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Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Bambi to be 'Vaulted' Today

If you need a copy of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and/or Bambi you may want to head out to a movie carrying retailer near you. Today, April 30, 2012, these two classic tales will be whisked from store shelves and unavailable to purchase through authorized retailers.

I've made no secret on my angst of this marketing scheme vaulting.

If in doubt see my blog, Suddenly Seeking Cinderella: This Mom’s Huff about The Disney 'Vault’

Are you good to go as a happy owner of these films? What do you think about Disney's Vaulting process?

Tags: and, bambi, beast, beauty, cinderella, disney, dvd, family, favorites, film, More…movies, the, vault, vaulting

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Permalink Reply by PkD on April 30, 2012 at 1:31pm

I’ve spent 20+ years studying the psychology of pricing and marketing. Here are my thoughts on Vaulting.

People feel things are more valuable when they are perceived as scarce. It works at an emotional level and therefore can avoid the consumer’s logical decision making processes. Marketers know this and try to increase the perception of scarcity so they can increase both prices and demand. Limited time offers are a common way to do this. It is simply one of the many ways for the Marketing Department to manipulate consumers by taking advantage of basic human psychology. It works great for the company – more sales at a higher price. They don’t care if it is good for the consumer. (One may even reasonably argue that by increasing the consumer’s perception of value, the consumer will enjoy their purchase more. It’s somewhat offensive if the consumer knows what you’re doing, but as long as they don’t know, they very well might have increased enjoyment and be happier. Now, for the people that miss the limited time, they just lose out. But the company is still better off, so they don't care.)

In short, if you want the item at the given price, buy it; if you don’t, don’t. But just be aware of their attempt at manipulating you. Once you are aware of attempts at psychological manipulation, it loses much of its power and you can make better logical decisions.