Every time a MP fight comes around, I always feel excited to support the fighter.  As you hear from news articles and his intro, he is the “fighting pride of the Philippines.”  Filipinos of all ages gather together to watch his fights.  I have heard that when there is a Pacquiao fight, the crime rate in the Philippines on that evening decreases because everyone is watching the fight.  He just brings a lot of excitement throughout the months of anticipation.

I have always been a part of the Pacquiao bandwagon.  Not as an extreme fanatic, but a subtle fan that just watches his fights.  In the past couple weeks, things have changed.  It all started when I received my first Pacquiao jacket as an early birthday present from my sis and bro-in-law.  This came a week before the big Cottley fight.  Wearing MP gear sparked more interest to wear his clothing.  By the end of that week, I bought two pairs of his MP trainers and his signature MP track jacket.  I went on an obsession to collect Nike’s line for Pacquiao.

Factors that came up these past weeks relate to a book I have just read for my personal selling class.  In the book, Influence of Persuasion, Cialdini goes over six principles of persuasion that help personal sellers.  One of the principles go over scarcity.  The MP trainers that I bought have been selling out at the local NikeTown in SF.  There are just a lot of MP fans around trying to get his gear.  As I was strolling the mall in Santa Rosa(an hour north of SF), I came across a Champs sports that just got a WHOLE shipment of MP Nike gear.  The shop had his shoes, shirts, jackets, pants, and shorts.  I just had to pick up his gear because it was readily available for me to buy.  The scarcity of the product drove my interest to buy the shoes even though they were expensive.  After buying a shoes, I came back a couple days after and bought more clothing.  Another principle that felt relevant was if people like the things associated to the product, they are likely to buy.  Since the clothing appeals to me and MP endorses the product, I felt the urge to support him.