Defining attitude

Schiffman and Kanuk defined attitude as “a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way with respect to a given object “.

The main characteristics of attitudes are indicated by the key words in the definition: learned, predisposition, behave.

As attitudes are ‘mental positions’, they cannot be observed directly. Marketers must infer attitudes through research methods that require consumers to express opinions

Attitudes occur within a situation and that the situation can, and will, influence the relationship between attitude and behaviour. A consumer can have different attitudes towards the same product depending on the situation.

The main characteristics of attitudes are:

Attitudes are learned from personal experience, information provided by others, and market controlled sources, in particular exposure to mass media.

Attitudes are predispositions. A predisposition is an inclination or tendency towards something; attitudes have motivational qualities.

Attitudes have a relationship with behaviour. For marketers, the behaviour of primary interest is product purchase.

For example. When kellog’s was introduced in India they had to study the behavioural patters of the Indians so as to change the attitude of people towards cornflakes.

Attitudes are consistent. However, this does not necessarily mean that they are permanent; attitudes can change.

For example when Maagi was launched the attitude of Indians towards noodles was negative but with a strong strategy Maagi created a very strong base and made a mark for itself by changing the attitude of the consumers.

Attitudes are directed towards an object(product, advertisement, media, retailer, product category, features etc) and are very specific reactions to that object.

For example : one may have a positive attitude to buy a pizza but one may have a negative attitude towards Domino’s Pizza in which case the attitude toward the retailer is negative.

one may like ‘Nike’ but don’t like ‘Adidas’. The term ‘object’ includes specific consumption- or marketing-related concepts, such as product, product category, brand, service, possessions, product use, advertisement, price, medium, or retailer.

Attitudes may be situationally determined.

For example , one may really like a McDonald's hamburger for lunch, but one may not want to eat one for breakfast. Similarly, one may have a positive approach towards the brand Nike but may go in for Bata shoes due to the price. The purchase or usage situation may affect the intensity or change the attitude. .

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Internal and external information sources

Information about a specific product class or brand is gathered from a variety of sources. Some information is already stored in our memory as a result of past cognitions

or experiences. Other information we gather ourselves, either through conscious information gathering.

For example, reading consumer magazines, attending trade shows, talking to industry or government experts; or by more passive means, such as watching television, or reading a poster on the wall or flyover.

We also receive information from those around us and by observing their actions, especially our families in their daily consumption routines. Marketers, through advertising, packaging and point of purchase displays, are constantly providing consumers with information about their own and their competitors’ products.

Belief base

All this information forms our belief base — called cognitions — about the particular product. Marketing researchers are constantly amazed by the volume of information consumers have about different products, from price variability, to product packaging details, to store shelf position.

Salient beliefs

Only a small number of beliefs are significant enough to an individual consumer to be used in forming the attitude. These are referred to as salient beliefs. Imagine the potential information overload if all the beliefs about a product had to be internally evaluated before an attitude was formed! It is important to recognise that those beliefs considered salient can change over time and are individual in nature. What one consumer considers to be a salient belief may not be considered as such by another. Many marketing strategies are designed to introduce new salient beliefs or change the importance of existing salient beliefs.

For example: one may know that Colgate toothpaste prevents cavities, contains calcium, is manufactured by the Colgate-Palmolive Company, , has tartar control, comes in a gel or paste, is in a red, white and blue package, comes in a tube or pump, comes in mint and regular flavours, gets teeth clean, and is used by your mother and father. However, you may consider only the fact that it fights cavities, and comes in a gel format in a pump to be significant or of importance. Only these three beliefs would become considered as salient beliefs.

Attitude

Salient beliefs are evaluated as either positive or negative, and then bundled together to form the attitude. Obviously, some weighting occurs. Even though you may be evaluating five salient beliefs, perhaps you consider one of them to be more important, and therefore, your evaluation of that salient belief will carry more weight in the ultimate attitude.

For example : A Sony Ericsson phone may have a 3.2mega pixel camera , 2gb memory and a music player which are all features

likes by one. but if one has a tight budget then cost may become a very important criteria or a salient belief.

Set placement

Overall attitude determines set placement within the awareness set. Products we have a favourable attitude towards form the evoked set, from which purchase decisions are made. For truly brand loyal consumers, often there is only one product in the evoked set, or possibly a backup, in case of emergencies like stock-outs. Other consumers may have a number of products in the evoked set which are prioritised depending on availability — first, second and third choice, or on situational variables.

For example, one may buy a Cadbury Dairy Milk for eating a chocolate on regular basis but for giving someone one may buy a bar of Lintz chocolates..

Products we neither like nor dislike — that is we are ambivalent towards but are still aware of them — fall into the inert set.

Products towards which we have a negative attitude fall into the inept set. Negative attitudes are usually, but not always, based on actual product usage.

For example, if an advertisement creates a certain set of expectations that the consumer believes the product cannot or will not deliver, a negative attitude may be developed towards the product. Products in the inept set are not considered for purchase. Not only do we not consider the product for purchase, but we may actively discourage others from trying or continuing to purchase the product.

Post-purchase evaluation

Once products are purchased and used, post-purchase evaluation is conducted by the consumer.

Did the product measure up to my expectations?

Did it have all the features I expected or wanted?

Did it satisfy my needs?

For example : one may buy Dove due to its its ¼ moisturiser but after purchase felt it dissolves easily and stopped purchasing. In this case the Dove did not match up to the expectations of the consumer. It may also happen that it did not make the sikn soft as promised in the ads in this case the need of the consumer is not fulfilled.

The results of the post-purchase evaluation act as feedback to all components of the attitude formation model. One may find that the product has a feature you did not know about (your belief base is increased); a feature that you find quite significant or important (this belief now becomes a salient belief); and now you like the product even more (attitude —> set placement —> purchase behaviour).

Feedback is a continual process, as new information and experiences are assimilated. Remember from our discussion of defense mechanisms that you may also distort information to make it consistent with your prior expectations.

This model presents a one way flow with feedback loops, which assumes that attitudes are initiated from beliefs. However, many would argue that behaviour can precede attitude.

For example, one may buy a new brand of shampoo because of a special coupon promotion; one may like its built-in conditioner, and thus develop a positive attitude towards it.

Models assist us in describing attitudes. Once we have a framework to use in describing attitudes, we are in a better position, as marketers, to explain, and hopefully predict the attitudes of our target consumer, and ultimately their purchase behaviour.

Each model takes a different view of the number of component parts of an attitude, of how they are arranged, and how the component parts interrelate. No one model provides all the answers to our question ‘What is an attitude and how is it formed’. At best, models can just help.

We will review four different attitude models:

• Tri-component attitude model:

It portrays attitudes as having three component parts: cognitive (I think/know/believe), affective (I feel), and conative (I do/intend to do).

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Tricomponent Attitude Model

ConationConation

AffectAffect

Cognition

The tri-component attitude model considers all three components to be present in an attitude, with each component playing an important role in attitude formation and having the potential to influence the overall attitude

•

Single-component attitude model:

which focuses primarily on the affective component, with the cognitive and conative components playing, at best, a secondary role.

Single-component attitude models focus almost exclusively on the affective component. While the modified single-component models do include the cognitive and conative components, these are only viewed as playing a supportive or secondary role. The affective component is still judged to be the prime determinant of attitude or the ‘essence of the attitude’. These models have their limitations and cannot provide insight into ‘why’ a consumer has a particular attitude, as they ignore the cognitive component which addresses consumer knowledge and beliefs about a product. Nor can they measure behavioural intent — just because a consumer has favourable feelings or emotions towards a product does not guarantee purchase. Despite these limitations, there has been a significant amount of interest by researchers and academics.

• Multi-attribute attitude model:

It focuses on selected product attributes or beliefs. We will discuss the Fishbein Theory of Reasoned Action Model.

The multi-attribute attitude models, in particular the models advanced by Martin Fishbein (1973), consider all three components. The attitude-towards-object model looks at both the cognitive and affective components: with the b or belief variable representing the consumer’s cognition, and the e variable representing the affective component. The attitude-towards-behaviour model looks at behavioural intent, the conative component, as well as the affective component. Fishbein’s Theory of Reasoned Action Model combines all three components (1973).

• Attitude-towards-the-ad model: which focuses on the influence of advertising on attitudes.

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Relationship among Elements in an Attitude-Toward-the-Ad Model

Exposure to an Ad

Judgments about the Ad (Cognition)

Beliefs about the Brand

Attitude toward the Brand

Attitude toward the Ad

Feelings from the Ad (Affect)

models are based on the belief that consumers develop attitudes towards the advertisement in addition to their attitude towards the product. These models focus primarily on the influence of advertising, cognitive and affective components are addressed. Behavioural intent, the conative component, is not formally addressed in these models.

Knowing how attitudes are formed is the first step. However, in developing marketing strategies, more information is required. We review classical and operant conditioning and cognitive learning theories to determine how the process of learning attitudes can be applied to attitude formation and change in our marketing strategies. We then look at various general attitude change strategies and some specific to the Fishbein attitude-towards-object model.

One of the key characteristics of attitude is ‘learned’. If attitudes are learned, then obviously marketers are interested in how attitudes are learned. Again, you can see the interdisciplinary nature of the study of consumer behaviour as marketers use the information gained from

psychologists and educators, and apply the learning theories to the learning of attitudes.

A consumer moves from having no attitude — possibly because they have no knowledge of or experience with the product — to having an attitude, regardless of whether it is positive, negative or ambivalent. However, learning is not a finite process, it is continuous. The same learning theories that are applied to the learning of an attitude can be applied to attitude change. Let’s briefly review the three main learning theories and consider how they can be applied to the learning of attitudes.

Classical conditioning Marketers use this learning theory when they associate their product with a stimulus which elicits a favourable response with their target market. They hope for a positive attitude towards the product, increasing the chance of purchase.

In terms of attitude creation, the

‘stimulus’ could be a brand name.

For example in the case of family branding and line extensions, the new product is linked to the favourable

attitude consumers have towards the company’s existing products or brand name. Like in case of Dove the premium image of the brand is maintained. similarly for Maagi the taste factor is mainted even in the ‘dal atta noodles’.

The ‘stimulus’ can also be a person.

By using celebrities, marketers attempt to associate the product with the positive characteristics, recognition and goodwill of the celebrity. This can be especially useful in new product introductions where, at best, consumers have an ambivalent or neutral attitude. However, marketers must use classical conditioning, especially the use of celebrity endorsers, with caution.

For example Lux has always used renounced celebrities to assure its consumers of its benefits. Similarly Olay is advertised by Sushmita Sen .

Instrumental conditioning We ‘learn’ positive attitudes by receiving positive reinforcement from use of the product. Consumers may purchase a product towards which they have a neutral attitude. Perhaps it was the only product available; they were enticed by a price reduction or premium offer; or they were curious about a new product. In this case, the reinforcement received through using the product determines their attitude. If the reinforcement is positive — they liked the product — their attitude will probably move from neutral to positive.

For example when livon was introduced many consumers bought its because it was a new product and many just wanted to try it.

Cognitive learning theory Earlier we studied the concept of involvement, that is, the importance of the product to the consumer. For high involvement products, knowledge and beliefs are extremely important in the formation of attitudes.

Cognitive learning theory suggests that the more information a consumer has about a product, the more likely they are to form an opinion, either positive or negative. This is a clear message to marketers: provide consumers with information about product features and benefits. Remember though that consumers can, and do, suffer from information overload; marketers must ensure that they provide information about salient beliefs. The three most important salient beliefs tend to dominate in formation of attitude.

All marketers are concerned with maintaining positive attitudes in their current consumers; changing the neutral attitudes of ambivalent consumers to positive attitudes, hoping to increase market share; and, if necessary, changing negative attitudes to at least neutral ones.

Marketers have found that weakly held attitudes are easier to change than strongly held attitudes.

Consumers tend to develop strongly held attitudes in areas they consider to be of great personal importance, that is, of high involvement. Strongly held attitudes can be either positive or negative, with the product falling in the evoked or the inept set. In areas of limited or questionable importance, consumers tend to be ambivalent or neutral, or have weakly held attitudes that are susceptible to change. These products would fall in the inert set.

There are six categories of attitude change strategies:

Changing the basic motivational function.

These strategies are based on the theory that attitudes serve four basic functions:

Utilitarian

This function deals with obtaining a reward in order to avoid punishment i.e changing attitudes in favour of a product by showing people the utility benefit of the product or service .

For Example:

Clorex disinfecting spray works for 24hrs and kills 99.99%bacteria.

Ego-defensive:

Many people want to protect their self image and want to replace their uncertainty with a sense of security and personal confidence.

For example:

Ads for cosmetics and personal care products come under this category.

value-expressive

It is an expression of the consumers general values , culture lifestyle and outlook. It reflects their orientation.

For example: Santro (Santro Wale)

knowledge.

It simplifies decision making by making the consumer aware of the product features benefits and its edge over competitors.

For example: A tooth brush with tongue cleaner , Colgate tooth paste with active salt, Garnier moisturiser with spf 15.

By changing the basic motivational function, the attitude towards the product can be changed.

• Associating the product with a special group, event or cause. Attitudes can be altered by indicating to consumers the product’s relationship to particular groups, events or causes. Concern for the environment has been one cause used recently.

For example: Whisper is associated with project ‘DRISHTI’ where Re 1 on purchase of ever pack of Whisper or Ariel goes to the National Association for the Blind.

Relating to conflicting attitudes . Consumers like harmony — they do not like conflict. If they can be shown that their attitude towards a product is in conflict with another attitude, they may be induced to change one of the attitudes.

For example : Nike shoes are very expensive but also durable and effective if this two attitude were to compete in a consumers mind and the durability factor would be a concern for the consumer the it is possible to change his attitude towards the brand from negative to positive.

Altering components in the multi-attribute model. In these strategies, marketers attempt to change the evaluation of attributes by upgrading or downgrading significant attributes; change brand beliefs by introducing new information; and by adding an attribute, or by changing the overall brand rating.

For example : Rin Bar becomes Surf Excel Bar

Changing beliefs about competing brands . In this strategy, we directly compare our product with the competition in an attempt to change consumer beliefs about both products.

For example: Sprite compares itself to Mountain Dew.

The elaboration likelihood model .

This model suggests that consumer attitudes can be changed by either central or peripheral routes to persuasion. In the central route, attitude change occurs because the consumer seeks and evaluates additional information about the product. In this case, motivation levels are high and the consumer is willing to invest the time and effort to gather and evaluate the information, indicating a high level of involvement. Multi-attribute models are based on the central route to persuasion as attitudes are believed to be formed on the basis of important product attributes/features and brand beliefs. In the peripheral route, consumers are either unwilling or unable to seek additional product information. Involvement is low, so marketers must offer secondary inducements such as price reductions or premiums in an attempt to induce attitude change. More attention is paid in advertisement design to the credibility of the message source (spokesperson or endorser) and his or her attractiveness.

For example : Aishwarya Rai ex brand ambassador for Nakshatra Diamonds, Free Tazoos given in cheetos pack,

All of these strategies take the traditional view that attitude precedes behaviour and use the relationship between attitude and behaviour to effect attitude change.

When faced with negative market research numbers, stagnant or slipping market share, or active competitors, marketers develop strategies that attempt to change or intensify attitudes. Marketers must realise that attitudes change not only in response to their efforts but also in response to the introduction of new or improved products by themselves or the competition; the addition of new consumer experiences, either direct or indirect; the marketing efforts of the competition; and how the product performs after purchase.

The models of attitude formation and attitude change strategies we have used so far have been based on the traditional view that attitude precedes behaviour: we develop attitudes towards the products from a variety of sources (past and direct experience, personal influence and exposure to mass media), and that this attitude determines behaviour or purchase. In this section, we review theories which suggest that behaviour can precede attitude formation and actually cause the formation of new attitudes or change in existing attitudes.

Cognitive dissonance theory

suggests that consumers experience discomfort, called dissonance, when they are confronted with new information about a belief or attitude that is in conflict with the original information. This often happens after a purchase, when it is called post-purchase dissonance. The product was purchased with a set of expectations (beliefs). Following the actual use of the product, the consumer may find that the initial set of expectations was not met, or the consumer may question whether they made the right choice given the features and benefits of the products not chosen. In either case, the consumer is faced with new information that is in conflict with the original beliefs. In an effort to reduce the discomfort or dissonance, the original attitude may be

changed. If that happens, then behaviour — purchase, use and evaluation — has led to a change in attitude.

Critics of cognitive dissonance theory would suggest that beliefs and performance expectations about the product formed an attitude, which prompted the purchase. Attitude preceded behaviour. This is a ‘chicken and egg’ debate. However, the fact that we cannot determine which one is ‘right’ does not mean that we dismiss both. In this case, the traditional theories of attitude formation and cognitive dissonance theory can actually be combined. These theories provide information about how the original attitude, which prompts purchase, was formed. Cognitive dissonance theory shows how post-purchase evaluation and use of the product (behaviour) can act as feedback to the original attitude, often causing the original attitude to change.

Attribution theory

suggests that attitudes are formed and changed based on the consumer’s interpretation of their own behaviour and experiences. Consumers make inferences about their own behaviour and that of others in an attempt to determine ‘why’ they behaved the way they did. One of the meanings of the word ‘attribute’ is ‘caused by’. Attribution theory suggests that attitudes are caused by behaviour.

Attribution theory suggests that consumers form or change their attitudes based on their assessment of their own behaviour, the behaviour of others, or the performance of a product. Self-perception theory, a component of attribution theory, discusses internal and external attributes. ‘Who or what is responsible for a successful outcome?’ Consumer research indicates whether the target market attributes success to internal factors (the consumer, their skill, competence and hard work) or external factors (the ingredients, environment and ‘luck’). This information provides direction for marketing strategies.

Consumers often gather additional information in an attempt to confirm attributes they have made about products or people. They might use the criteria of distinctiveness, consistency over time, consistency over modality, and consensus in determining whether their attributes are correct.

Self-perception theory

suggests that consumers develop attitudes as they review and make judgements about their own behaviour. ‘I always choose chocolate for dessert, so I must really like chocolate.’ However, attribution theory suggests that we also review and make judgements about the behaviour of others, called attributions towards others. This has particular significance to the role of salespeople in the purchase decision. If a consumer attributes sincerity to the salesperson’s comments, their attitude towards the product will be positive: ‘The product must have superior features like the salesperson says.’ However, if they view the salesperson as only being interested in their sales commission — a negative attribute — this might negatively influence their attitude towards the product. ‘The salesperson is only recommending that product because it is more expensive and their commission will be higher.’

UNIT SUMMARY

In this unit we studied attitude, one of the internal influences on the consumer's mind. We determined the main characteristics of attitudes and investigated a basic model of attitude formation that looked at how information from internal and external sources form the overall belief base, how salient beliefs are determined from this belief base, how salient beliefs and their evaluation form the attitude, how the attitude determines set placement, which influences

purchase behaviour. Post-purchase evaluation acts as feedback to all stages in the process.

We then reviewed some specific structural models of attitude formation: the single-component, tri-component, multi-attribute, and attitude-towards-the-ad models of attitude formation that are built on the premise that attitude precedes behaviour. We also reviewed models that view behaviour as preceding attitude, cognitive dissonance and attribution theory.

Knowing how attitudes are formed is the first step. However, in developing marketing strategies, more information is required. We reviewed classical and operant conditioning and cognitive learning theories to determine how the process of learning attitudes can be applied to attitude formation and change in our marketing strategies.

SUBMITTED BY

MANSI MATHUR

RN 26