Contagious demand

Classic economic theory and current marketing practice normally assume that one person's demand for a brand is not affected by the demand of others.

Contagious Demand

Jim CrimminsDDB Worldwide andNed AnschuetzDDB Worldwide

Gary Becker, Nobel Prize winning economist, proposed a very different model of demand, one that assumes 'the pleasure from a good is greater when many people want to consume it ' Or, in other words, ' the demand for a good by a person depends on the aggregate quantity demanded of the good' (Becker, 1991).

We might call this 'contagious demand,' demand that, in the words of Webster's Dictionary (1981), 'excites similar conduct or emotion in others.'

Is demand really contagious?

Parents may be familiar with an early...

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