Consumer Attitude Formation and Change

Learning Objectives
1. To Understand What Attitudes Are, How They Are Learned, as Well as Their Nature and Characteristics. 2. To Understand the Composition and Scope of Selected Models of Attitudes. 3. To Understand How Experience Leads to the Initial Formation of Consumption-Related Attitudes. 4. To Understand the Various Ways in Which Consumers Attitudes Are Changed. 5. To Understand How Consumers Attitudes Can Lead to Behavior and How Behavior Can Lead to Attitudes.

What Is Your Attitude Toward the Product Advertised? What Is Your Attitude Toward the Ad Itself? Are the Two Attitudes Similar or Different?

You May Have Liked the Product but Disliked the Ad or Vice Versa

Attitude

A learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object.

What Are Attitudes?

The attitude object Attitudes are a learned predisposition Attitudes have consistency Attitudes occur within a situation

What Information Does This Ad Provide to Assist Consumers in Forming Attitudes Toward the Saturn Vue Hybrid?

It is Stylish, Safe, and Good for the Environment

Structural Models of Attitudes

Tricomponent Attitude Model Multiattribute Attitude Model The Trying-to-Consume Model Attitude-Toward-the-Ad Model

A Simple Representation of the Tricomponent Attitude Model - Figure 8.3

Cognition

The Tricomponent Model

Components
The knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources

Cognitive Affective Conative

The Tricomponent Model

Components
A consumers emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand

Cognitive Affective Conative

The Tricomponent Model

Components

Cognitive Affective Conative

The likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object

Discussion Questions
Explain your attitude toward your college/university based on the tricomponent attribute model. Be sure to isolate the cognitive, affective, and conative elements.

Multiattribute Attitude Models

Attitude models that examine the composition of consumer attitudes in terms of selected product attributes or beliefs.

Multiattribute Attitude Models

Types
The attitude-towardobject model The attitude-towardbehavior model Theory-of-reasonedaction model Attitude is function of the presence of certain beliefs or attributes. Useful to measure attitudes toward product and service categories or specific brands.

Multiattribute Attitude Models

Types
The attitude-towardobject model The attitude-towardbehavior model Theory-of-reasonedaction model Is the attitude toward behaving or acting with respect to an object, rather than the attitude toward the object itself Corresponds closely to actual behavior

Consumer Characteristics, Attitude, and Online Shopping

Multiattribute Attitude Models

Types
The attitude-towardobject model The attitude-towardbehavior model Theory-of-reasonedaction model Includes cognitive, affective, and conative components Includes subjective norms in addition to attitude

A Simplified Version of the Theory of Reasoned Action - Figure 8.5

Discussion Question
Now use the theory of reasoned action to describe your attitude toward your college/university when deciding on which school to attend.

Theory of Trying to Consume

An attitude theory designed to account for the many cases where the action or outcome is not certain but instead reflects the consumers attempt to consume (or purchase).

Selected Examples of Potential Impediments That Might Impact Trying - Table 8.7
POTENTIAL PERSONAL IMPEDIMENTS
I wonder whether my hair will be longer by the time of my wedding. I want to try to lose two inches off my waist by my birthday. Im going to try to get tickets for the Rolling Stones concert for our anniversary. Im going to attempt to give up smoking by my birthday. I am going to increase how often I run two miles from three to five times a week. Tonight, Im not going to have dessert at the restaurant.

POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPEDIMENTS

The first 1,000 people at the baseball game will receive a team cap. Sorry, the car you ordered didnt come in from Japan on the ship that docked yesterday. There are only two cases of chardonnay in our stockroom. You better come in sometime today. I am sorry. We cannot serve you. We are closing the restaurant because of an electrical problem.

AttitudeToward-theAd Model

A model that proposes that a consumer forms various feelings (affects) and judgments (cognitions) as the result of exposure to an advertisement, which, in turn, affect the consumers attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand.

A Conception of the Relationship Among Elements in an Attitude-Toward-the-Ad Model Figure 8.6

Issues in Attitude Formation

How attitudes are learned
Conditioning and experience Knowledge and beliefs

How Does a Favorably Known Brand Name Impact the Formation of Consumer Attitudes Toward a New Product?

There is Stimulus Generalization From the Lean Cuisine Brand Names to the New Product.

Issues in Attitude Formation

Sources of influence on attitude formation
Personal experience Influence of family Direct marketing and mass media

Personality factors

How Does a Cents- Off Coupon Impact Consumers Attitudes?

New Customers Will Try the Product, Existing Customers will be Rewarded.

Strategies of Attitude Change

Changing the Basic Motivational Function Associating the Product with an Admired Group or Event Resolving Two Conflicting Attitudes

Altering Components of the Multiattribute Model

Changing Beliefs about Competitors Brands

Changing the Basic Motivational Function

Utilitarian

Egodefensive Knowledge

Valueexpressive

Why and How Does This Ad Appeal to the Utilitarian Function?

The Product is Green and Works as Well or Better than Other Products.

Which Lifestyle- Related Attitudes Are Expressed or Reflected in This Ad?

Healthy Eating and Snacking Lifestyle

How Does This Ad Provide Information to Establish or Reinforce Consumer Attitudes?

It Raises the Question About UVA Rays and then Provides Information on Sun Protection.

Discussion Questions
What products that you purchase associate themselves with an Admired Group or Event? When does it personally influence your purchasing?

How Is Fiji Waters Link to an Environmental Cause Likely to Impact Consumers Attitudes Toward Its Product?

They Might Have a More Favorable Attitude.

Attitude Change
Altering Components of the Multiattribute Model
Changing relative evaluation of attributes Changing brand beliefs Adding an attribute Changing the overall brand rating

Changing Beliefs about Competitors Brands

How Is This New Benefit Likely to Impact Consumers Attitudes Toward the Product?

The Consumer Will Have a More Positive Attitude Overall from the New Attribute.

How Is the Absence of an Ingredient Likely to Lead to a Favorable Attitude Toward a Product?

When It Was An Unfavorable Attribute

Which Attitude Change Strategy Is Depicted in This Ad?

Changing the Overall Brand Rating

How Is Valvolines Attempt to Change Attitudes Toward a Competing Brand Likely to Impact Attitudes Toward Its Own Brand?

By Showing Better Wear Protection

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Customer attitudes are changed by two distinctly different routes to persuasion: a central route or a peripheral route.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Behavior Can Precede or Follow Attitude Formation

Cognitive Dissonance Theory Holds that discomfort or dissonance occurs when a consumer holds conflicting thoughts about a belief or an attitude object.
Attribution Theory A theory concerned with how people assign causality to events and form or alter their attitudes as an outcome of assessing their own or other peoples behavior.

Issues in Attribution Theory

Self-Perception Theory
Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Attributions toward Others Attributions toward Things How We Test Our Attributions
Distinctiveness Consistency over time Consistency over modality Consensus