The Coffee Fund: Writing an influential email

Abstract Sasha oversaw the Coffee Fund for a college where she worked as an administrative assistant. Over the years, Sasha relied on repeated emails soliciting donations to maintain this fund. As coffee supplies were seriously low, Sasha began to think maybe she was bad at writing persuasive emails. After doing a little research into persuasion, Sasha began to compose another email. What should it say? Learning Outcomes In completing this critical incident, students should be able to: 1. Apply French & Raven (1959) bases of power. 2. Evaluate an email using Cialdini’s (1984, 2021) principles of persuasion. 3. Create, using Cialdini’s (2021) seven principles of persuasion, more effective messaging. 4. Create, using the AIDA model, a more persuasive email. Application This decision incident is appropriate for use in undergraduate Management/Organizational Behavior, Business Communication, or Sales and Marketing courses. This subject is relevant to almost any business course and focuses on improving ordinary emails to encourage people to take some simple action.