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Chapter 6

Chapter 6. Consumer Attitudes. 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)

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Chapter 6

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  1. Chapter 6 Consumer Attitudes Consumer Attitudes

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. The Functions of Attitudes • Attitudes can be classified into four functions: • Utilitarian Function • Ego-defensive Function • Value-expressive Function • Knowledge Function

  11. 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

  12. 2. Ego-defensive Function • Products that we purchase to protect our self-images, to replace our sense of insecurity with personal confidence

  13. 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

  14. 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”

  15. 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

  16. 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)

  17. Traditional/Tri-Component Model • According to this model, attitude consists of three components: • Cognitive component • Affective component • Behavioral/conative component

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. 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

  21. 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)

  22. 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

  23. 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

  24. 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

  25. 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

  26. 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

  27. 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

  28. 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

  29. 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

  30. 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

  31. 3. Adding attributes • Can involve • Stressing an attribute that has been ignored; or • Adding an attribute that represents an improvement or technological innovation

  32. 4. Providing knowledge of alternatives or consequences • Providing consumers with evidence, facts or figures enable them to make informed choices between competing brands

  33. 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

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