Getting a hot new car or high-tech gizmo is no longer good enough. We want it before anyone else has it -- even if it means paying extra.

JOHN INTINI MacLean's Magazine, Canada

REMEMBER THE Joneses' You know, the family with the newest car, coolest computer and trendiest clothes? Well, forget about them. Because just keeping up with them no longer cuts it. These days you have to leave them -- and everyone else -- at the curb eating the dust of your limited-edition sports car or drooling over the fancy cellphone that does everything but scramble your eggs.

This drive to be the first on the block with the toy of the moment has never been more intense, some experts say. While early adopters are nothing new, galloping tech advances, a wealthy middle class with a penchant for status symbols, and, most importantly, creative marketers mean there are now a lot more of them. "If you're the first to know, get or experience something, you get a certain amount of buzz currency," says Mark Hughes, an American marketing expert and author of upcoming Got Buzz?

For brand purveyors, exclusivity has become the No. 1 tool to feed a consumer frenzy, driving demand for everything from the trendiest fashions to the hippest e-mail addresses to Apple's super-hot iPod Mini. The high-end car market in particular is famous for limiting production in order to make those who buy believe they're joining a select club. Two recent notables: Mercedes' custom-built Maybach -- only 600 of the 2005 model are available worldwide -- and BMW's Mini Cooper, of which 500 were "pre-sold" on-line in 2002. "There is that trait in humans to want what you can't have," says Paul Lavoie, founder and chairman of Taxi, the Toronto-based marketing firm behind the global campaign that made the Mini -- for a time -- the standard of automotive cool. "These are people with a lot of money and little time, and they want things now. It's all about status."

Such is the car enthusiasts' keenness that buyers-to-be flock to Web sites set up by automakers where they can track their vehicle through the manufacturing process and talk to other expectant owners. As well, Internet auctions have popped up for spots on dealer waiting lists, garnering bids in the tens of thousands of dollars. In March, a place in line to buy the 2005 Ford GT -- a limited-edition sports car -- fetched more than US$70,000 on eBay. That's just for the right to buy the car -- which is available this summer for an additional US$150,000. "It's crazy to me and most people on the planet," says Karl Brauer, editor of leading auto magazine Edmunds.com. "But there is a small and fanatical group out there paying what it takes." Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University, describes the trade in waiting-list spots as "an upper-class version of scalping. It provides an opportunity for people who want in to get in."

Playing the exclusivity card isn't reserved for the auto market. One of the tactic's pioneers was Ty Inc., the maker of Beanie Babies. "When demand increased, the company started to produce a limited number," says Lindsay Meredith, a marketing strategy professor at Simon Fraser University. "People wanted full sets but couldn't get them all. It resulted in the ultimate of stupidity, with adults collecting the dolls." Similarly, when Sony unveiled PlayStation in Canada in 2000, it limited the number of units available during the Christmas season -- then flooded the market. Expect the same type of strategy and subsequent race to store aisles when Sony and Nintendo launch their new hand-held video consoles this fall.

The Internet -- especially eBay -- has revolutionized the manufacturing of demand. "It's become the norm to introduce a new car, technology or CD on eBay," says Hughes. "A few weeks before hip-hop artist Jay-Z released The Black Album last year, he put a hundred signed copies for sale on eBay." On-line stores and auction sites have also given Canadians access to the iPod Mini digital music player, which won't be in stores here until next month -- at the earliest.

Our hyper consumer lust puts a modern spin on an old idea, namely diffusion theory. Conceived in the 1960s, the theory's premise is that over its life cycle a product passes through the hands of five distinct groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. Traditionally, most consumers were wary of buying a product soon after its launch for fear of kinks still to be worked out. But now that new technology is more reliable, the desire for status trumps concern about non-performance. The result: more people want in early. "The curve is much shorter," says Bruce Philp, president of GWP Brand Engineering. And as more people crave the innovator, "it's harder and harder to consume for the purpose of status."

From the marketer's perspective, giving your product that must-have-now buzz is all about luring the trend-setters. As a result, many companies are holding tight to ad dollars, opting instead to get products in the hands of carefully selected and highly influential people. Buzz in the right ears is quite a bit cheaper -- and considered more effective -- than a TV spot. Still, experts warn that buzz lasts only as long as the product has legs. "Marketers are ultimately trying to achieve awareness, trial and adoption," says Ken Wong, a marketing professor at Queen's University. "Buzz gets you awareness and maybe trial, but ultimately the product has to meet expectations. There's no prestige in having a mediocre product before everyone else." Certainly not. Imagine what the neighbours would think.