Class 6 Consumer Attitude Formation and Change PDF

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Notes on Consumer Attitude

After reading, studying and analyzing this chapter, students should be able to understand:
6.1 What attitudes are, how they are formed, and their role in consumer behavior.
6.2 The tri-component attitude model and its applications.
6.3 The st...

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CHAPTER 6 Consumer Attitude Formation and Change

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading, studying and analyzing this chapter, students should be able to understand: 6.1 What attitudes are, how they are formed, and their role in consumer behavior. 6.2 The tri-component attitude model and its applications. 6.3 The structures of multi-attribute models and their use in altering consumers’ attitudes. 6.4 How to alter consumers’ attitudes by making particular needs prominent. 6.5 The role of cognitive elaboration in altering attitudes. 6.6 How attitudes can precede behavior in the form of cognitive dissonance and the resolution of conflicting attitudes. 6.7 The ways people assign causality to events and apply this knowledge to consumer behavior. CHAPTER SUMMARY Learning Objective 6.1: To understand what attitudes are, how they are formed, and their role in consumer behavior. An attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way toward a given object. In the context of consumer behavior, object is interpreted broadly to include the product, brand, service, price, package, advertisement, promotional medium, retailer selling the product, and many other aspects of consumption. Attitudes are learned from direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth, exposure to mass media, and other information sources. Attitudes reflect either favorable or unfavorable evaluations of the attitude object and they motivate consumers to either buy or not buy particular products or brands. Consumers buy products toward which they have favorable inclinations, so marketers must ensure that consumers maintain positive attitudes following purchases and remain loyal to the marketers’ offerings. Attitudes are relatively consistent with the behavior they reflect. However, despite their consistency, attitudes are not necessarily permanent; they do change, and sometimes even frequently. Attitudes occur within and are affected by situations, that is, by events or circumstances that, at a particular point in time, influence the relationship between an attitude and behavior. Personality traits significantly influence the formation of attitudes. Learning Objective 6.2: To understand the tri-component attitude model and its applications. The tri-component attitude model proposes that attitudes consist of three components: cognitive, affective, and conative. The cognitive component represents the knowledge and perceptions of the features of an attitude object. The affective component reflects emotions and feelings regarding the attitude object, which are considered evaluations, because they capture the person’s global assessment of the attitude object. The conative component is the likelihood that an Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education

individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object (i.e., consumer’s intention to buy). Learning Objective 6.3: To understand the structures of multi-attribute models and their use in altering consumers’ attitudes. Multi-attribute attitude models portray consumers’ attitudes as functions of their assessments of the objects’ prominent attributes. Multi-attribute models include the attitude-toward-object model, the attitude-toward-behavior model, the theory of reasoned action, the theory of trying-toconsume, and the attitude-toward-ad model. Multi-attribute models can be used when adding product attributes, changing consumers’ perceptions of attributes, and developing new products. Learning Objective 6.4: To understand how to alter consumers’ attitudes by making particular needs prominent. Altering attitudes according to consumer motivations is termed the functional approach, which classifies attitudes into four functions: the utilitarian, ego-defensive, value-expressive, and knowledge functions. Associating a brand with an admired object can also alter attitudes. Learning Objective 6.5: To understand the role of cognitive elaboration in altering attitudes. Attitudes can sometimes be changed by either one of two different routes to persuasion, which depend on the degree of cognitive elaboration used when consumers process applicable information. One route requires extensive thought and cognitive processing, and is typically employed in situations where consumers are highly involved and perceive a lot of risk regarding the purchase considered. The second route, which requires relatively little thought and information processing, is followed during less important purchases. Learning Objective 6.6: To understand how attitudes can precede behavior in the form of cognitive dissonance and the resolution of conflicting attitudes. In most cases, attitudes precede and guide behavior. Sometimes, though consumers act first and only afterward develop attitudes about actions already undertaken, which creates conflicting thoughts about the attitude object. Because important purchase decisions (i.e., buying a new home) require compromise and choices among similar alternatives, post-purchase conflicts in such instances are common. Marketers must ensure that customers resolve cognitive conflicts by changing their attitudes to conform to their behavior. Learning Objective 6.7: To understand the ways people assign causality to events and apply this knowledge to consumer behavior. People assign causality (i.e., blame or credit) to events, their own behaviors, and the behaviors of others. The way people see themselves is reflected in the causalities they form about prior behaviors and the attitudes they develop thereafter. In trying to change consumption-related attitudes, especially with regard to marketing products that require self-participation during Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education

usage, marketers must understand how people make attributions, both toward others and objects, and while analyzing their own attributions after having acted upon them. CHAPTER OUTLINE Introduction 1. An attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable

way with respect to a given object. a) Attitudes are learned from direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth, exposure to mass media and other information sources. b) Attitudes reflect favorable or unfavorable evaluations of the attitude object. 2. People are often unreceptive to the unfamiliar. 3. Attitudes can be related to social or cultural events. Attitudes and Their Formation 1. Attitudes are directed at objects. a) Object refers to such things as: product, product category, brand, service, possessions,

product use, causes or issues, people, advertisement, price, Internet site, price, medium, or retailer. b) Attitude “can be conceptualized as a summary evaluation of an object.” c) Attitudes might or might not lead to behavior 2. Attitudes are learned. a) Attitudes are formed as a result of direct experience with the product, information acquired from others, and exposure to mass media, the Internet, and various forms of direct marketing. b) Personality traits significantly influence the formation of attitudes. i) Consumers with a high need for cognition are likely to form positive attitudes in response to promotions that include a lot of detailed, product-related information. ii) Innovativeness also affects attitudes (especially toward new products) 3. Attitudes are relatively consistent with the behavior they reflect. a) Attitudes are not necessarily permanent; they do change. b) We should consider situational influences on consumer attitudes and behavior. 4. Consumer attitudes occur within, and are affected by, the situation. The Tri-Component Attitude Model 1. Psychologists have sought to construct models that capture the underlying dimensions of an

attitude. The focus has been on specifying the composition of an attitude to better explain or predict behavior. 2. According to the tri-component attitude model, attitudes consist of three major components: the cognitive component, the affective component and the conative component. Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education

Cognitions are knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources. i) This previous knowledge and perceptions commonly take the form of beliefs ii) The consumer believes that the attitude object possesses various attributes and that specific behavior will lead to specific outcomes. b) The affective component of an attitude consists of the consumer’s emotions or feelings which are considered evaluations. i) Affect-laden experiences manifest themselves as emotionally charged states (such as happiness or sadness). ii) These states may enhance positive or negative experiences (and recollections of those experiences) for the consumer. iii) A semantic differential scale, which has bi-polar adjectives as anchors and asks the respondent to rate on a continuum, is often used to measure affect. c) Conation, the final component of the tri-component attitude model, is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object. i) The conative component may include the actual behavior itself. ii) In marketing and consumer research, the conative component is frequently treated as an expression of the consumer’s intention to buy. iii) Intention to buy scales are used to assess the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a product or behaving in a certain way. 3. Altering consumer attitudes is an important marketing strategy. a) In these market situations, marketers have an opportunity to persuade consumer’s to “crossover,” or to shift their favorable attitude toward another version of the product. b) Changing beliefs about products is the most common form of advertising appeal. i) Advertisers constantly remind us that their product has “more,” or is “better,” or “best” in terms of some important product attribute. ii) Information suggesting a change in attitude needs to be compelling and repeated enough to overcome the natural resistance to letting go of established attitudes. c) Changing brand image attempts to alter consumers’ overall assessment of the brand. d) Changing consumer beliefs about competitive brands or product categories is another attitude-change strategy. i) One tool is comparative advertising. ii) Another tool is a two-sided message. a)

Multi-Attribute Attitude Models 1. Multi-attribute attitude models portray consumers’ attitudes with regard to an attitude

object as a function of consumers’ perception and assessment of the key attributes or beliefs held with regard to the particular attitude object. 2. There are many variations of the attitude model, five to consider are: attitude-toward-object model, attitude-toward-behavior model, the theory-of-reasoned-action model, the theory of trying-to-consume, and the attitude-toward-the-ad-model. a) According to the attitude-toward-object model, the consumer’s attitude toward a product or specific brands of a product is a function of Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education

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the presence (or absence) and evaluation of certain product-specific beliefs and/or attributes. ii) The importance of each of these attributes Attitudes can be changed by i) Adding a previously ignored attribute or adding an attribute that reflects an actual product or technological innovation. a) Adding an attribute reflects an actual product change or technological innovation is easier to accomplish than stressing a previously ignored attribute. b) Sometimes eliminating a characteristic or feature has the same enhancing outcome as adding a characteristic or attribute. ii) Changing the perceived importance of attributes iii) Developing new products The attitude-toward-behavior model is designed to capture the individual’s attitude toward behaving or acting with respect to an object, rather than the attitude toward the object itself (so attitudes correspond somewhat more closely to actual behavior than the attitude-toward-object model). The theory-of-reasoned-action incorporates a cognitive component, an affective component, and a conative component arranged in a pattern different from that of the tri-component model. i) It includes subjective norms that influence an individual’s intention to act before measuring intentions. ii) Subjective norms are based on normative beliefs and motivation to comply with the preferences of relevant others. The theory of trying-to-consume is designed to account for the cases where the action or outcome is not certain but reflects the consumer’s efforts to consume. Sometimes personal impediments or environmental impediments prevent the desired outcome. As the attitude-toward-the-ad model depicts, the consumer forms various feelings as the result of exposure to an ad that impact attitudes towards the brands advertised.

Changing the Motivational Functions of Attitudes 1. An effective strategy for changing consumer attitudes toward a product or brand is to make

particular needs prominent. 2. One method for doing this is called the functional approach and suggests attitudes can be

classified into four functions: the utilitarian function, the ego-defensive function, the valueexpressive function, and the knowledge function. a) The utilitarian function stems from the belief that consumers’ attitudes reflect the utilities that brands provide. i) When a product has been useful or helped us in the past, our attitude toward it tends to be favorable. ii) One way of changing attitudes in favor of a product is by showing people that it can serve a utilitarian purpose they may not have considered.

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b) The ego-defensive function maintains that people want to protect their self-images from inner feelings of doubt – they want to replace their uncertainty with a sense of security and personal confidence. c) The value-expressive function suggests attitudes are an expression or reflection of the consumer’s values and beliefs. d) The knowledge function holds that individuals generally have a strong need to know and understand the people and things they encounter. 3. It is possible to alter attitudes toward products by pointing out their relationships to worthy

objects or causes. The Elaboration Likelihood Model 1. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) involves a more global view that two different

persuasive routes change attitudes. a) The central route to persuasion is particularly relevant to attitude change when a consumer’s motivation or ability to assess the attitude object is high; that is, attitude change occurs because the consumer actively seeks out information relevant to the attitude object itself. b) When consumers are willing to exert the effort to comprehend, learn, or evaluate the available information about the attitude object, learning and attitude change occur via the central route. c) In contrast, when a consumer’s motivation or assessment skills are low (e.g., lowinvolvement), learning and attitude change tend to occur via the peripheral route to persuasion, without the consumer focusing on information relevant to the attitude object itself. d) In such cases, attitude change often is an outcome of secondary inducements (e.g., cents-off coupons, free samples, beautiful background scenery, great package, or the encouragement of a celebrity endorsement). 2. Research indicates that even in low-involvement conditions (e.g., like exposure to most advertising), where both central and secondary inducements are initially equal in their ability to evoke similar attitudes, it is the central inducement that has the greatest “staying power”— that is, over time it is more persistent. Cognitive Dissonance Theory 1. According to cognitive dissonance theory, discomfort or dissonance occurs when a

consumer holds conflicting thoughts about a belief or an attitude object. 2. Post-purchase dissonance occurs after the purchase. a) Purchase decisions often require compromise. b) Post-purchase dissonance is quite normal. c) Dissonance gives consumers an uneasy feeling about their prior beliefs or actions – a d)

feeling that they seek to resolve by changing their attitudes to conform to their behavior. Attitude change is frequently an outcome of an action or behavior.

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Conflicting thoughts and dissonant information following a purchase are prime factors that induce consumers to change their attitudes so that they will be consonant with their actual purchase behavior. f) Dissonance propels consumers to reduce the unpleasant feelings created by the rival thoughts. 3. Tactics that consumers can use to reduce dissonance include reduction: a) By rationalizing the decision as being wise b) By seeking out advertisements that support the original reason for choosing the product c) By trying to “sell” friends on the positive features of the brand d) By looking to known satisfied owners for reassurance 4. Marketers can help reduce postpurchase uncertainty by aiming specific messages at reinforcing consumer decisions by complimenting their wisdom, offering stronger guarantees or warranties, increasing the number and effectiveness of its services, or providing detailed brochures on how to use its products correctly. 5. Attitude-change strategies are designed to resolve actual or potential cognitive conflicts between two attitudes. e)

Assigning Causality and Attribution Theory 1. Attribution theory attempts to explain how people assign causality to events on the basis of

either their own behavior or the behavior of others. 2. Self-perception attribution addresses individuals’ inferences or judgments as to the cause of

their own behavior. a) Attitudes develop as consumers look at and make judgments about their own behavior. b) These judgments can be divided into internal, external, and defensive attributions. c) Internal attribution—giving yourself credit for the outcomes—your ability, your skill, or your effort. d) External attribution—the purchase was good because of factors beyond your control— luck, etc. e) Defensive attribution—consumers are likely to accept credit personally for success, and to credit failure to others or to outside events. 3. Foot-in-the-door technique—the foot-in-the-door technique is based on the premise that

individuals look at their prior behaviors (e.g., compliance with a minor request) and conclude that they are the kind of person who says “Yes” to such requests (i.e., an internal attribution). a) Such self-attribution serves to increase the likelihood that they will agree to a similar, more substantial request. b) Research into the foot-in-the-door technique has concentrated on understanding how specific incentives (e.g., cents-off coupons of varying amounts) ultimately influence consumer attitudes and subsequent purchase behavior. c) It appears that different size incentives create different degrees of internal attribution that, in turn, lead to different amounts of attitude change. i) It is not the biggest incentive that is most likely to lead to positive attitude change. ii) What seems most effective is a moderate incentive, one that is just big enough to stimulate initial purchase of the brand but still small enough to encourage Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education

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consumers to internalize their positive usage experience and allow a positive attitude change to occur. In contrast with the foot-in-the-door technique is the door-in-the-face technique, in which a large, costly first request that is probably refused is followed by a second, more realistic, less costly request. Every time a person asks “Why?” about a statement or action of another or “others”—a family member, a friend, a salesperson, a direct marketer, a shipping company— attributions toward others theory is relevant. It is in the area of judging product performance that consumers are most likely to form product attributions...