Samantha UrenoProfessor ZiaEnglish 9922 January 2016The Science Behind Sports Authority“Nothing in a grocery store is where it is by accident. Every object 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 exemplify effective marketing strategies composed by Paco Underhill and Andrew Pole. Underhill is an environmental psychologist; it also uses the basic idea that the surrounding environment influences behavior and invented the structuring of man-made environments to make them conducive to retail purposes. Pole was a statistician and dedicated his entire life to using data to understand. Gladwell states that: “It would never have occurred to me to wonder about the increasingly critical role played by touching – or, as Paco calls it, stroking – clothes in the process of making the decision to purchase them” (Section 2). Stroking is much like the idea of ​​a dining table where food can be picked up; retailers would set up a table for the consumer to pick up an item to convey the same idea successfully by allowing their consumers to “pet” it. their fitness machines, sports equipment and apparel. They encourage consumers to pick up a golf club and take a swing on the green. They allow consumers to “stroke” gloves and clubs on a baseball mound to increase their chances of purchasing the item. They also have fitness machines available for testing in order to influence the decision making process. Finally, they have several tables set up with folded clothes to attract the idea of ​​a dining table. Sports Authority successfully channels Underhill's marketing strategy, petting, throughout its retail business. Duhigg evokes that "Target began building a vast data warehouse that assigned each shopper an identification code, known internally as a 'guest ID number,' which tracked how each person shopped." "(187). Every time you go shopping, you share intimate details about your consumption patterns with retailers. Many of these retailers are studying these details to understand what consumers like, what they need, and what coupons they have more likely to make them happy. Sports Authority provides this “Guest ID” method by offering their consumers to join the 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 most discounts Recent Furthermore, the rewards program is based on a points system and when one has earned a certain number of points it sends him a gift card to spend as he wishes. However, what consumers do not know is that by applying for their program of free rewards is that they collect data and build analysis to make it faithful