Social Influence Essay

As the needs and demographic makeup of sport consumers have become more complex and as competition for the spectator increase, the demand for professional marketing has also grown. Although entrepreneurs have been selling sport for centuries, rational systems of marketing sport are relatively new. A sport marketer is asked to market a product that is unpredictable, inconsistent, and subjective to interpretation. This is where our seven social influence principles come into place.

As the sponsorship representative of the Baseball team, I will be perusing CMM as a potential sponsor. For the first attempt to persuade them using the social influence principles, Baseball will use the Automaticity Principle. The automaticity principle is defined as the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. The way we would execute this principle would be by informing CMM that there is an opportunity for them to sponsor Baseball because baseball season is starting back up.

The second principle we would use is the Commitment and Consistency Principle’s, Foot in the Door Technique. This principle is defined as getting someone to comply with a small initial request making that person more likely to comply with a subsequent larger request. The way to execute this principle would be by asking them if they would like to contribute meat (Hot dogs and/ or hamburgers) to  Baseball’s opening day tailgate. If they choose to agree we would then make it known that there is an opportunity to become a corporate sponsor for Baseball. Their company will be effectively endorsed, advertised, and marketed not only locally, but also regionally and nationally. For our third principle we would use the Reciprocity principle’s, Door in the Face Technique. This technique is opposite of the F.I.T.D technique, making an unreasonably large request, then “compromising” with a smaller request. We would ultimately flip the proposal of Foot in the Door Technique, asking about Corporate Sponsorship, then getting to our smaller target request (a donation to our opening day tailgate).