Presentation at the 2017 American Marketing Association Conference in San Francisco, CA.

1. EVERY SECOND
COUNTS?
GOAL GRADIENT THEORY
AND THE (LACK) OF EFFORT
IN NBA PLAYOFF GAMES

2. LITERATURE

3. Koo, M., & Fishbach, A. (2012). The Small-Area Hypothesis: Effects of Progress Monitoring on Goal Adherence
2 MILES
8 MILES

4. Kivetz, R., Urminsky, O., & Zheng, Y. (2006). The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected: Purchase Acceleration, Illusionary Goal Progress, and Customer Retention
COFFEE BEAN
LOYALTY CARD BUY 10, GET 1 FREE

5. COFFEE BEAN
LOYALTY CARD BUY 12, GET 1 FREE
Kivetz, R., Urminsky, O., & Zheng, Y. (2006). The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected: Purchase Acceleration, Illusionary Goal Progress, and Customer Retention

6. Hull, C. L. (1934). The rat’s speed-of-locomotion gradient in the approach to food

7. MORE
MARKERS
FEWER
MARKERS
NO
MARKERS
Van Den Bergh, B., Heuvinck, N., Schellekens, G. A. C., & Vermeir, I. (2016). Altering Speed of Locomotion

8. REGULAR SEASONSEASON: 82 PLAYOFFS: 16
+ =

9. DATA

10. GAME LEVEL
OBSERVATIONS
OF PLAYER
TRACKING DATA
27,919
2015 NBA SEASON

11. UNIQUE NBA
PLAYERS
476
2015 NBA SEASON

12. SAME
NUMBER OF
MINUTES
PLAYED

13. RESULTS

14. 31.7
INTENSITY
32.7
INTENSITY
FIRST HALF
OF SEASON PLAYOFFS
Group one (M = 32.7 SD = 5.05); Group three (M = 31.7, SD = 5.15); t(7160)= -10.1.71, p < 0.001.

15. DISCUSSION

16. COGNITIVE PHYSICAL
VS

17. WEAR &
TEAR OF
THE SEASON

18. REST BETWEEN
GAMES/SERIES
GAME 1: JUNE 4
GAME 2: JUNE 7
GAME 3: JUNE 9
GAME 4: JUNE 11

19. DOES THIS PLAY OUT
WITHIN A GAME?
65
HALFTIME
72

20. OT
33.6
Q1
33.21
Q2
31.75
Q3 Q4
30.11 26.23

21. NEGATIVE
SPLITS
START

22. HOW DO FANS
PERCEIVE THE
EFFORT/
INTENSITY?

23. HOW IS FAN
PERCEPTION SHAPED
BY MARKETING?

24. CHRISTOPHER LEE
CLEE@ASU.EDU
CHRISTOPHERLEE.COM
DANIEL MCINTOSH
DANIEL.MCINTOSH@ASU.EDU
@DANIELWMCINTOSH@CHRISLEEPHD