Positive Perception of Individuals towards the Sporting Activities - Report Example

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Students Name Course Name Professor’s Name University Name City, State Date Classicalconditioning Chen et al. (2012) conducted a study to establish whether conditioning that involves cognitive insights of marketers and sportsmen affects the attitude of the people about sports and products being promoted. They also sought to establish whether the celebrities who are affiliated with sporting activities changes the attitude and people's perception about a particular sporting activity (Petty et al., 2009). The idea was to establish whether individuals who associated themselves regularly with various sporting activities championed by particular celebrities have their attitude changed in favor of particular celebrities and whether individuals who follow particular celebrities change their attitude towards sporting activities championed by their favorite celebrities (Till et al., 2008). They also sort to establish whether collaboration between celebrities and various sporting activities would initiate positive perception of individuals towards either the sporting activities or the celebrities depending on the strength of the collaboration (Mowen et al., 2012).However, they did not focus on investigating the endorsement of celebrities by the management of various sporting events which is an emerging area of focus that is allowed following celebrities and sporting management spending a lot of money on endorsement deals (Kim, 2007). The study that was conducted by Chen et al. (2012) involved the use of four experiments by classical conditioning to prove the hypotheses formulated by the researcher. The experiments were conducted after formulation of hypotheses which included the null and alternative hypothesis. If the findings agreed with the null hypothesis, then the alternative hypothesis was subject to rejection since it does not represent the information obtained from the findings. The null hypothesis is then accepted in this case (Stuart et al., 2007). On the other hand, if the null hypothesis is untrue it is rejected based on the findings obtained while the alternative hypothesis is accepted and the recommendations made together with the conclusion. However this does not mean that the researcher's speculation is wrong but only suggests further adjustments to the ideologies and perceptions of the researcher and is a sign that there has been additional knowledge in the field of study that the researcher needs to be aware of (Petty et al., 2009). According to Chen et al. (2012), there has been huge spending in advertizing to reach the viewers of various sporting events in the past decades. This is because the sports management had to work extra hard to capture the attention of potential viewers. With the emergence of celebrities on media platforms, the sports organizers saw it a good idea to team up with celebrities in order to reach the followers of various celebrities and easily convert them to their loyal committed viewers simply due to the fact that they are fans of the affiliated celebrities (Kaikati et al., 2010). This has reduced the promotional costs of sporting events managers and enabled them easily attract a large crowd of viewers. In some cases, it has led to the public official endorsement of the sports events by celebrities to solidify the relationship and the bond between the two parties (Kaikati et al., 2010). Also, this has resulted in a trend where endorsement of corporations’ products by athletes has now become a component of sports marketing as well as a corporate social responsibility by many organizations. Marketers and promoters make huge expenses in making deals on advertizement to get the necessary authorization to use celebrities' images and make a blend between their advertizing images and the celebrities' images (Jones et al, 2011). This usually has numerous benefits to marketers as well as the advertizing company because it increases sales hence benefiting marketers regarding rewards and the company regarding productivity and profitability hence helping the organization to remain in business (Mowen et al, 2012).. Consumers, however, may even change their perception about a product once they view promotional images associated with their preferred celebrities. However, this association of a product with the particular celebrity is risky and may lead to loss of customers in a situation where the celebrities' image turn negative (Mowen et al, 2012). However, since the effectiveness of this conditioning is important, it is relevant therefore to use conditioning to establish how significant use of classical conditioning can be when applied to various scenarios in the society (Stuart et al, 2007). The aim of this article is to evaluate the usefulness of classical conditioning in modifying people's behavior and attitudes. People face various scenarios in life and are bound to deal with them depending on their experience and awareness pertaining to that situation. However what one is used to plays a great role in enabling the person make a conclusive decision (Stuart et al, 2007). For instance, if one is a fan of particular kind of music, they may tend to be attracted to places and selling points playing their favorite music hence this may lead to impulse buying. Also it may lead to the development of positive attitude towards to those selling points, e.g. shops as a result of conditioning from such kind of music (Stuart et al, 2007). This similarly applies to marketing and promotional images that are associated with celebrities conditioned to individuals. Thus individuals tend to develop a positive attitude towards those products endorsed by their preferred celebrities while they may develop negative attitudes towards advertizements not affiliated to their celebrities or stay neutral to such products. However, the issue of endorsement has long run benefits to marketers but translate to be so expensive in the short run (Jones et al, 2011). . On the other hand, classical conditioning may lead to the development of perceptions that lead to changes in social behavior which in some instances may be against the social structures and morals of particular society and community. From Chen et al (2012)'s study, one can conclude that most decisions individuals make are as a result of either conditioning or cognition. However, insights that are cognitive can be changed when one is exposed to conditioning which further affects the way we make choices in various situations in life (Petty et al, 2009). Project method Design The research design of this study involves two participants of either gender that are one female and one male. The participants are of an average age of 24 years, and the standard deviation is 1.96. The two participants will be selected to represent two most popular and footballers in English Premier League (EPL). A pilot study to support this experiment was carried out involving 50 participants 25 male and 25 female. The two groups were involved in selecting an endorser for Chelsea football club from two celebrities, a musician a footballer. This was based on the experience one has pertaining to the subject field. 75% of them settled for a footballer because of his experience in football(Stuart et al.2007). Materials and Procedure This experiment involves a simple procedure to establish the effect of sports marketing through the endorsement of by celebrities. These celebrities were to be selected based on awareness about the subject matter to be endorsed as well as the attitude of the participants towards the celebrity. To facilitate this the researcher will organize two groups one of high congruence and another one perceived to be of low congruence (Jones et al, 2011). The sporting event, in this case, represents the conditioned stimulus while the celebrities represent the unconditioned stimulus. To make this successful there was the need to set up some classical conditioning procedures which would help establish the relationship between the unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus. The participants will watch the previous games of the team together with the latest activities that the celebrity was involved in for the last one month for the first celebrity. The same procedure will be repeated for the second celebrity(Kaikati et al, 2010). This procedure will enable the participants to come up with tangible facts on why they prefer a certain celebrity to the other. The procedure will also involve quite long preparations and will be a bit costly since it involves some advanced technology which may call for the intervention of an expert. Therefore, the participants have enough time to interact with the images of the celebrities and assess them to come up with the best answer. As much as it appears quite procedural and a bit expensive, it is better as opposed to when it is theoretical and does not elaborate the reason for the conclusion made(Petty et al. 2009). According to Till et al. (2008) effectiveness in conditioning is only obtained when there five sets of pairings between unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus which the researcher is focussed to ensure it unfolds in this research. Self-reflection Writing is a skill that is not only beneficial in school work but is useful greatly one's career and in life generally(Mowen et al. 2012). This is because whether official or friendly writing it needs to be appropriate and organized. It is a skill that can make you earn a living in future if time is committed to perfect it. In this unit, I have learned not only writing but competent writing which includes framing of ideas in the most presentable way, proper citation and nice referencing to avoid plagiarism among other crucial benefits. It has also enabled me to understand various citation formats (Jones et al. 2011). References Chen, Y. C, Yi, H. L & Chia, L. H., 2012. Celebrity endorsement for sporting events using classical conditioning. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 13 (9), 342-350. Jones, M. J. & Schumann, D. W., 2011. The strategic use of celebrity athlete endorsers in Sports Illustrated: a historical perspective. Sports Marketing Quarterly, 9, 65-76. Kaikati, J. G. (2010). Celebrity advertizing: a review and synthesis. International Journal of Advertising, 6, 93-105 Kim, Y. J. & Na, J. H., 2007. Effects of celebrity athleteendorsement on attitude towards the product: the role of credibility, attractiveness and the concept of congruence. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 8(4) 310-320. Mowen, J. C. & Brown, S. W., 2012. On explaining and predicting the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers. Advances in Consumer Research, 8, 437-441. Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T. & Schumann, D., 2009. Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: the moderating role of involvement. Journal of Consumer Research, 10, 135-146. Stuart, E. W., Shimp, T. A. & Engle, R. W., 2007. Classical conditioning of consumer attitudes: four experiments in an advertizing context. The Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 334-349. Till, B. D., Stanley, S. M. & Periluck, R., 2008. Classical conditioning and celebrity endorsers: an examination of belongingness and resistance to extinction. Psychology and Marketing, 25(2), 179-196. Read More