Consumer%20Attitudes

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Chapter 6

• Consumer Attitudes

Consumer Attitudes
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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

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Attitudes are Learned

• We are not born with attitudes
• Attitudes relative to purchase behavior are
  formed as a result of
• direct experience with the product
• word-of-mouth
• exposure to mass media advertising, the internet,
  and direct marketing
• Attitudes are not synonymous with behavior
• Attitudes may result from behavior

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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

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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 marketers perspective, it is important to
  consider the situation in which the behavior
  takes place, or one might misinterpret the
  relationship between attitude and behavior

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Sources of Attitudes

• Three Major Influences on Attitude Formation
• Personal experience
• Influence of family and friends
• Exposure to direct marketing and mass-media

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1. Personal Experience

• The primary basis on which attitudes towards
  goods and services are formed
• Free products, cents-off promotions, etc.
• Marketers goal is to get consumers to try a
  product and, hopefully, develop a positive
  attitude towards it

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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

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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

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The Functions of Attitudes

• Attitudes can be classified into four functions
• Utilitarian Function
• Ego-defensive Function
• Value-expressive Function
• Knowledge Function

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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

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2. Ego-defensive Function

• Products that we purchase to protect our
  self-images, to replace our sense of insecurity
  with personal confidence

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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Traditional/Tri-Component Model

• According to this model, attitude consists of
  three components
• Cognitive component
• Affective component
• Behavioral/conative component

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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

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2. Affective Component

• A consumers 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

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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 consumers intention to
  buy

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Implications for Marketing Strategy

• When marketers use the traditional model to
  create or change attitudes, they use the various
  components as follows
• At the cognitive level with information
• At the affective level with emotionally toned
  messages
• At the behavioral level with incentives (samples,
  coupons, rebates)

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The Multi-Attribute Model of Attitudes

• There are many variations on this model
• They include
• The attitude toward the object model
• The attitude toward the behavior model
• The theory of reasoned action model

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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 consumers 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

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• 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

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2. Attitude toward behavior model

• A persons 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

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3. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TORA)

• According to this model, behavior is determined
  by a persons intention to behave
• To understand intention, we also need to measure
  the subjective norms that influence an
  individuals intention to act
• A subjective norm can be measured directly by
  assessing a consumers feelings as to what
  relevant others (family, friends, co-workers)
  would think of the action contemplated

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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

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Attitude change strategies

• Competitors can try to change the attitudes of
  the market leaders customers in several ways
• Comparative advertising
• Emphasizing brand attributes
• Adding new attributes
• Providing knowledge of alternatives
• Changing the relative value of attributes

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1. Comparative Advertising

• Identifying a major competitor and explaining why
  your product is superior in one or more ways
• http//nonemore.keenspace.com/souprivalry.ssf

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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

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3. Adding attributes

• Can involve
• Stressing an attribute that has been ignored or
• Adding an attribute that represents an
  improvement or technological innovation

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4. Providing knowledge of alternatives or
consequences

• Providing consumers with evidence, facts or
  figures enable them to make informed choices
  between competing brands

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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