When Micro-transactions become Macro-issues

Loot boxes, Loot Boxes, Loot Boxes, the typical mainstay and also the bane of many players of most probably every single game that is being developed and published in the past few years. Recently, the news picked up on the Star Wars Battlefront 2 Saga, where players essentially revolted, boycotted the game because of the loot box system  in the game causing a massive saga and PR disaster for EA and Dice (Developers and Publishers) .

The uproar over the loot box system was due to a number of reasons. The first reason was about how people were technically able to drop a huge sum of money to gain a far better advantage over other people who decided to keep their pennies to themselves. The second was that even though a steep price tag ($60 USD) was attached to the  game, players had to literally spend an insane amount of time (4521 hrs) to unlock every single character and fully collect everything in the game or spend alot of money ($2,100 USD)to unlock them immediately. To get the full scale of the whole saga, here is a short video describing what has happened and what might happen in the future.

 

The idea of loot boxing actually came from the combination of two things, collectible card games and the act of earning in game currency whether real or virtual in a game. Collectible card game players will spend money to buy packs in the hopes that a rare powerful card will be in the pack that they buy giving a more powerful edge over their opponents. While the act of in game currency is quite a mainstay of most games as it would be needed to buy stuff in the game although it is mostly virtual and free until the addition of real world currency microtransactions in recent years.

So why is the idea of Loot boxes so attractive to gamers? It all boils down to the simple theory of Variable Rate reinforcement, where players are working towards a reward through various means but the rewards are given unpredictably. To put it simply, what is happening is a form of gambling as money is being used to gamble for a potential valuable reward, even though it is not guaranteed and unpredictable . Research has shown that the brain releases dopamine when gambling is occurring and it induces pleasure in the user especially because of the thrill and excitement of the unknown result ( whether is it a good or bad result).

So if its so attractive and desirable to consumers, why is there even a massive outrage in the first place? This is due to Cognitive Dissonance, where a person feels discomfort because of two conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors regarding a situation and thus will attempt to rationalize and come to a conclusion which will eliminate one of the conflicting attitudes. In this situation, gamers were conflicted because, they had spent so much money on a game hoping that they would be able to experience everything that is to be offered, instead of that, they were introduced to what is perceived to be a monetization scheme in which they had to pay even more to experience the full experience of the game.

The second set of conflicting factors is that, the game is touted as a multiplayer skill based first person shooter in which players were expecting to play the game and win through skill, however the loot box scheme will undermine this intention as people can shell out money to get better weapons, upgrades and characters and thus making the game become who has the most amount of money to spend and win the game instead of it being skill based.

So the funny issue is that, the problem of loot boxes and monetization schemes by game publishers have been lamented, complained and blasted by the gaming community over the years, especially from a game review channel on youtube, Angry Joe

(Video Below, Warning: A lot of Expletives!)

So why are games still being churned out with the same issues, same micro-transactions and all the things that are making gamers angry and mad? That is because, people are anticipating and hyped up for the game release and that they would pay for it because of the marketing and promised fun experience that they will get. Even though they experience the problems mentioned above, they will still come back because of cognitive dissonance, where after a while, they will think its just a minor issue as compared to the overall fun experience of playing the game. And with that I would like to introduce you to the vicious cycle called the EA cycle as shown in the picture below.

This article literally sums up why gaming companies still do the same stuff and why people suffer. Its essentially because even though we complain about the issues, the consumer does not have the data and the amount of sales from the various functions that has been hated upon from the gaming community. In short, if there is no demand, there will not be a supply for loot boxing.

For a gaming developer to continuously add in the loot box function, there must have been a considerable amount of revenue earned from previous installments/games and therefore positively reinforcing the company’s motivation to continue utilizing it as it will generate income for them.

Going back to the ongoing saga on EA and the Star Wars Battlefront 2 community, the gamers actually succeeded in making EA temporarily retract and suspend the lootbox system in what is called a minor but important victory of the Gamer’s crusade vs the monetization schemes of gaming publishers. It is sad that the Gaming publisher only responded to the demands of the consumer because of the only language that they know which is $$$$$$$$$$ (money…..). A report showed that in November, the shares of EA dropped by 8% which meant about $3 Billion wiped out and are way short of their expected sales target of the game.

Like mentioned above, if there is no demand, there will not be a supply, however based on the current gaming climate, i am skeptical that a huge boycott will happen. This is because there are only a handful of companies that are making the games that the consumer wants, and they are the people who introduced microtransactions and made it the way it is now. The second issue is that there is still people who are willing to pay to win or to collect everything available in the game because it is way more convenient and enticing to do so.

I personally hope that in the future, the situation will be rectified but i do think that for something substantial to happen and a revolution to happen, the gaming community will actually have to rally and boycott major publisher’s. This is to apply negative reinforcements to the gaming publishers in the biggest thing that matters the most to them, their earnings. If there is a boycott and theirs sales drop and a big saga like what has happened between battlefront 2  and EA, the publishers will have no way out except to listen what is requested by the gamers to avoid the punishment of their earnings being endangered.

Are musicians and their music a brand of their own?

So i recently got a trip down memory lane to when i was 18 after seeing this video of a Belgian artist called Stromae. The video was essentially a comedy sketch about how he created his hit single “Alor On Danse” back in 2010.  The video was used as a marketing tactic by Stromae and his then agency to help market the song.

Anyway, after hearing the song and getting on the dancing groove again, i went to do some research on Wikipedia about Stromae.  His song Alor on Danse, stayed on the billboard charts for an entire year and was number one in various countries in Europe. However what interested me was how he used Social media and mainly Youtube to generate publicity and market his song and created his own brand and marketing agency.

He went on to Ted Talks, giving a presentation on his music creation process, how he created his song and essentially marketed his album to the crowd again. We can see from the video that he conducts his presentation in chapters mimicking his youtube lessons. Stromae’s song lyrics are also powerful because it talks about issues that resonates with ordinary people with catchy music, paired up with a music video that helps the viewer visualize the situation that he describes in his song as seen in the song Papaoutai.

Now lets relate this to consumer psychology, Stromae has established a brand of his own that is synonymous with the style of music he makes and the clothes he wears.  After 2 albums, people establish that his music talks about real life scenarios and that his videos are visually stunning. He is also known for his unique sense of dressing and dancing as shown in the video. He is also known for giving a performance that you will never forget whenever he goes on stage. I mean this is a guy who behaved like a mannequin and that 2 security guards had to carry him up to the stage for his performance.

This is important from a marketing stand point as when you are using celebrities for endorsements, you would want to use celebrities that would typically associated with what they are known for. For example you would not want to use a country folk singer to endorse a new and hip night club that plays electronic music because of the cognitive dissonance that might occur, thus making people consider other options because this pairing doesn’t make sense semantically.

Now i am going to list other famous singers and i want you to try and think how we associate them and what type of music we expect from them. (highlight past the names to get the answer)

Taylor Swift = Breakups

Adele = Sad ballads

Calvin Harris = Electronic Dance music 

So why is it important for the musician to brand themselves correctly? The main reason is the conflict of identities and incorrect branding will lead to a decrease of fans and thus lowering sales of their albums and reduce the chance of celebrity endorsements.

We idolize celebrities because of many reasons, however if the main reason that we like them is taken away from us, it is like a form of betrayal to the fans and if they could not take it, they might just abandon the celebrity, thus reducing their fame and social status. This is also the reason it is considered a risky move when a singer decides to change their style of songs etc because of the huge cognitive dissonance.

What do you think? Are musicians and their music considered as a brand on their own?

The psychology of Stereotypes

So for the past week, i have been to various medical facilities around Bangor to get consultations for my injured shoulder and for a cyst that decided to appear on my back. Casting medical conditions aside, i noticed one thing…. when the doctor or the nurses are communicating with me, when they are asking where i am from, some of them will reply is it China? To which i reply no i am not, even though i am Asian Chinese by race,  I am from Singapore which is not from China. I then have to spend the next 5 minutes explaining how i am different from Mainland Chinese. Which was no easy task with such a short frame of time….

Now this got me thinking to the first few days when i first arrived in the UK and i met my flatmates in halls for the first time. They were all very surprised that i spoke good English and might even be better in English than some of them. Now i was taking it as a compliment then, but the incidents in the hospital got me thinking that this is actually casual racism, which seems benign and harmless but is a byproduct of stigmas, schema and stereotyping.

Humans use stereotypes to simplify our social world; since they reduce the amount of processing (i.e. thinking) we have to do when we meet a new person. By stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities associated with all members of that group. Stereotypes leads to social categorization, which is one of the reasons for prejudice attitudes (i.e. “them” and “us” mentality) which leads to in-groups and out-groups.

Now stereotyping can be seen in advertisements everywhere such as girls clothes should be frilly feminine and pink, while boys clothes should be rugged and rough and be somewhat manly. I do think that they serve their purpose in marketing the products however it does create a rift between the people which in this case is the let clothes be clothes saga.

The issue is that as we are heading into a new era of politics and human rights freedom, there might be a possibility that using stereotypes in advertising might actually back fire on the company due to people getting offended at them especially if its used in a tongue in cheek or joking manner.

However to me, i do not really care so much about what stereotypes are being used in the marketing so long as the product that is being sold is of good quality and value for money.

So what do you think about stereotypes being used in advertising?

References

Hyatt, E. M. (1992). Consumer stereotyping: The cognitive bases of the social symbolism of products. ACR North American Advances.

McCullough, J., Tan, C. T., & Wong, J. (1986). Effects of stereotyping in cross cultural research: Are the Chinese really Chinese?. ACR North American Advances.

Pickering, M. (1995). The politics and psychology of stereotyping. Media, Culture & Society, 17(4), 691-700.

Online Streamers…. The new types of celebrities and endorsement?

While browsing through the internet as you do when you are bored, i came across a video that showed Jon Cozart (Which i honestly have no idea who he is) delivering his opening Monologue for the Streamy Awards. So apparently the Streamy Awards is an lesser known (According to Jon) award show/ceremony for Online Streamers which has recently concluded its 7th iteration.

In this modern age of the internet and with the vast amount of online streaming platforms, there has been an increasing trend of ordinary people becoming “Superstar Celebrities” even without the help of traditional media, such as TV, Radio or movies.

I am sure that we all have a online content creator/streamer that we somewhat follow and look forward to seeing the next video that is going to come out.  For me, i enjoy watching game streamers with my favorite being SovietWomble, i would post a video of his work but the language in them isnt applicable for this so i guess a link will suffice?

SovietWomble’s Logo: Isnt that the cutest logo ever?

An article reported that Online streamers earn money through their videos, and the main focus was on the new age of video game streamers, where people watch other people play video games for entertainment. The highest earner that was reported at the time of reporting is Pewdiepie who has currently 57 million subscribers and reportedly earns $4 million a year just by filming himself play video games

Pewdiepie ladies and gentlemen!

So why do they do it? A dissertation thesis found that some reasons why people spend up to 20 hours a week watching other people play video games is due to the viewer being able to participate in a social community that comprises of fellow followers and supporters of the streamer that they are watching. The study also showed that the viewer satisfies their own personal gratifications of parasocial relationships and sense of community when they watch the gamer’s stream which then motivates them to continue watching.

When the viewer tunes in to a live stream of the gamer, they are able to firstly view a live stream of the game and sometimes the face reaction and the voice of the gamer, chat in a live chat where other viewers are able to comment on what the gamer is doing or something that has been sad. Sometimes, the gamer also might pick out interesting statements or sights and read it out or answer it during the stream, which is similar to how a shoutout over the radio or Tv might be, which might boost the ego of said viewer.

Now from a consumer psychology point of view, i believe that this is a huge implication which firstly signals the huge shift of traditional media and marketing for games slowly being overtaken by online media. As mentioned above, online streamers have social communities that consists of the viewers of their streams, this could number from hundreds to millions as in the case of Pewdiepie (57 million and counting).

This means that companies can use the streamers to help promote their products by allowing the streamers to use and review the products, a trend that is taking traction and increasing. The amount that is used to promote the product online would definitely reach out to a audience that would be interested in it due to the niche crowd that streamers appeal to, such as beauty streamers promoting beauty products thus appealing to people who are interested in beauty.

So in that sense, this is a sort of celebrity endorsement, even though Online streaming celebrities are considered D list celebrities. The irony is that although they are not reknown or immediately recognizable, the power of influence they wield over their viewers is enormous. Just imagine, if Pewdiepie just decided to boycott something and told his 57 million subscribers over the internet and the reasons why, even if half of them believe him, that is 28 million people deciding to boycott that thing.

What are your thoughts about this? Are online streamers a viable and sustainable outlet to use in the marketing of a product?

References

https://www.streamys.org/about/the-event/

https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/26/6068993/this-is-why-people-want-to-watch-other-people-play-video-games

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQD3awTLw9i8Xzh85FKsuJA

Michael G. Blight, 2016, Relationships to Video Game Streamers: Examining Gratifications, Parasocial Relationships,Fandom, and Community Affiliation Online https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.co.uk/&httpsredir=1&article=2260&context=etd

Attracting Blood Donors: Should We Market It Like A Business?

So recently i was doing an assignment which involved me discussing the issues faced by the NHS and blood banks in the UK. The assignment brief linked me to a news article that wrote of a potential shortage of blood in blood banks around the UK, unless 200,000 new donors are recruited to give blood. The report also stated that the National Health Service Blood and Transplant unit conducted a study and saw a 40% decrease in blood donors in the last decade.

 

Of course the whole situation is compounded by various psychological, social and environmental factors, however if we were to look at this situation as a business problem, it can be simply looked as a business that is not attracting new consumers while also losing their returning consumers.

The factors that dissuade people and even returning donors from donating blood are numerous such as the fears of needles, recently having a tattoo or piercing etc. However Logistic factors such as time, location of the donation are the main factors that are dissuading them to go even though they might have the intentions of doing it (Hupfer, Taylor & Letwin,2005).

The study above surveyed both donors and non donors about motivating and demotivating factors on blood donation. They found that the reason women donate blood due to a belief that it is a right thing to do and its also a community’s responsibility to donate. The study also found that men donate blood due to social pressure and the reluctance to disappoint people when asked to donate. This is inline with the campaigns that blood charities are using which are using the self-efficacy, beliefs and social factors in the hope it would increase blood donor numbers.

However Lemmens et al (2005) found that a reason why many young people are not donating blood is due to a simple reason which is the lack of information. In their study, the team found that the people surveyed knew the importance and the reason why they should donate blood, however they felt uniformed and clueless about how to donate and the procedures for it to happen, which then inhibits their intentions to donate blood.

So if we were to think of it as an business, it raises a very simple question, if the consumer doesnt know the product or how to assess it, how are they able to procure it or use it? I personally believe that for people who have already donated, utilizing factors of self-efficacy, beliefs and social factors in campaigns to guide them become returning donors are wonderful ideas. However if you are a new donor and have no idea what blood donation is about, those campaigns would not resonate with you or have a major impact on you because there is a lack of information that would hinder intentions of donating blood.

What do you guys think? Is the general public well informed on Blood donation? Are the current campaigns any good in urging or making you feel the need to help donate blood?

References:

Hupfer, M. E., Taylor, D. W., & Letwin, J. A. (2005). Understanding Canadian student motivations and beliefs about giving blood. Transfusion, 45(2), 149-161.

Lemmens, K. P. H., Abraham, C., Hoekstra, T., Ruiter, R. A. C., De Kort, W. L. A. M., Brug, J., & Schaalma, H. P. (2005). Why don’t young people volunteer to give blood? An investigation of the correlates of donation intentions among young nondonors. Transfusion, 45(6), 945-955.

The power of memes

Unless you have been staying off the grid and not utilized any social media, i am sure that you have been tagged in memes at least once in your life or found a funny picture that can relate to an incident or joke that happened during an activity you participated in.

Recently i got tagged in a lot of Memes on Facebook or sent directly messaged to me and i realized that half of them are directly applicable to almost everyone’s life or experience, the other half is memes that have been tagged by really close friends or a specific social group in my life.

Thus this got me thinking: With its power to associate and recall information while invoking emotions, Is it possible to utilize memes as a new age marketing tool?

In order to do that the definition of Memes or Me-mes as some people like to call them has to be established which is described by the oxford dictionary as

1.”An element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.”

2. An image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.

So if we combined the two definitions, we will get my full definition which is  “An element of culture (image, video, etc typically humorous in nature) that is copied and spread rapidly from an individual to another or through the internet often with slight variations.”

The average meme will involve an element of culture, that already has some meaning that allows people to connect and relate to the situation that is being depicted. For example : Stormtrooper memes would be more relatable to those who watch Starwars or have knowledge over the joke. (In this case, the joke is that the stormtroopers never hit their targets throughout the movies)

So a simple explanation why memes work so well is because the concept that the meme is trying to portray is familiar to the group that they are spreading it to, which in short is saying memes activate our memories to recall information that are associated with it. Studies have also shown that users are likely to spread/resend memes that are similar to what they had sent in the past and/or consistent with the associated group norms and contents.

Therefore with this, one would think that using memes is a good way to do marketing ads with so long as the targeted audience is relating to the meme used. However that is not the case, a Forbes article recently talked about how brands are using memes to market themselves and not all were widely received. The article talked about how Gucci attempted to use memes to market their new watches and in very nice terms talked about how it failed to capture the audience it was trying to seek.  The article also brought up an interesting point about how established companies should be careful on how they used new age marketing material especially luxury brands.

So in conclusion, memes are like any other type of marketing, pieces of information that is used to spread around the population, hopefully rubbing them the right way and resulting in positive feedback and sales. However , the timing and usage of the memes must be appropriate and relevant to the demographics that are the consumers of the product if not it will definitely backfire on them.

References:

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/meme

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/05/08/meme-marketing-how-brands-are-speaking-a-new-consumer-language/#30f63cb237f5

Mazambani, G.T. (2015). The Psychology of Social Networks: The Creation, Spread, and Extinction of Memes in Virtual Communities.

Weng, L., Flammini, A., Vespignani, A., & Menczer, F. (2012). Competition among memes in a world with limited attention Scientific Reports, 2

The Great Gatsby: Money, Riches, Love?

The Great Gatsby, one of the modern American literature classics of the 21st century. Telling the story of Jay Gatsby, the secretive millionaire who throws lavish parties for everyone but yet not partaking in them. Why does he do that you ask? It is all because of his attempt to attract the woman of his dreams hoping that his rise to riches into wealth and fortune would impress her into falling in love with him and live happily ever after.

Spoiler Alert: Gatsby dies, the women he loves abandoned him but at least we got a good meme to drink to!

So it got me thinking, does flaunting your wealth actually make you more attractive to the opposite sex? Since ancient times, animals have went through the test of “survival of the fittest” in order to survive into our current times. The female will choose the strongest male as he would be able to provide her with the food and resources needed to raise their offspring comfortably. Humans are also not an exception to this rule. (Bereczkei, Voros, Gal & Bernath, 1997). We have definitely seen and heard instances of guys flaunting off their luxury cars and thinking i definitely want to be like them and drive one of them. Good news! there is actually a reason and motive for the men to flaunt off their prized pride and joy.

Though this is definitely not a good way to show off your luxury car

Research has actually shown that Males who drive luxury cars do seem more attractive to Females as it is a sign of wealth and that the females would not have to worry about monetary resources should she choose this person as a mate and partner (Dunn & Searle, 2010). In one study, participants were asked to rate how attractive they found the person of the opposite sex  was sitting in either a 70,000 pound Bentley Continental vs the same person sitting in a battered Ford Fiesta. (both cars shown for as example)

To no one’s surprise, the females found the male sitting in the 70,000 pound Bentley more attractive than the one in the Ford Fiesta. However what was interesting was that when men were asked to rate the female in the car, they found that men rated the women equally as attractive regardless of the car she was in. Similar results were found in a follow up study conducted by the same researcher, this time swapping cars for luxury apartments and an ordinary flat.

Therefore, the research team found that although women look at a man’s wealth and status when choosing a partner, for men it all boils down to one simple thing, which is how attractive she looks to him. This is why i am saving up to get myself one of them fancy cars which hopefully will draw the ladies towards me =p

What do you all think? Is money and wealth an important factor in attracting a mate for guys? Comment below

Check out next week for more exciting topics to read about!

 

References

Bereczkei, T., Voros, S., Gal, A., & Bernath, L. (1997). Resources, attractiveness, family commitment; reproductive decisions in human mate choice. Ethology, 103(8), 681-699.

Dunn, M. J., & Searle, R. (2010). Effect of manipulated prestige‐car ownership on both sex attractiveness ratings. British Journal of Psychology, 101(1), 69-80.

Dunn, M. J., & Hill, A. (2014). Manipulated luxury-apartment ownership enhances opposite-sex attraction in females but not males. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 12(1), 1-17.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/5042640/Women-more-attracted-to-men-in-expensive-cars.html

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/men-who-drive-flash-cars-2119705

Media and the rising popularity of extreme sports

Since ancient times, sports has been used as a means to provide entertainment to the population and also as a means of determine if an individual was fit and learnt the skills needed for them to serve in the military. Since then, Sports have evolved greatly from its roots in combat readiness into its current form, which is a multi billion industry serving as entertainment and a source of livehood to millions of people worldwide. Currently the sports industry in the UK is worth an estimated £24bn with most of its promotions going through the media, be it traditional (TV/Radio/Newspapers) or social (Facebook/Youtube…. etc).

Have i mentioned that i am a big ManUtd fan?

As we can see, the media has a huge influence on sports, such as gender roles association of sports, how it affects commercial sponsorships and also how it promotes the sport positively and also negatively through movies, tv shows or just videos captured on phones that went viral. However today we are going to explore a different realm of sports, one that is growing since the 1990s and becoming more popular due to the inputs of media: EXTREME SPORTS! such as mountain climbing, rock climbing, skydiving, B.A.S.E jumping, surfing, etc.

Oh Geez….. I wonder who the main sponsors for extreme sports is

Multiple papers have published about how the growing internet age resulted in a platform to share about the sports which resulted in more people trying out various and new extreme sports and in turn resulted in growing economic gains through tourism and also sponsorship. This is of course already building up on the fact that movies and TV shows are starting to  showcase extreme sports such as skyding

I mean most of us have seen Instagram/Youtube videos or movie scenes of people skydiving or B.A.S.E (Building, Antenna, Structure, Earth) Jumping and thought “Wow! that is so cool!! i just want to be like them!!!”? I definitely thought it was super cool which convinced me 2 years ago to fly into Seville(Spain) for 2 weeks to attend a Advanced Freefall course to become a Licensed skydiver.

During my 2 weeks in Seville, i was at the dropzone, which was in the middle of nowhere everyday from 9am – 3pm  learning how to jump out of airplanes and observing the constant stream of people who are doing tandem jumps. i noticed the majority of them were Indian instead of Europeans with some of them specifically flying in from India just to do a tandem jump in the middle of nowhere with a view of empty fields.

Literally, the view that you got, Fields, Fields, Roads and more Fields

After chatting to a few of them, i realized that the Indian tourists were doing tandem jumps in Seville due to a Bollywood movie released in 2012(embedded above) where a scene shows the main characters have decided to go skydiving.

This was all okay except one thing, which was the film credited the wrong dropzone as the site of filming which led to the Indian tourists coming to skydive in Seville (Credited dropzone) instead of Empuria Brava (Actual dropzone, compare the video and my photo for the difference).

Although this was an honest small mistake, This led to the dropzone having all their allocated slots for tandem jumps being fully booked mostly by Indian Consumers who have watched the movie and decided to try/experience skydiving. This helped spread the name of the dropzone, which in turn made the area known to be affiliated and associated with potential skydivers, which in turn resulted in a boost of tourists that should result in a boost of the economy of the area. (Klaus & Maklan, 2011)

Although today focused mainly on skydiving today, i truly believe that the various media platforms and commercial sponsorship will be instrumental in influencing the continue rise of popularity for extreme sports. They are important in efforts introduce and exposing the public on the various extreme sports available making it seem cool and hip to participate in them in turn help boost the economy in areas that provide venues for the various sports.

Alright that’s it for this week!! Jump in next week to see what exciting adrenaline pumping topics i will be blogging about =D

References

Boyle, R. (2009). Power Play: Sport, the Media and Popular Culture: Sport, the Media and Popular Culture. Edinburgh University Press.

Crowther, N. B. (2007). Sport in ancient times. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Klaus, P., & Maklan, S. (2011). Bridging the gap for destination extreme sports: A model of sports tourism customer experience. Journal of Marketing Management, 27(13-14), 1341-1365.

Hardin, M., & Greer, J. D. (2009). The influence of gender-role socialization, media use and sports participation on perceptions of gender-appropriate sports. Journal of Sport Behavior, 32(2), 207.

Meenaghan, T., & Shipley, D. (1999). Media effect in commercial sponsorship. European journal of marketing, 33(3/4), 328-348.

Puchan, H. (2005). Living “extreme”: adventure sports, media and commercialisation. Journal of Communication Management, 9(2), 171-178.

http://www.cityam.com/236543/the-uk-is-the-sport-industry-capital-of-the-world-its-businesses-must-lead-the-way-with-corporate-responsibility

First blog post

This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.