Consumer Attitudes and Beliefs - Consumer Behavior

1. Consumer Attitudes and Beliefs
Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

2. Attitudes
• A learned predisposition to behave in a
consistently favorable or unfavorable manner
with respect to a given object
• A positive attitude is generally a necessity, but
not a sufficient condition for purchase
– Merc seen as ‘top of class’ but intention to
purchase might be low

3. Characteristics of Attitudes
• Attitudes have an “object”
– A feeling or an evaluative
reaction towards an object
• Attitudes are learned
– Can ‘unlearn’
• Attitudes have behavioural,
evaluative and affective
components
– Predisposition to act
– Overall evaluation
– Positive or negative
feelings
• Attitudes have consistency
• Attitudes occur within a
situation
• Attitudes have direction,
degree, strength and
centrality
– Positive or negative
– Extent of positive or
negative feelings
– Strength of feelings
– Closeness to core cultural
values

4. Functions of Attitudes
The Adaptive
Function
How well it
performs
The Ego –
expressive &
defensive Function
To protect
one’s self-
concept
The Value-
expressive
Function
To convey
one’s values
and lifestyles
The Knowledge
Function
A way to gain
knowledge

5. How are attitudes learnt?
• Classical conditioning - through past associations
• Operant conditioning - through trial and
reinforcement
• Cognitive learning – through information
processing (Cognitive dissonance theory, Attribution theory)

6. Attitude Models
• Structural Models of Attitudes
– Tri-component Attitude Model
– Multi-attribute Attitude Model
– Both assume a rational model of human behaviour
• Other models of attitude formation
– Cognitive dissonance model
– Attribution theory

7. The Tri-component Model
• Cognitive Component
• Affective component
• Conative or Behavioural
Component

8. The Tri-component Model
• Cognitive Component - Knowledge and
perceptions acquired through direct experience and
information from various sources
Affective component
This involves a person’s feelings /
emotions about the attitude object
I am scared of spiders

9. The Tri-component Model
• Affective component - Emotions and feelings
about the object
Behavioural component
The way the attitude we have
influences how we act or behave
I will avoid spiders and scream if
I see one

10. The Tri-component Model
• Conative or Behavioural Component - Action
tendencies toward the object
Cognitive component
This involves a person’s belief /
knowledge about an attitude
object
I believe spiders are dangerous

11. The Tri-component Model
Affective component
This involves a person’s
feelings / emotions about
the attitude object
I am scared of
spiders
Behavioural component
The way the attitude we
have influences how we
act or behave
I will avoid
spiders and
scream if I see
one
Cognitive component
This involves a person’s
belief / knowledge about
an attitude object
I believe spiders
are dangerous

12. Multi-attribute Attitude Models
• Attitude models that examine the composition
of consumer attitudes in terms of selected
product attributes or beliefs.
• Examples
– Attitude-towards-object Model
– Attitude-towards-behaviour Model
– Theory-of-Reasoned-Action Model

13. Attitude-towards-object Model
The individual’s attitude towards behaving or acting with
respect to an object rather than the attitude towards the
object itself
The appeal of the attitude towards behavior models is
that it seems to correspond more closely to consumers’
actual behavior than does the attitude towards object
model
It highlights that people you like, people who are very
important to a customer may influence their behavior
and will have an impact on the consumer’s final
decision.

14. Attitude-towards-object Model
1. Acceleration
2. Sticker Price
3. Market Share

16. Attitude-towards-behaviour Model
• It is the degree to which performance of the behavior is
positively or negatively valued
• Attitude towards a behavior is determined by the total set of
accessible behavioural beliefs linking the behavior to various
outcomes and other attributes. Specifically, the strength of
each belief (b) is weighted by the evaluation (e) of the
outcome or attribute, and the products are aggregated, as
shown in the following equation:

17. Theory-of-Reasoned-Action Model
It suggests that a person's behavior is
determined by his intention to perform the
behavior and that this intention is, in turn, a
function of his attitude toward the behavior
and his subjective norm.

18. Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• Holds that discomfort or dissonance occurs
when a consumer holds conflicting thoughts
about a belief or an attitude object.
• Post-purchase Dissonance
– Cognitive dissonance that occurs after a consumer
has made a purchase commitment

19. Cognitive dissonance theory
Contradictions
1. Modify
2. Trivialize 3. Add
4. Deny

20. The Devil’s Advocate

21. Attribution Theory
• Examines how people assign casualty to
events and form or alter their attitudes as an
outcome of assessing their own or other
people’s behavior.
• Examples
– Self-perception Theory
– Attribution toward others

22. Self-Perception Theory
• Attitudes developed by reflecting on their own
behaviour
• Judgments about own behaviour
• Internal and external attributions
• Consumers are likely to accept credit for
successful outcomes (internal attribution) and
to blame other persons or products for failure
(external attribution).
• Foot-In-The-Door Technique

23. How We Test Our Attributions
• Distinctiveness
• Consistency over time
• Consistency over modality
• Consensus

24. Attitudes and Marketing Strategy
• Appeal to motivational functions of attitudes
• Associate product with a special group, cause
or event
• Resolve conflicts among attitudes
• Influence consumer attributions

25. Attitudes and Marketing Strategy
• Alter components of the attitude
– Change relative evaluation of attributes
– Change brand beliefs
– Add an attribute
– Change overall brand evaluation
• Change beliefs about competitors’ brands

26. Attitudes and Marketing Strategy
• Change affect first through classical
conditioning
• Change behaviour first through operant
conditioning