1. 1
Consumer Belief and Attitude
August 7th, 2010
Consumer Beliefs About
Product Attributes
• Beliefs result from cognitive learning.
• Beliefs are the knowledge and inferences
that a consumer has about objects, their
attributes, and their benefits provided.
– Objects are the products, people, companies,
and things about which people hold beliefs
and attitudes.
– Benefits are the positive outcomes that
attributes provide to the consumer.
– Attributes are the characteristics of an object
Consumer Attitudes
• Attitude is a learned tendency to act in a consistent
way toward an object, based on feelings and
opinions that result from an evaluation of knowledge
about the object
• Attitude is the amount of affect or feeling for or
against a stimulus or the attitude object
• Attitudes are stored in long-term memory
• Beliefs are the cognitive knowledge about an object
• In high involvement situations, beliefs predict
attitudes; attitudes might result in behaviours, both
favourable and unfavourable
Origins of Attitudes
• Mere Exposure - The more we are
exposed to an object the more we will like
them.
• Social (observational) Learning
• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
• Cognitive Learning
2. 2
The Three Component Theory
of Attitude
• Cognitive component: consumer belief(s)
about a brand, outlet, product, action, etc., that
is based on personal knowledge, actual
experience, the knowledge or experience of
others, or perception.
• Affective component: consumer feelings (e.g.
likes, dislikes, or neutrality) about a brand,
outlet, product, action, etc. flowing from beliefs.
The Three Component Theory
of Attitude
• Intention component (“behavior” or
“behavioral intention”): consumer’s intention
to act positively, negatively, or neutrally toward a
brand, outlet, product, action, etc. that is based
on his or her affective component stance.
• This three component theory seems to be more
clearly tied to high-involvement brand, outlet,
product, action, etc. situations than low-
involvement.
Beliefs: Cognitive Component of
Consumer Attitude
• A consumer belief is a psychological association
between a product, brand, outlet, action, etc.
and an attribute or feature (and associated
benefits) of such
– Beliefs are cognitive (based on knowledge,
experience, perception, etc.)
– The stronger the association of features or attributes
(and associated benefits) with the product, brand,
outlet, action, etc., 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/Use
– Brand user
– Celebrity recognition
– Brand personality
– Product category
– Association with
competitors
– Country or geographic
area
3. 3
Affect: Emotive Component of
Attitude
• Purchase decisions are typically influenced by affective
response
• Affect—the way in which we feel (e.g. like, dislike,
neutral) 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 Response
• Affective responses help consumers reach
purchase decisions in four ways:
– Ego defense: means through which people try to
realize personal goals and images
– Adjustment of utility: developing affective responses
that lead to perceived rewards and avoid perceived
punishments
– Value expression: displaying consumers’ own values
to the external world
– Application of prior knowledge: may lead to both
positive and negative effects on affective response
Intention: Behavior Component of
Consumer Attitude
• Affect is not closely linked to actual
purchase
• Behavioral intention—attitude toward
brand purchase (an action)
– A better predictor of behavior than either
beliefs or affective responses
4. 4
Key Issues…Attitudes
• Attitudes are learned; are formed as result of –
– Direct experience
– Information acquired from others, or exposure to
mass media and other communication forms
• Attitudes are not permanent, they do change
• Attitudes occur within and are affected by the
situation (events or circumstances)
• Attitudes have consistency; i.e., usually
consistent with the behaviour they reflect
When Behavior Predicts Attitudes
• At times we adjust our attitudes to
make them consistent with our
[expected] behavior.
Predicting Consumer Attitudes
• Multi-Attribute models identify how
consumers in high-involvement situations
(i.e. standard hierarchy of effects) combine
their beliefs about product attributes to
form attitudes about various brand
alternatives, organizations/ companies, or
other objects.
Example: if you are Radio Station
manager
• You want to know whether consumers like you
– Attitude prediction
• You want to know HOW MUCH they like you:
more or less than another radio station
– Attitude Measurement
• And if they like you less than another radio
station, you want to make them like you more
– Attitude Change
5. 5
Attitude-Toward-The-Object Model
(Fishbein Model)
Identifies three major
factors that are
predictive of attitudes:
•Salient Beliefs
•Strength of the Belief
•Evaluation
A beo i i
i
n
1
where,
A = Attitude towards an object (brand)
bi = Belief that the brand possesses attribute i
ei = Evaluation or desirability of attribute i
i = attribute 1, 2, … n
An Application of the Fishbein
Model
• Research Question: What is the listeners’ attitude towards Kantapur
FM and Radio Nepalaya?
Importance or Evaluation weights for each attribute:
For example: How appealing is it to you when a radio
station plays lots of music?
Not appealing Very appealing
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Beliefs about specific attributes:
For example: Do you believe that Kantipur FM plays
lots of music?
Yes No
+3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3
An Application of the Fishbein
Model
Kantapur FM Radio Nepalaya
ATTRIBUTE Bi Ei Bi x Ei Bi Ei Bi x Ei
Plays lots of music +2 7 +14 +2 7 +14
Plays lots of commercials +3 1 +3 +1 1 +1
Gives news updates +1 6 +6 +2 6 +12
Has interesting RJs -1 8 -8 -2 8 -16
SUM +15 +11
Strategic Interpretation:
Multiattribute Models
Attribute
Importance
Our
Performance
Competitors
Performance
Strategic
Implication
High Poor Poor Neglected
Opportunity
Good Competitive
Disadvantage
Good Poor Competitive
Advantage
Good Head-to-Head
Competition
Low Poor Poor Null Opportunity
Good False Alarm
Good Poor False Advantage
Good False Competition
6. 6
So: this formulation lets us
measure, predict and compare
attitudes
Attitude Change Using
Fishbein’s Multi-attribute Model
MODEL: Ao = biei ; i = 1 to n
• So change Attitudes by:
– Changing belief about an attribute…Bi
– Or change ―desirability‖ of an attribute…Ei
– Or introduce an attribute that consumers had
not earlier considered…Add a new Bi /Ei
combination
Belief-Importance Model
• 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
The Belief-Importance Model
m
i
iioo IBA
1
where,
Ao = Attitude toward brand (o)
Bio = Belief that brand (o) does well or poorly when
its attribute (i) is compared with those of competitors
Ii = Importance of attribute (i) in selecting the brand
i = attribute 1, 2, … m
7. 7
Assignment
• Do an Attitude survey of your brand,
product or service using the Fishbein
Model in comparison to a competing
brand. Have at least 5 attributes surveyed.
• Due Saturday, August 14th, 2010
beginning of the class.
