Samantha UrenoProfessor ZiaEnglish 99January 22, 2016The Science Behind Sports Authority“Nothing in a grocery store is where it is by accident. Every item on a shelf has been planned” (Paco Underhill). In the articles “The Science of Shopping” by Malcolm Gladwell and “How Target Knows What You Want Before You Do” by Charles Duhigg, these authors illustrate effective marketing strategies composed by Paco Underhill and Andrew Pole. Underhill is an environmental psychologist; Furthermore, he uses the basic idea that a person's environment influences their behavior and invented structuring artificial environments to make them conducive for retail purposes. Pole was a statistician and devoted his entire life to using data to understand. Gladwell says: “It would never have occurred to me to question the increasingly critical role played by touching – or, as Paco calls it, stroking – clothing during life. make the decision to buy them” (Section 2). Caresses are like the idea of ​​a dining table where you collect your food; retailers would set up a table for the consumer to pick up an item to convey the same idea. Sports Authority successfully generates this idea by allowing its consumers to “caress” their fitness equipment, sports equipment and clothing. They encourage their consumers to get a golf club and play on the green. They allow consumers to “pat” gloves and bats on a baseball mound to increase the chances of purchasing the item. They also have fitness equipment to test in order to influence decision-making. Finally, they have several tables set with folded clothes to appeal to the idea of ​​a dining table. Sports Authority successfully conveys Underhill's marketing strategy, petting, throughout its retail business. Duhigg recalls that "Target began building a vast data warehouse that assigned each shopper an identification code - known internally as a 'guest ID number' - that kept tabs on how from which each person was shopping. » (187). Every time we go shopping, we share intimate details about our spending habits with retailers. Many of these retailers study these details to determine what consumers like, what they need, and which coupons are most likely to make them happy. Sports Authority offers this method of “Guest ID” by offering its consumers the opportunity to join a free rewards program called “The League”. They encourage them to create this membership and offer them benefits such as coupons and update them on the latest discounts. Additionally, the rewards program is based on a points system and when a person has earned a certain number of points, it sends them a gift card to spend however they wish. However, what consumers don't know is that by applying for their free rewards program, they are collecting data and building analytics to turn them into loyal customers.