new “better tasting” formula, on April 23, the company decided to pull their traditional formula of coke off the market. They replaced it with New Coke. But the company failed to predict the sheer frustration and fury its action would create. Right across the length and breadth of America, tens of thousands of Coke lovers rose up to revile the taste of New Coke and demand the return of their beloved old Coke back.

Their was even a society that got created – Old Coca Cola Drinkers of America – a widespread group of people who worked tirelessly to get the traditional formula back on the market by using any means necessary – civil, judicial, legislative…

The protests were of a level that made Coca Cola kill the New Coke and reinstate the old Coke.

What caused this outrage?

Even though blind taste tests clearly pointed to the new flavour as the hands down winner, the company failed to take into account something important. The taste tests were done with both flavours being made available to the participants. But when the Coke drinkers realised that the drink they grew up with will no longer be available, it created a psyche of scarcity, leading to an uprising, not unlike the bubbles of a well shaken coke bottle.