Consumer Attitudes

What Are Attitudes?

 In a consumer behavior context, they are

learned predispositions to behave in a
consistently favorable or unfavorable way
with respect to a given object (e.g., people,
places, products, services or events)
 Attitudes are not observable; thus attitude
research is important for marketers
Attitudes are Learned
 We are not born with attitudes
 Attitudes relative to purchase behavior are
formed as a result of
1. direct experience with the product
2. word-of-mouth
3. exposure to mass media advertising, the
internet, and direct marketing
 Attitudes are not synonymous with behavior
 Attitudes may result from behavior
Attitudes Have Consistency

 Attitudes are not permanent and can and do

change
 Once attitudes develop, they are not always
easy to change
 Often the goal of marketing is to change
attitudes about a product or company
 Circumstances sometimes preclude
consistency between attitudes and behavior
Attitudes Occur Within a Situation

 How attitudes affect behavior depends on the

situation in which the behavior occurs
 Thus a specific situation may cause
consumers to behave in ways that are
inconsistent with their attitudes
 From a marketer’s perspective, it is important
to consider the situation in which the behavior
takes place, or one might misinterpret the
relationship between attitude and behavior
Sources of Attitudes

 Three Major Influences on Attitude

Formation
1. Personal experience
2. Influence of family and friends
3. Exposure to direct marketing and mass-
media
1. Personal Experience

 The primary basis on which attitudes towards

goods and services are formed
 Free products, cents-off promotions, etc.
 Marketer’s goal is to get consumers to try a
product and, hopefully, develop a positive
attitude towards it
2. Influence of Family & Friends

 Family and friends are a major influence on

our values, beliefs and attitudes
 We carry over into adulthood many of the
attitudes we developed as children
 Our peer and social groups also influence our
attitudes
3. Direct Marketing & Mass Media

 Direct marketers are able to use new

technologies to target smaller and smaller
market segments
 As a result, many solicitations are highly
personalized and have the capacity to create
favorable attitudes towards their products
 Television, radio, newspapers and
magazines provide marketers with unlimited
opportunities to create positive attitudes
towards their products
The Functions of Attitudes
 Attitudes can be classified into four
functions:
1. Utilitarian Function
2. Ego-defensive Function
3. Value-expressive Function
4. Knowledge Function
1. Utilitarian Function

 We have a favorable attitude towards a

product because it has been useful in the
past
 Marketers may stress the utilitarian feature or
may suggest uses of the product that may not
be obvious
2. Ego-defensive Function

 Products that we purchase to protect our self-

images, to replace our sense of insecurity
with personal confidence
3. Value-expressive Function

 We often express our personal values

through the brands we purchase and own
 Marketers often attempt to identify their
brands with these values
4. Knowledge Function

 Consumers generally have a strong need to

know and understand the people and things
they come in contact with
 Many product and brand positioning
strategies are based on an attempt to satisfy
this “need to know”
Relation Between Attitude and Behavior

 It is fair to say that attitudes at least

sometimes guide behavior
 Thus it is important for marketers to
understand the role of attitudes in purchase
situations
Structural Models of Attitudes

 In order to understand the link between attitude and

behavior, psychologists have developed models to
help understand attitude
 The focus has been on specifying the composition of
an attitude to better explain or predict behavior.
 They have identified the following attitude models:
 The traditional/tricomponent model
 The multi-attribute model
 The theory of reasoned action (TORA)
Traditional/Tri-Component Model

 According to this model, attitude consists of

three components:
1. Cognitive component
2. Affective component
3. Behavioral/conative component
1. Cognitive Component
 The knowledge and perceptions we have
about the object
 Based on personal experience with the object
and information from various sources (e.g.,
opinions of others, ads, articles, etc.)
 This knowledge and perceptions commonly
take the form of beliefs
2. Affective Component

 A consumer’s emotions or feelings about a

particular product or brand
 Generally a reaction to the cognitive aspect
of the attitude
 Our emotional state may amplify positive or
negative experiences, which then have an
effect on our attitude
3. Behavioral/Conative Component
 Is concerned with the likelihood or tendency
that a consumer will undertake a specific
action or behave in a particular way regarding
the attitude object
 Frequently treated as a consumer’s intention
to buy
Implications for Marketing Strategy

 When marketers use the traditional model to

create or change attitudes, they use the
various components as follows:
1. At the cognitive level with information
2. At the affective level with emotionally toned
messages
3. At the behavioral level with incentives (samples,
coupons, rebates)
The Multi-Attribute Model of Attitudes

 There are many variations on this model

 They include:
1. The attitude toward the object model

2. The attitude toward the behavior model

3. The theory of reasoned action model

1. Attitude toward the object model

 Model is especially suitable for measuring

attitudes toward a product or service category
or specific brands
 Holds that a consumer’s attitude towards a
product or brands of a product is a function of
the presence (or absence), and an evaluation
of, certain product-specific beliefs or
attributes
 Consumers generally have favorable
attitudes toward brands they believe have an
adequate level of attributes they evaluate as
positive
 Consumers have negative attitudes toward
brands they feel do not have an adequate
level of desired attributes or have too many
negative or undesired attributes
2. Attitude toward behavior model

 A person’s attitude toward behaving or acting

with respect to an object, rather than toward
the object itself
 Not uncommon for consumers to have a
positive attitude toward an object but a
negative attitude toward purchasing it
3. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TORA)

 According to this model, behavior is determined by a

person’s intention to behave
 To understand intention, we also need to measure
the subjective norms that influence an individual’s
intention to act
 A subjective norm can be measured directly by
assessing a consumer’s feelings as to what relevant
others (family, friends, co-workers) would think of
the action contemplated
Attitude Change

 Attitude change is an issue for every

marketer
 New entrants into the market need to change
the attitude of consumers that support
purchases from market leaders
 Market leaders need to strengthen the
positive attitudes of their customers to retain
their market share
Attitude change strategies

 Competitors can try to change the attitudes

of the market leaders’ customers in several
ways:
1. Comparative advertising
2. Emphasizing brand attributes
3. Adding new attributes
4. Providing knowledge of alternatives
5. Changing the relative value of attributes
1. Comparative Advertising

 Identifying a major competitor and explaining

why your product is superior in one or more
ways

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sf
2. Emphasizing Brand Attributes

 Identifies and highlights features of the

product that consumers may not be familiar
with or that may be new or innovative
3. Adding attributes

 Can involve
 Stressing an attribute that has been ignored; or
 Adding an attribute that represents an
improvement or technological innovation
4. Providing knowledge of alternatives or
consequences
 Providing consumers with evidence, facts or
figures enable them to make informed
choices between competing brands
5. Changing the relative value of attributes

 Often a market for a particular type of product

is divided so that different market segments
are offered different brands, each with
different features or benefits
 When this occurs, marketers have an
opportunity to persuade consumers to “cross
over” to their brand