What Can Attitudes tell us about Consumers?

• Can you think of any examples of consumer attitudes towards firms or products? About societal issues?
• One of my colleagues studies consumers’ attitudes towards recycling as predictive of their purchase and use behavior of disposable products

What is an Attitude?

• An attitude is a lasting general evaluation of something - it has knowledge of that something, liking or disliking, and the strength of the feelings.
• Attitudes are lasting, but changeable
• They help to direct behavior - eg do you recycle cans?

• Attitudes toward product – Campbell Soup at hand
• Attitudes toward company  - Philip Morris, Kraft
• Attitudes toward a retailer – Wal Mart
• Attitudes toward product attributes – salt content
• Attitudes toward various types of brand associations
•  Logos - design
•  Symbols - meanings
•  Product endorsers – sports figures

Attitudes toward advertising and spokespersons
Do Positive Attitudes translate into purchase and consumption?
Just because consumers prefer brand X, doesn’t mean they will necessarily buy brand X
Having a favorable attitude toward a product is not the same as having a favorable attitude toward its purchase or consumption
Consumers may “think” that eating chicken and fish is good for their health.  Does that mean that they will eat these rather than red meat?
 

Beliefs: Cognitive Component of Consumer Attitude

• A consumer belief is a psychological association between a product or brand and an attribute or feature of that product or brand
• Beliefs are cognitive (based on knowledge)
• The stronger the association of features or attributes with the product or brand, the stronger the consumer’s belief
• Brand equity is a measure of the strength of the association in the marketplace

Strategies To Change Consumer Beliefs
Positioning by
Product attributes
Consumer benefits
Intangible attributes
Price
Application
Brand user
Celebrity recognition
Brand personality
Product category
Association with competitors
Country or geographic area
 

Affect: Emotive Component of Attitude

• Purchase decisions are continually influenced by affective response
• Affect—the way in which we feel in response to marketplace stimuli
• It is emotive rather than cognitive (beliefs)
• It is comprised of both our knowledge of stimuli and our evaluations of them
• Affective responses can be very general or very specific
• Affective component of attitude: functional theory of attitude, the Fishbein model, and the belief-importance model

Functional Theory of Attitude - what functions do attitudes do for us?
Affective responses help consumers reach purchase decisions in four ways:

• Adjustment: developing affective responses that lead to perceived rewards and avoid perceived punishments
• Ego defense: means through which people try to realize personal goals and images
• Value expression: displaying consumers’ own values to the external world

Application of prior knowledge: may lead to both positive and negative effects on affective

The Fishbein Model

The Fishbein Model - these will be discussed in class

An Application of the Fishbein Model - look at examples in the text
 

The Fishbein Model—Changing Affective Responses

• Change Bi  - if the belief is that durability is weak, find out why? Is this true or just a rumor? Can we change the belief?
• Change Ei – if consumers don’t like an attribute, can we change their feeling? If they dislike paying over $50, can we explain why it’s worth it? Can we give them rebates?
• Add a new Bi/Ei combination – are there other beliefs or attributes that could be added?

• The Fishbein model looks at brands in isolation
• The B-I model allows the comparison of affective responses toward competing brands
• Evoked set of brands—a list of brands we consider prior to making a decision
• How do products compare with each other?

The Belief-Importance Model - discussed in class
 

Intention: Behavior Component of Consumer Attitude
Affect is not closely linked to actual purchase
Behavioral intention—attitude toward brand purchase
A far better predictor of behavior than either beliefs or affective responses
Behavioral intention models:
Theory of reasoned action
Theory of trying
 

Measurement of Attitudes - examples of measurement scales
How much do you like Oreo cookies?
       Like very much  . . . . . . . . . . .  Dislike very much

How favorable is your attitude toward Oreos?
            Very favorable . . . . . .  . . . Very unfavorable

Oreos are:
            Good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bad
  Nutritious  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   Not nutritious
Nonfattening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fattening

I like Oreos:
   strongly    agree     neither agree     disagree     strongly
     agree                      nor disagree                   disagree

Intentions
Do you intend to buy Oreos?
  SA     A       NAND        D        SD       NA     DK

How likely is it that you would buy Oreos?
            Very likely . . . . . . . . . . . .   Very unlikely

What is the probability that you will buy Oreos?
            0%  10%  20%  . . . . . .  100%
 

Theory of Reasoned Action
Behavior is a direct result of intention
Two factors involved in behavioral intention:
Attitude toward an act
Subjective norm
 

Attitude toward the Act
 

Subjective Norm - do others influence your attitudes?

• SN refers to the perception of what other people think we should do with respect to a certain behavior, such as brand purchase
• SN consists of
• Normative beliefs: the perceived expectations that significant others think the consumer should or should not behave in a certain way (buy the brand)
• Motivation to comply: the extent to which the consumer considers the possible opinions of significant others when forming an intent to purchase

Applying the Theory of Reasoned Action to Change Intentions
It helps to identify those attributes most important in causing consumers to form positive (or negative) attitudes toward the purchase of a product
Changing attitude toward purchase
It helps to identify and helps to adjust sources of social pressure and their possible role in intention formation
Changing subjective norms
 

Theory of Trying
The theory of reasoned action cannot be used to predict behavior in situations in which consumption takes place over an extended period of time
The  theory of trying explores consumption behavior rather than buying behavior
 

Theory of Trying—Application
Intention to try
Frequency of trying
Social norms toward trying
Attitude toward trying
Attitude toward success together with the expectations of success
Attitude toward failure together with expectation of failure
Attitude toward the process
Attitude toward consumption:
Beliefs about consequences
Evaluation of consequences
Frequency of past trying
Recency of past trying
 

Attitude-Behavior Consistency
It refers to the extent to which attitude leads to purchase
It is influenced by
Consumer factors: access to resources, past experiences with a brand, orientation (action- or state-oriented consumers)
Situational factors: time passed, message repetition, social influence
Measurement factors: specificity, time of measurement