Eric Friedman – Marketing.fm

If you do something well people will take notice. If you do something great, consistently, will will talk about it. That should be the ultimate goal of any company that is trying to formulate a plan for marketing their product or service.

But what happens when there is scarcity of your product or service?

This is the case with a restaurant in New York called Momofuku Ko which requires you to make a reservation online to dine there. The system has been fully democratized and there are (so they say) no shortcuts to getting a reservation. It is literally first come first serve, online.

They only open up 7 days of reservations in advance at 10:00am EST each morning for approximately 32 patrons. This is actually rarely the case because only the 7th day opens as the first 6 are already reserved.

This system has proven so intangible that even New York restaurant critics cannot get in to review the place. The restaurant has an almost guaranteed wait list of patrons simply based on the scarcity of availability.

So what is so great about Mommafuku Ko? Well, like any other scarce product not a lot of people know the answer first hand. Sure they can read the four star glowing reviews, but the sheer fact that you cannot get in makes the desire that much more powerful for some.

Blending the traditional NY dining experience with an interactive reservation system through the Internet, Mommafuku has taken a lesson from the hottest social networking sites of today. They have packaged the story up so that it fits neatly in a sound bite or text link;

Want a reservation? Register online or you can’t have one.

This is a simple change from the traditional call and be laughed at approach that many hot restaurants use today. I am sure development was not that expensive either. Reminiscent of the early days of eBay auction sniping, I have heard stories of people waiting by their computers every morning at 10:00am hoping to get a coveted table.

So when there is not enough to go around, people want more. Is it great? I don’t know yet, but I sure have more incentive to try knowing reservations are scarce.