Comments on: the tao of undersupply

By: A Shareware Life

A Shareware Life — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 06:00:19 +0000

Beware of Oversupply

Another great post on gapingvoid: 100 Suits.Over the last couple of days I’ve been thinking about this one idea I’ve had for English Cut. The idea is basically limiting our output to 100 suits a year. That’s roughly 2 suits

By: dykstraNet

dykstraNet — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 12:30:43 +0000

Finding Things del.icio.us Style

One of the great things about del.icio.us is the places it helps you stumble upon. Not only is it a great place to store your own links, but you can see the community that is linking the same things that you are. Then you start stumbling upon interest…

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:44:05 +0000

What about our company? We are selling environmentally friendly biodegradable packing materials. I don’t think we can say to a customer who wants to buy 1 million that we only can produce or deliver only 900.000. If we do that, we are out of business, and we want to stay in.
And — regrettably — we are not big enough to say that we only want 9 (not 10) customers.
Anyway — have a nice weekend, you gapingvoids.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:17:10 +0000

I am here for the first time ever. I did not read the article. I just wanted to tell you that you have one reader more here. See the next comments for what I like especially at gapingvoid!

By: Huw

Huw — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:01:23 +0000

I did something similar with my photographs a few years back. With a small market, I chose an even smaller number of products, limited editions with the minimum run of one of them being just 7. It worked for as long as I was doing it.
But I got bored selling and lost interest in making the images in the first place. I stopped selling and got back my love of taking photographs. I’m ‘richer’ now!
Your post also put me in mind of Hucklebery Fin, who managed to get Tom Sawyer to finish his work on a fence by creating an irresistably exclusive opportunity.

By: smallbusinessbranding blog - small business marketing

smallbusinessbranding blog - small business marketing — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 08:52:31 +0000

There Was a Googlefight. I Lost.

Ouch. Not really even a fight (damn you Hugh). This is totally googly dude. Thanks to Aaron over at Confessions of a Brand Evangelist for this fun little nugget.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 02:06:58 +0000

John K, I suppose the answer would be to get enough clients where you have to turn work away on a regular basis.

By: John Koetsier

John Koetsier — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 01:52:03 +0000

Love this post … but I am struggling to apply it to situations where you don’t make ‘widgets.’
If I am an ad agency, how do I make less of ‘brand X’ or whatever it is that I offer?
If I am an individual with a certain set of skills and abilities, how do I limit the supply and therefore increase the demand?

By: Jeremy Heigh

Jeremy Heigh — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 00:35:45 +0000

Good thought Hugh.
Reminds me of recent thoughts about billboards (there

By: Vy Blog

Vy Blog — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 23:52:03 +0000

The Tao of Undersupply

Hugh says maybe it’s smart to differentiate yourself by undersupplying.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 23:26:57 +0000

Yes Ralph, I think we’re both reading from the same page.
And that’s a very good point– a customer base motivated primarily by greed certainly shifts product faster than just about anything.

By: Ralph Tegtmeier

Ralph Tegtmeier — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 23:12:33 +0000

Some 25 years back I went into the publishing business — with almost zero initial capital. So what to do? Instead of having tons of books printed which would only have blown up our inventory, we offered subscriptions to limited editions. When orders were in and the publication deadline was due, we only had to produce so and so many copies (just slightly more than subscribed to service fresh orders).
This not only saved us tons of capital, it was actually a whole lot more lucrative, too: no interest on inventory, lower administrative overhead, etc. We actually made a lot more profit that way because of course those limited editions were quite pricey (about 4 times the regular price of books in this particular market). And yes, this was stuff not available anywhere else and quite attractive to our target group.
After a while, we had lots of subscribers who’d blindly order almost anything whenever we announced it — obviously collectors, maybe some people speculating on appreciation of product value due to its scarcity. Plus, perhaps, the greed factor at play to some extent …
The most interesting part was that this approach actually tends to *create* a market rather than simply servicing one. The slogan “Invent your own market” was very much to the point here.