consumen behaviour

1. Chapter 6
ATTITUDES AND INTENTIONS
AUTHORS' OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER
In this chapter we discuss the outcomes of two key information integration processes --one forming attitudes and the
other forming behavioral intentions. A huge research literature exists concerning attitudes and behavioral intentions.
Despite this work, however, there are several fundamental confusions in the attitude research area, especially as
attitudes are used in consumer research. In this chapter, we attempt to present a clear and accurate conceptual
perspective on attitudes and behavioral intentions, without subjecting students to a detailed review of the
complexities of the past research literature.
Attitudes as a Type of Meaning. We begin the chapter with a general discussion of attitudes. Attitudes are overall
or global evaluations--broad and relatively mild affective (favorable/unfavorable) meanings formed by consumers'
affective and cognitive systems. Like any other meaning, attitudes may be stored in memory and activated in certain
circumstances. An evaluation or attitude is a fundamental type of affective meaning that is produced by integration
processes (see Exhibit 3.5). Deciding whether you like something, or whether it is good or bad for you, is a basic
function of the sense-making cognitive system. We suggest that consumers have attitudes toward every discernable
concept that they interpret for personal relevance (attend to and comprehend).
Attitude Formation. Attitudes can be formed in two broad ways. One form of attitude is as a mild affective
response of the affective system. This is the classical conditioning process discussed in Chapter 9. The other
process of attitude formation through information integration is the focus of this chapter. Here, knowledge or beliefs
about an object or concept are combined (integrated) to form an overall affective evaluation or attitude.
Attitude Concepts. All attitudes are toward some "thing." Consumers can have attitudes toward virtually any
concept, including concrete, tangible objects in the environment (an ink pen) or abstract, intangible concepts
(freedom). Consumers may have attitudes toward social aspects of the environment (one's family) and their own
behaviors (shopping for clothes), as well as the behaviors of others (a salesperson's actions). Of course, consumers
cannot have an attitude toward a concept that they do not know about. Nor are people likely to have attitudes
toward a concept that they have not "analyzed" in terms of its personal relevance (What's in it for me?). Researchers
generally have been interested in two types of attitudes--attitudes toward objects (Ao) and attitudes toward behaviors
or acts (Aact)
Levels of Attitude Concepts. We also point out that the concepts toward which one might have an attitude vary in
level of abstraction (Exhibit 6.1). For instance, one can have attitudes toward a product category (automobiles), a
product form (sports cars), a brand (Porsche), or a model (a Porsche 928). One can even have attitudes toward more
specific concepts such as using a brand in a particular situation (driving a Porsche 928 in New York City traffic).
Neutral Attitudes. We recognize that many (probably most) attitudes are not intense or extreme. In fact, a common
evaluation for many objects and concepts is essentially neutral, or perhaps only slightly pro or con. In this text, we
treat a neutral evaluation--neither pro nor con affect--as a legitimate level of attitude. That is, a neutral evaluation
does not mean that no attitude exists; rather it indicates the lack of a strong positive or negative evaluation.
Salient Beliefs. The information integration process combines only the salient beliefs about the attitude concept to
form an overall evaluation of the concept. Salient beliefs are a subset of a consumer's knowledge about the attitude
concept. As discussed in Chapter 3, one can think of knowledge as an associative network of beliefs in memory (see
Exhibit 6.2). The beliefs that are activated, at a particular time, in a specific situation, are salient or relevant to the
situation, at that time. These salient beliefs are the theoretical basis for attitude because they determine that person's
attitude (at that time, in that situation).
Multiattribute Attitude Model. Fishbein's multiattribute attitude model, Ao = biei, is probably the most heavily
researched model in consumer behavior (Exhibit 6.3). We discuss the components of this model--belief strength (bi)
and the evaluation of the belief (ei)--and describe how they are measured. We also describe how a belief about a
product attribute comes to have a certain evaluation (ei). The evaluation of an attribute is based on its association,

2. through means-end chains, with more self-relevant consequences and/or values (Exhibit 6.4). We conclude this
section with several examples of how marketers can apply the multiattribute attitude model, including understanding
your customers and diagnosing marketing strategies.
In this section, we do not attempt to present the many (and sometimes rather trivial) controversies that have plagued
the attitude research field. Instead, we try to clearly and simply present the multiattribute attitude model and its
conceptual foundations. We describe how marketers can measure the components through detailed consumer
analyses. And, we offer several examples of how the multiattribute attitude model can be used to develop and
evaluate marketing strategies.
Attitude Change Strategies. We discuss four attitude change strategies suggested by the multiattribute attitude
model. These include adding a new salient belief, changing the strength of an already salient belief, changing the
evaluation of a salient belief, and making a favorable belief more salient.
Attitudes and Behavior. In the next section of the chapter, we present a brief discussion of the relationship between
attitudes and behavior. We try to clearly show why Ao is not necessarily related to specific (single) overt behaviors,
either theoretically or empirically (Exhibit 6.5). Basically, a consumer has one attitude toward an object, but can
perform a very large number of behaviors that involve this object. Overall attitude is not necessarily highly related
to any one of these specific behaviors, although it might be. This point is not usually covered in most consumer
behavior texts, nor is it always clear in the attitude research literature. We also describe why intentions to behave
are the main determinant of voluntary behavior, not Ao.
Theory of Reasoned Action. Then, we present Fishbein's behavioral intention model, called the theory of reasoned
action (Exhibit 6.6). This theory suggests that people select alternative behaviors based on their evaluations of the
consequences of each action. We explain how behavioral intentions are the main determinant of voluntary
behaviors. We discuss and explain the two key components of the model--Aact and SN. Aact is a person's attitude
toward a specific behavior. SN is a social influence (social norm) factor, which represents the influences of other
people on a person's behaviors. We describe the integration process by which Aact and social norm (SN) are
combined to form behavioral intentions (BI), and we discuss some of the situational factors leading to differential
weighting.
Measured Intentions and Actual Behavior. In the final section we discuss the relationship between intentions to
behave and actual behavior. We describe the problems marketers sometimes have in predicting consumers'
behaviors (usually purchase behavior) based on measurements of their intentions to behave, which often are taken at
a much earlier time. We identify several of the factors that attenuate or reduce the relationship between measured
intentions and actual overt behavior (Exhibit 6.7). We also point out that certain types of behaviors (involuntary
behaviors or behaviors not yet thought about) simply cannot be accurately predicted frommeasures of intentions, a
point not often recognized.
KEY CONCEPTS AND IDEAS
 Attitudes are a type of interpretation or meaning--an overall evaluation--of some object, concept, or
event (such as a behavior)
 Consumers can have attitudes toward a variety of concepts, including objects, events, and behaviors.
Marketers must be careful to precisely specify the attitude concept of interest
 The salient (activated) beliefs that form the cognitive foundation for attitudes can vary considerably
across different attitude concepts
 Ao and Aact, the two major types of attitudes measured in consumer research, are quite different, even
though they may seem to be related to the same basic object. Because consumers usually have rather
different salient beliefs about objects and behaviors, Ao and Aact are based on different underlying
belief structures
 Ao and Aact are differentially related to behavioral intentions (BI), and eventually to actual behavior.
Theoretically, Aact is related to BI, while Ao is not

3.  Since intentions always concern a particular behavior, Aact is the appropriate attitude to be related to
intentions (and thus actual behavior)
 Aact is combined with SN (social considerations) through an information integration process to forman
intention (BI) to perform a particular behavior
 Consumers' intentions to behave can be good predictors of eventual overt behavior. However, for a
variety of reasons, intentions sometimes do not accurately predict behaviors
OUTLINE OF CHAPTER TOPICS
Chapter Six. ATTITUDES AND INTENTIONS
A. The Gap
B. What Is An Attitude?
1. Attitudes toward what?
a. Levels of attitude concepts
2. Marketing implications
a. Brand equity
b. Attitude tracking studies
C. Attitudes Toward Objects
1. Salient beliefs
2. The multi-attribute attitude model
a. Model components
3. Marketing implications
a. Understanding your customers
b. Diagnosis of marketing strategies
c. Understanding situational influences
4. Attitude change strategies
D. Attitudes Toward Behavior
1. The theory of reasoned action
a. Model components
2. Marketing implications
E. Intentions and behaviors
F. Back to ... The Gap
G. Marketing Strategy in Action: Coca-Cola
TEACHING OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, students should be able to:
 describe the knowledge structure of salient beliefs underlying attitudes.
 describe Fishbein's multiattribute attitude model.
 describe simple measures of the major components of the multiattribute attitude model.
 discuss four strategies to change attitudes.
 discuss the differences between Ao and Aact.
 understand why Ao is not strongly related to specific behaviors.

4.  describe Fishbein's theory of reasoned action.
 describe how Aact and SN are integrated to form behavioral intentions.
 identify several reasons why measured intentions are often not good predictors of subsequent behavior.
TEACHING IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS
Overview. On a MWF schedule of 50-minute classes, two days are probably necessary to cover this material. One
day may be sufficient on a T-Th schedule. Some students may have difficulty understanding the more subtle points
made in this chapter. Thus, we recommend that you emphasize and elaborate some of the following ideas in class.
This chapter concerns attitude formation and change as a function of the cognitive processes of information
integration. Please note that we have not forgotten that some attitudes may be acquired through classical
conditioning processes. We cover respondent or classical conditioning of affective evaluations (attitudes) and
emotions in Chapter 10 on classical and operant conditioning. Although you could lecture on classical conditioning
processes here, we recommend that you only mention the topic here and cover classical conditioning in detail later
in the course, when it is discussed in the behavioral section. At that time, you can relate the discussion back to
attitudes.
What Is An Attitude? An attitude is a person's overall or global evaluation of an object or concept. Attitudes are a
type of "mild" affective response, called an evaluation, which is less intense (lower arousal) than emotions and
feelings (see Exhibit 3.5, page 52, in Chapter 3). Stated differently, attitudes are pro/con, favorable/unfavorable
meanings that are formed by both the affective and cognitive systems. Once formed, attitudes can be stored in
memory, like any other meaning, and may be activated in appropriate circumstances.
Evaluations or attitudes are fundamental types of meanings. Most attitudes are created, constructed or interpreted
(it’s a debated question whether attitudes formed through classical conditioned involve any interpretation).
Deciding whether you like something, or whether it is good or bad for you, is a basic sense-making function of our
cognitive and affective systems. We assume that consumers form attitudes toward every discernable concept that
they interpret in terms of its personal relevance.
Possible Mini-Lecture: Characteristics of Attitudes. Attitudes toward objects or acts (no matter what the level of
specificity) vary in several important ways. In particular, marketers are usually interested in the direction and
magnitude of attitudes. In most attitude research, marketers try to measure:
(a) Direction--whether consumers' product evaluations are positive, negative, or neutral, and
(b) Magnitude--how favorable or unfavorable that evaluation is.
Of course, most consumers do not have highly favorable or unfavorable attitudes for many low involvement
products (products with little self-relevance). Attitudes toward such products generally are usually less extreme in
evaluation. In fact, some attitudes may be neutral or close to it.

5. Following are several important characteristics of attitudes:
Dimensions or Characteristics of Attitudes
Direction Positive or negative or neutral
Pro or Con; Like or dislike
Magnitude Degree of favorability or negativity
Extremity of liking or disliking
Ambivalence or Degree to which underlying cognitions or beliefs are similar
Internal Consistency in evaluative direction
Centrality Degree to which knowledge about attitude object is closely
connected to important, central end goals, needs, values
Interrelatedness Degree to which knowledge about attitude object is interconnected
amongst itself and is associated with other knowledge
Emotionality Degree of emotionality associated with the attitude object
Stability Consistency or sameness of attitude and related cognitive
structures over time and situations
Source: Adapted from William Scott (1968), "Attitude Measurement," in Handbook of Social Psychology, 2nd
edition, Vol. II, 204-223; and Rajesh Kanwar, Jerry C. Olson and Laura S. Sims (1981), Towards Conceptualizing
and Measuring Cognitive Structure," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 8, ed. Kent B. Monroe, Ann Arbor,
MI: Association for Consumer Research, 122-127.
Specifying the Attitude Concept. You should emphasize that marketers must precisely define the attitude concept
of interest. If the attitude concept is not carefully identified, measures of attitude may be inaccurate and not relate as
expected to other factors like beliefs, intentions, and overt behaviors.
The main reason for this problemis that the associative network of salient beliefs underlying an attitude can
be quite different even though the attitude concepts are only slightly different. For instance, consumers'
beliefs and attitudes toward a Sony large-screen television set are likely to be different from their beliefs
and attitudes toward the act of buying a Sony large-screen television.
Because consumers are likely to have quite different attitudes toward different attitude concepts, marketers
must be careful to precisely identify the attitude concept, at the level of abstraction and specificity that is
most relevant to the marketing problem of interest. For some purposes, marketers may be concerned with
consumers' attitudes toward a general concept ("How do you feel about IRA's --Individual Retirement
Accounts?"), whereas in other cases, the focus is on very specific attitude concepts ("How favorable are
you towards an IRA at Mellon Bank containing a certificate of deposit drawing 9.3% interest?").
Example: Attitudes About What? Consumers may have attitudes toward virtually any concept that they have
"analyzed" in terms of its personal relevance.
 Ask students to identify (brainstorm) some of the things toward which consumers might have attitudes.
This exercise can help students understand about varying levels of specificity and generality in the
attitude “object” or “concept.”

6. Here are several examples with a marketing flavor:
Attitude Concept Examples: Attitudes toward ...
Product Object
Class automobiles, coffee, ink pens
Form sports cars, decaffeinated coffee,
felt tip pen
Brands Corvette, Sanka coffee, Bic felt tip pen
Models Corvette with automatic transmission,
large can of Sanka coffee, blue Bic pen
Other "Objects"
Company General Motors, Pillsbury, Procter &
Gamble, IBM,
Advertisement a television commercial for Burger King,
a newspaper ad for a grocery store,
a Marlboro advertisement in Playboy
Store Bloomingdales, Sears, K-Mart,
the Exxon gas station downtown
People my best friend, my mother, Bill Cosby,
the salesperson at the camera store
Marketing General Motors' rebate program
Strategies Coca-Cola's reintroduction of the old
Coca-Cola flavor as Classic Coke
Ideas a fair price for gasoline
foreign-made electronic components
Behaviors
Specific buying a Corvette, a cup of Sanka, or a Bic pen
Actions going to K-Mart this afternoon
talking with my friend about compact disks
Possible Mini-Lecture: How Are Attitudes Formed? How do consumers form attitudes in natural situations?
How, for instance, does a consumer form an attitude toward Toyota cars when talking to a friend about sporty cars,
or when reading a Toyota ad in Time magazine? You might wish to briefly lecture on this topic and elaborate on the
discussion in the text.
Marketers need to understand how (and where) attitudes are formed as this has implications for developing
marketing strategies to change attitudes. Basically, there are two possible cognitive and affective processes of
attitude formation. One is based on cognitive "analysis" of beliefs and is the subject of this chapter. The other is a
classical conditioning process (mostly) involving the affective system that does not involve cognitive, thinking
processes. Classical conditioning is discussed in Chapter 10.
 You should note that consumers do not necessarily form attitudes toward every object they “see.”
Instead, the text proposes that attitudes are formed toward only those objects, which receive some
minimal level of attention and comprehension processing.

7. Of particular importance are the comprehension processes involved in consumers’ "analysis for
self-relevance." Forming an attitude involves determining the relationship between the object and
the values and goals of one's self-concept. This requires rather deep comprehension processing
and probably some degree of conscious awareness. Many of the less important objects in one's
environment do not warrant such a deep level of attention and comprehension.
Attitudes Based on An Underlying Belief Structure. According to Fishbein's multi-attribute model of attitude
formation and structure, attitudes toward objects are formed by integrating (combining) salient beliefs about the
attitude concept. Such attitudes could be formed during an exposure to an advertisement, during a casual discussion
with a friend about a product, or while making a purchase decision in the grocery store. Presumably, attitudes
toward objects are being formed continuously, if one attends to and comprehends the objects at a sufficiently deep
level--that is, whenever consumers interpret objects in terms of their self-relevance. In this way, evaluations or
attitudes are formed by cognitive processes.
This is the "standard" information processing explanation for attitude formation. By this account, attitudes
are constructed as a person processes information from the environment. For instance, as meanings about
attributes and consequences of a product are created through attention and comprehension proces ses,
propositions or beliefs about the product are formed. The evaluations of these beliefs are determined by
their relationship to desired consequences and basic values held by the consumer (see Exhibit 6.4, page 146
in text). Then the salient (important, self-relevant) product beliefs are combined in an information
integration process to create an attitude.
Fishbein's multi-attribute model provides an explanation of the information integration process (see Exhibit
6.3). Each salient belief has an evaluation (ei) that represents its association with important consequences
and values that are activated in the situation. The multiattribute attitude model (Ao =  biei) proposes that
attitudes are formed by integrating (summing) the separate evaluations of the salient beliefs (ei), weighted
by the strength of each belief (bi), to create an overall evaluation or attitude (Ao).
Presumably, this attitude formation process is somewhat controlled, not totally unconscious and automatic.
Comprehension processing for self-relevance requires a focus of attention and some level of cognitive
effort. For instance, comprehending whether a new product is good or bad (for you) requires cognitive
effort to form salient beliefs and construct an overall attitude.
Of course, once formed, an attitude does not have to re-computed each time the object is encountered. It
can simply be activated from memory, like any other meaning.
Direct Conditioning of Attitudes. In contrast, classical conditioning provides an alternative explanation for attitude
formation. This perspective suggests that some attitudes are formed by the affective systemwithout any (or much)
belief formation or other conscious cognitive processing.
In classical conditioning, the affect associated with an object (the unconditioned stimulus) is "transferred" or
generalized to a new object (the conditioned stimulus) with which it is repeatedly paired. Eventually, the new
stimulus comes to elicit the same (or nearly the same) evaluative response.
For instance, attitudes toward simple, fundamental stimuli such as tastes (many Mexican-Americans like
very spicy foods), colors and styles (many Europeans prefer subdued colors and more formal styles in
clothing) seem to be formed by direct conditioning. No beliefs about the object's attributes or
consequences are necessary for attitude formation to occur, although some beliefs about the object could be
(and probably usually are) formed. However, these beliefs presumably would not be salient and, therefore,
not causal of attitude. Classical conditioning processes are discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 9.
A controversy exists in psychology and consumer behavior regarding which of these two processes is correct. In
this text, we assume that both processes can occur, but that direct conditioning without any beliefs being formed is
somewhat less frequent. We assume that most of the attitudes toward products and services are formed through
information integration processes. This beliefs-cause-attitude model has many implications for formulating
marketing strategies.

8. The Multi-Attribute Attitude Model. The text presents all the necessary details of Fishbein's multi-attribute
attitude model. If your students are having trouble following or understanding this model, you could review the text
presentation and elaborate it a bit.
 Show a transparency of the basic multi-attribute attitude model (Exhibit 6.3) and encourage students to
ask questions about the model.
This discussion will give you chances to explain the conceptual logic of the model (salient beliefs
cause attitudes), the measures of the model components, and the integration process.
 You might point out that Fishbein was careful to note that the algebraic form of the model ( biei) was
not intended to represent the actual information integration process of forming an evaluation.
Probably, people do not actually multiply the strengths and evaluations of several salient beliefs
and then sum them to construct an attitude. Instead, the multiattribute attitude model is intended
to be a predictive model that fairly accurately accounts for actual attitudes that people have formed
through an unknown cognitive integration process.
Exercise: Identifying the Salient Beliefs Underlying Attitude. According to the multi-attribute attitude model,
understanding consumers' attitudes toward some object requires identifying and measuring the salient beliefs about
the object. Researchers have used a variety of techniques to identify the set of salient beliefs for a brand or product
category.
These include focus group interviews where 6 to 10 consumers talk about which qualities of a product are
important to them.
Another technique is the free elicitation or free association procedure. Here the researcher presents cues or
probes to consumers who respond by saying the first thing (or things) that come to their mind. Presumably
the concepts mentioned are the most salient. The exercise below is an example of free elicitation.
Another technique is to present consumers with a long list of possible salient attributes and consequences.
Consumers then check off the most important concepts.
After the major salient attributes are determined, they are usually included in a structured questionnaire. Then a
sample of consumers rate the strength and evaluations of their beliefs that the brand (or brands)of interest possesses
these attributes. Exhibit 6.3 presents some hypothetical results fromsuch a study.
 You could use a free elicitation task to demonstrate how different attitude concepts are associated with
different salient belief concepts.
This exercise also illustrates a key point in the text--namely that attitudes are always tied to a
specific object or concept. Seemingly slight changes in the object/concept may involve major
differences in attitudes.
 Begin by asking one student, or the class as a whole, "What things come to mind when I say, "tennis
racquet" (or another product of student interest)." Write the elicited concepts on the chalkboard.
 Then, slightly change the attitude concept and do another elicitation. For instance, "What things come
to mind when I say, large-sized tennis racquet?" Write these salient concepts next to the first list.
 Next, elicit some salient beliefs associated with both general and specific behaviors involving these
objects.
 Select behaviors that involve the same product/object and seem only "slightly different." List the
salient beliefs for each behavior.
For instance, "What things would you consider when...
"buying a tennis racquet as a gift,"

9. "buying a tennis racquet for yourself",
"hitting a forehand with an over-sized tennis racquet."
"playing with an over-sized tennis racquet against your best friend,"
 Encourage students to discuss these results by asking probing questions:
 What do you notice about these sets of salient beliefs?
 What do you think causes these differences?
 What implications do these differences have for marketing strategies?
Students should recognize that the salient beliefs in these lists are somewhat different, even though
some of these concepts do not seem, on an intuitive level at least, to be "greatly different."
Students should also recognize that differences in salient beliefs probably mean that consumers
have different attitudes toward these slightly different objects and behaviors.
 Point out that the beliefs about behavior/object combinations tend to be more "self-related."
Consumers frequently give more personal references such as "I" and "my" when the attitude
concept involves a behavior. This is because behaviors are usually more self-relevant (more
involving) than a product. Behaviors almost always have consequences for the person, whereas a
product alone (an object by itself) often does not.
This is a good time to remind students that Ao is not necessarily strongly related to specific
behaviors or acts. This is reflected in the differences in the salient beliefs underlying Ao and Aact.
 Point out that consumers may have different salient beliefs about the exactly the same object in
different situations.
For instance, buying a product for a gift is likely to have a different set of salient beliefs than
buying the same product for yourself. Thus, even apparently slight or subtle changes in the
situation can sometimes create substantial differences in attitudes (because different sets of salient
beliefs are activated in the two situations).
This does not mean consumers are inconsistent or unreliable. Rather, it simply means that
situational factors influence which beliefs are activated and, therefore, influence attitude. For
instance, we would not be surprised to find different attitudes toward drinking Coke between
classes versus at a bar versus at lunch.
Stated another way, the object/situation combination is the attitude "object" and the salient beliefs
are really about the object/situation combination. When the situation changes, so do the salient
beliefs.
 Point out that not all salient beliefs are about product attributes.
Beliefs about any type or level of meaning associated with the attitude object can be activated
from memory. These would include concrete and abstract attributes, functional or psychosocial
consequences, and/or values. In addition, symbolic meanings, meanings representing sensations
(tastes, smells, feels), and visual images can be activated and may influence attitudes.
It is likely that few of these meanings were activated in the exercise above. Probably, concepts
that were more easily verbalized were elicited. Measuring these "other" meanings is a difficult
challenge for marketing researchers.
Consumers who have "complete" means-end chains for a product (linking attributes to
consequences to values) may be able to activate meanings and beliefs at different levels of
abstraction, depending on what is appropriate in the immediate situation. Thus, some consumers

10. may think about a product mainly in terms of its functional or psychosocial consequences, or even
its potential for value satisfaction.
Possible Mini-Lecture: Influences on Belief Formation. According to the multi-attribute attitude model, attitudes
are based on a set of salient beliefs. Therefore, a full understanding of attitude formation requires that marketers
understand how beliefs are formed. Beliefs may be acquired in at least four ways. [For more information, see
Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen, Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research,
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1975.]
 Direct Experience. Consumers may acquire beliefs about product attributes through their direct
experience with the product. When people use a product they may form descriptive beliefs about its
attributes and consequences.
 Information Processing. Consumers may form product beliefs based on information provided by outside
sources, such as friends and relatives or marketers.
 Vicarious Experience. Product beliefs about product attributes and consequences can be acquired
vicariously, by observing others using the product. Vicarious learning is discussed in Chapter 10.
 Inferences. Another way consumers may form beliefs about products is through inference processes.
Inferential beliefs are constructed when incoming information from the environmental is combined (in
comprehension processes) with knowledge that the consumer already has acquired from previous
experiences. Because these beliefs go well beyond the specific information in the environment, they are
called inferential beliefs.
Possible Mini-Lecture: Inferential Beliefs. Consumers are constantly making inferences. We make inferences
when we try to guess what our neighbor's new car cost, or when we make judgments about a person's personality
from the clothes they wear, or when we infer the flavor or quality of a beer from its country of origin. Many
inferences are so automatic that the process is virtually impossible to control. Virtually all comprehension involves
inference making. [For more technical information about inferences, see Jerry C. Olson, "Inferential Belief
Formation in the Cue Utilization Process," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 5, ed. H. Keith Hunt, Ann
Arbor, MI: Association for Consumer Research, 1978, pp. 706-713.]
 Ask students to describe some common inferences that consumers may make.
The price-quality relationship is a classic example. Students are likely to produce some rather
idiosyncratic inferences that can be discussed in terms of the formation process and their
marketing implications.
Inferences are extremely useful because they allow the person to "go beyond" the information in the immediate
environment. Inferences add meanings and beliefs to our existing knowledge structures. Inferences are often more
coherent, better organized, and more useful than literal representations of the environment.
How are inferences formed? The consumers' pre-existing beliefs about the concept drive the formation of inferential
beliefs. Incoming information from the environment activates relevant knowledge that is used as a basis for
constructing inferential beliefs. If the activated knowledge is well developed and familiar, the inferences are likely
to be rapid and automatic, with little conscious awareness of the process. However, if the activated knowledge is
not well developed, or is only partially relevant to the topic, the inference process becomes controlled and effortful,
and perhaps difficult. Note that entire means-end chains of beliefs can be formed, if the person has a pre-existing
knowledge structure to support the inferences.
An interesting point about inferences is that once they are formed and stored in memory, consumers find it difficult
to distinguish between their inferences and the actual information they originally processed. That is, people tend to
remember inferences as if they were fact. This is one reason why the implied claims in many advertisements are
considered by consumers to have been explicitly asserted in the ad. Inferential belief formation can work to the
marketer's advantage or disadvantage, depending on the specific inference in question and its favorability.

11. Implications. Many of the salient concepts that consumers consider in a purchase decision are inferential beliefs.
Marketers sometimes exploit consumers' natural tendency to construct inferences by including ambiguo us material
in their ads, which stimulate consumers to make inferences about unstated attributes and consequences (ads for
Lucky jeans, Benson & Hedges cigarettes, and Calvin Klein are examples).
 Bring a couple of such ads into class. Ask students to identify inferences that consumers might form
and discuss the factors that influence those inferences.
Beliefs about many of the concepts in a means-end chain are based on inferences. Abstract attributes, psychosocial
consequences, and values do not physically exist in the environment. Such meanings, and the links between them,
must be inferred from more tangible, concrete attributes and other associations.
For instance, judgments of quality are mostly inferences based on meanings gained from processin g other
cues in the environment--amount of advertising, price, number of others who own it, color and shape or
package, symbols used in advertising. For instance, the "feel" of the controls on a stereo receiver can,
through inferential processes, influence quality perceptions.
Levels of Attitude Specificity. Attitude concepts vary in their level of specificity. Students need to understand that
it is important for marketers to be very clear about what level of specificity they are interested in.
 Select a behavior (virtually any one will do) and ask the class to describe it in varying levels of
specificity.
For instance, a behavior can be described as an abstract, general action (playing tennis), or in more
specific, less abstract terms (playing tennis next weekend), or as an even more specific, concrete
concept (playing tennis with Cheryl this Saturday morning at 10:00 am).
 Ask students to discuss how attitudes might differ between these different attitude concepts.
Point out that a person could have varying attitudes toward each of these three concepts. Although
each of these concepts concerns "playing tennis," they actually are different concepts, at different
levels of specificity. Thus, it is possible that a person could hold different attitudes toward each of
them.
 Ask students to generate examples of their own, and also discuss the implications for marketing
strategies.
Obviously, marketers need to be measuring attitudes toward the right attitude concept.
Situational Effects on Attitudes. Aspects of the physical and social environment are often called situational or
contextual factors. These situational factors can have a major effect on consumers' attitudes. The following in -class
exercise can help students understand contextual influences.
 Ask students to describe some environmental influences and situational contexts that affect their own
attitudes. Jot their examples on the chalkboard to serve as a basis for further discussion.
Students can usually think of situations in which their attitude toward a product or behavior is
dramatically different.
 After a few examples of situation effects have been identified, ask students to consider factors that seem
to be present in those situations.
Students are likely to bring up social factors such as the presence of other people (friends or
family members). This can demonstrate the influence of the social environment on cognition. For
instance, the social context of buying clothes with friends can activate different salient beliefs,
creating different attitudes.

12. The physical environment also has an effect in that cues in the environment may activate certain
beliefs, which create a "different" attitude. For instance, shopping in an elaborately decorated
store or eating in a restaurant with lots of atmosphere may create a positive mood, activate positive
beliefs, and produce more positive attitudes.
For instance, some women might have a more positive attitude toward buying lingerie at
Victoria's Secret (a lavishly decorated store) and toward the Victoria's Secret brands
compared to their attitudes in an ordinary department store.
 Have students discuss the implications of these situational analyses for marketing strategies.
Marketers may try to orchestrate certain aspects of the situation or context. The design and
atmosphere in a store or restaurant are very important.
Effects of Involvement on Attitude Formation. In general, we would expect consumers to have more intense and
better developed attitudes toward products that have greater intrinsic self-relevance. Moreover, the attitude
formation process is likely to vary for so-called high and low involvement products.
Information about "high involvement products" is more likely to receive deeper and more elaborate
processing compared to products with lower intrinsic self-relevance.
For stimuli that receive very shallow comprehension processing, it is quite possible that no attitude
formation occurs, since the stimuli are never considered in terms of their personal relevance.
As comprehension processing becomes deeper (more self-relevant), attitudes are more likely to be formed.
These attitudes are also much more likely to be stored in memory where they may be retrieved and used to
affect other cognitive processes.
Possible Mini-Lecture: Retrieval versus Construction of Attitudes. If you are interested in cognitive processes,
you could delve a bit more deeply into the cognitive processes underlying attitude formation and the effects of
attitudes. Basically, consumers can experience an attitude in two ways:
Direct Retrieval. A previously-formed attitude may be activated directly from memory. This attitude is like any
other meaning in that it can be used in interpretation and integration processes.
Direct retrieval is likely when consumers are exposed to familiar objects of relatively high
personal relevance, since people are most likely to have previously formed attitudes toward these
objects. Sometimes, the situation heightens the personal relevance of the object (as in a purchase
situation) and the attitude is directly retrieved from memory.
Construction. In contrast to the activation of a previously-formed attitude, salient beliefs may be activated from
memory or interpreted from the immediate environment and integrated to construct an attitude on the spot.
Construction of an attitude involves active cognitive processes of information integration. Researchers have
identified two possible integration processes.
Piecemeal Processing. One possibility has been termed piecemeal-based processing. This process
involves weighting the evaluations of the various activated attributes and integrating themto form
an overall evaluation. This is the process represented by the multi-attribute attitude model
discussed above.
Category-Based Processing. Anotherpossibility is "category-based evaluation processing." Here,
the consumer matches the cognitive representation of the attitudinal stimulus with existing
categories of knowledge or meaning in memory. When the overall category has been determined,
the evaluation associated with that category is assigned to the attitude object.
For instance, upon learning that a new brand of toothpaste is a gel, a consumer might
assign the new brand the same evaluation as the "gel product form" category in memory.

13. Phenomenologically, consumers should experience these attitudes very differently. In direct retrieval, the feeling of
evaluation (the attitude) is activated from memory. Feelings of liking or goodness would simply "come to" the
person's conscious awareness. In the construction case, the consumer would have the conscious experience of
consciously integrating information to "compute" the evaluation ("Do I really like this?").
 Show the cognitive processing model in Exhibit 3.5 (page 59 of the text) during this discussion to help
illustrate the points.
 Emphasize that it is not a valid question to ask whether activation or construction processes are
"correct." Rather, both processes can occur, in different circumstances.
 Challenge students to think about situations in which each of these processes is likely to occur.
For instance, direct retrieval of Ao seems more likely for frequently encountered, high
involvement products that are linked to self. Consumers are less likely to have formed an attitude
for unfamiliar, unimportant concepts and, therefore, probably will have to construct one, when
asked about it.
 Ask students to discuss the implications of these two processes for marketing strategy.
New product introductions focus on construction of new attitudes. For established products, it is
important that the brand attitude be favorable and that it is activated at the decision point.
Marketers should attempt to determine whether consumers really have an established, stable
attitude toward their brand. If so, marketing strategies may be necessary to maintain that attitude
and protect against inroads fromcompetitors.
Conscious Awareness. Some researchers have claimed that consumers can form attitudes toward objects without
conscious consideration of the object (in the extreme, without any conscious awareness of the object). This position
has been challenged by other researchers who claimthat all evaluations are based on cognitive integration of salient
beliefs. Although the complexity of this debate is beyond the purposes in this book, it seems possible that some
evaluations may be formed without much (or even any) conscious awareness. On the other hand, many consumer
attitudes of interest to marketers (product, brand, store attitudes) are somewhat complexand probably involve some
degree of conscious information processing.
Summary. In sum, attitudes may be activated directly from memory or constructed through information integration
of salient beliefs. Relatively little research evidence has accumulated to support one of these processes over the
other. Instead, we should expect that each of these processes occur in various circumstances.
In general, consumers have to construct attitudes as the attitude object becomes less general, more specific
to a unique situation, and more unusual. For instance, attitudes toward highly specific behaviors are nearly
always constructed. This is because the specific aspects of each behavioral context may be so unique that
previously formed attitudes are not relevant.
In contrast, attitudes toward more general, highly familiar objects (George Bush, Crest toothpaste, your
university or college) are likely to have been formed in the past and can recalled from memory.
Belief-Oriented Attitude Change Strategies. You may wish to elaborate the section in the text on attitude change
strategies. The persuasion strategies by which attitude change can be accomplished have many implications for
marketing strategies.
Discuss the various persuasion strategies and tactics can be interesting and useful to help students understand the
basic idea that beliefs cause attitudes. The multi-attribute attitude model suggests four belief-oriented strategies to
change attitudes:
(1) add a new salient belief,
(2) change the strength (bi) of an existing salient belief,
(3) change the evaluation (ei) of an existing salient belief, and
(4) make an existing belief more salient.

14.  Ask students to find an ad that represents one of these attitude/belief change strategies and bring it to
class prepared to explain how it tries to change consumers' attitudes.
 Alternatively, you could bring ads to class that represent each of the four strategies, and have the class
discuss each one.
Students should be able to use the multi-attribute attitude model to analyze an ad in terms of its
likely effects. Their analysis should answer the following questions:
Who is the target audience?
Which beliefs are targeted?
Did the ad change the strength, evaluation or salience of the belief?
What is the underlying means-end chain that explains the intended effect(s)?
 Encourage students to consider factors that influence how easy it is to change attitudes by changing the
underlying salient beliefs.
For example, beliefs that are highly associated with valued consequences and important values, or
are based on personal, direct experience, are harder to change.
Changing the evaluative aspect of such beliefs (ei) is usually rather difficult since many of these
evaluations are tied, through means-end chains, to basic values (see Exhibit 6.4).
Adding new salient beliefs requires that the attribute be linked to some important, self-relevant
consequence; otherwise, it won't be relevant/salient.
Attitude--Behavior Relationship. The relationship between attitudes and behavior is one of the longest-running
controversies in social psychology, and to a lesser extent in consumer behavior. Many studies have found weak
empirical relationships between attitude and behavior. In most of that research, the attitude in question was Ao.
In this chapter, we explain why Ao usually is not a good predictor of specific behaviors (especially see pages 150-
152). However, we point out that a person's general attitude toward an object can be and often is a good predictor of
one's overall pattern of behaviors toward the object. Some students may find this point rather subtle and a bit hard
to grasp.
 To help them understand, briefly lecture on this point.
 Show the example in Exhibit 6.5 to help guide the discussion and focus student's attention on the key
points.
 Develop another example besides pizza restaurants to illustrate the point that a consumer's attitude
toward an object will not predict every specific behavior regarding that object.
Often, Ao is not very predictive of specific behaviors. This is because Ao is a general, overall evaluation of the
product, that does not reflect situational factors. Behaviors, in contrast, always occur in a situational context and are
highly influenced by the environment. Thus, attitudes toward specific behaviors concerning the product (Aact) are
highly sensitive to environmental factors in the immediate situational context where the behavior occurs. These
social and physical factors in the immediate situation have a strong influence on consumers' behaviors, partly
through their effects on Aact and BI. In sum, Ao is not context or situational specific, whereas Aact, BI and actual
behavior are more influenced by environmental or situational factors.
Possible Mini-Lecture: Understanding Behaviors. Obviously, it is important that marketers understand the
relationship between consumers' beliefs, attitudes, and intentions, and their overt behaviors. Before thes e
relationships can be fully understood, we must be clear about what is meant by a "behavior."
Often taken for granted or treated as very simple, behaviors require rigorous analysis, just as cognitions and affect
do. Four aspects of a behavior have been identified--the particular action involved, the target ("object") at which

15. the action is directed, the time at which the action is performed, and the context or situational/environmental factors
in which the action occurs.
For instance, asking consumers to rate the likelihood that they will "buy Crest," specifies the action rather
generally as "buy" and the target as "Crest," but does not specify the time (in the next week, month, or
year?) or the context (on a shopping trip to the grocery?, on a plane trip?).
Consumers might be surveyed to determine if they plan to take a plane trip in the next three months. Here,
the behavioral action and time are specified, but the target and context are not specified (a business or
pleasure trip? What is the destination?).
Finally, if consumers are asked their intentions to "buy case of Pepsi at grocery store during your weekly
shopping trip," all the factors are specified rather precisely. But, this degree of specificity is seldomused in
marketing research studies.
Beliefs About Actions. As we saw earlier, the underlying salient beliefs, and one's attitude, are highly sensitive to
the attitude object. Usually we find large differences between consumers' salient beliefs about an object and their
beliefs regarding the consequences of a specific behavior regarding that object.
 Challenge the class with an example that illustrates the apparent inconsistency between Ao and Aact.
For instance, many consumers may have a favorable attitude toward Mercedes -Benz automobiles,
based on several favorable general beliefs about Mercedes-Benz. Yet relatively few consumers
have favorable attitudes toward the act of buying a Mercedes-Benz.
Why the seeming "inconsistency?" In fact, there isn't any inconsistency here. The informational
base of salient beliefs for attitudes toward an object is not the same as that for attitudes toward an
act involving that object. Consider the following beliefs:
Beliefs about M-B Beliefs about Buying a M-B
_ M-B is well engineered _ buying a M-B would be traumatic
_ M-B is stylish _ my friends would think I am stuck up if I buy a M-B
_ M-B handles well _ If I buy a M-B, the payments will bankrupt me
If the two sets of salient beliefs are quite different and their evaluations (ei) are also different, Ao and Aact will also
be different. Although this consumer likes Mercedes-Benz cars in general, he/she does not have a favorable attitude
toward buying a Mercedes-Benz. Since BI is a function of Aact, not Ao, we will find, in this case, that the person's
behavioral intention to buy a Mercedes-Benz is negative. This person is unlikely to buy a Mercedes-Benz.
The Theory of Reasoned Action. More clearly than most researchers, Fishbein recognized that people's attitudes
toward an object are not necessarily strongly related to their specific behaviors. To develop a better model for
predicting behavior, Fishbein modified and extended his multi-attribute attitude model to relate beliefs and attitudes
to behavioral intentions, and in turn, intentions with overt behavior. Fishbein called this model a "Theory of
Reasoned Action" because it reflects the assumption that consumers consciously consider the consequences of
alternative actions and choose the behavior which leads to the most desirable consequences. The entire model is
presented in Exhibit 6.6.
 Show a transparency of the model and review the points above. Point out that this model is consistent
with our means-end chain conceptualization of consumers' product knowledge, in that it also focuses on
consumers' perceptions of consequences.
 Point out that all the components of the model should correspond to the level of s pecificity of the
behavior, "B," of interest. The behavior could be highly specific to a situation, or rather general.

16. Aact and SN. Behavioral intentions (plans to perform certain actions) are the focal concept in this model.
According to this model, any reasonably complex, voluntary behavior is a function of the person's intention to
perform that behavior. Behavioral intentions are constructed by integrating the overall evaluations of two types of
behavioral consequences--the personal consequences that occur as a direct outcome of the behavior (represented by
Aact), and the social or normative consequences provided by other persons (represented by the SN component).
Salient Beliefs. As shown in Exhibit 6.6, a person's salient beliefs about the direct, personal consequences of an
action are combined (using a multi-attribute model formulation) to form an attitude toward the behavioral action
(Aact). Similarly, a person's salient normative beliefs (NB) regarding "doing what other people want me to do" and
the person's motivation to comply with the expectations of those other people (MC) are combined (also using a
multi-attribute model formulation) to form a subjective or social norm (SN). Thus, Aact and SN are based on two
types of salient beliefs about the consequences of the behavior.
Separate Components? Over the past few years, a great deal of controversy has emerged regarding these two
concepts, especially SN.1 In fact, there seems to be a growing consensus that a strong distinction between Aact and
SN is not justified.2 As an alternative, the underlying salient beliefs for both concepts could be considered as parts
of one set of activated beliefs which are combined to form an overall evaluation of the behavior (a kind of global
Aact).3 Whether Aact and SN are separate cognitive elements, or a single Aact is formed, both approaches assume
that beliefs about personal and normative consequences are activated and integrated to form overall evaluations of
the behavior. In this book, we follow separate approach advocated by the Theory of Reasoned Action.
Relative Influences of Aact and SN. The relative influence of Aact and SN on BI is expected to vary fromsituation
to situation. That is, the information integration process will differentially weight the Aact and SN in their combined
effect on BI.
For behaviors where beliefs about what others expect are highly salient, the SN aspect will tend to dominate BI.
 Ask students for examples.
For instance, your intention to wear a business suit to a funeral is likely influenced more strongly
by normative (social) factors than your beliefs about the functional consequences of wearing those
clothes.
For other behaviors, the social/normative influence may be minimal. Consumers' intentions are largely determined
by their beliefs about the "direct" consequences of the behavior.
 Ask students for examples.
For instance, your intention to purchase tartar control toothpaste is most likely to be affected by
your salient beliefs about the functional consequences of using the product and the resulting
attitude toward buying it, rather than what other people expect you to do.
Measuring Intentions. You may wish to supplement the text coverage of the problems of predicting behavior from
measures of intentions. Marketers definitely need to predict consumers' future behaviors (especially their sales
behaviors, but other behaviors as well). To do so, marketers can take measures of factors that should be related to
future behavior. One of the most common measures is of consumers' intentions to behave in a particular way.
1 For example, see Paul W.MiniardandJoel B. Cohen(1979), "IsolatingAttitudinal andNormative Influences in Behavioral Intentions Models,"
Journal of MarketingResearch,16 (February), 102-110; MichaelJ. Ryan andE.H.Bonfield(1980),"Fishbein's Intentions Model: A Test of
External andPragmatic Validity," Journal of Marketing,44 (Spring), 82-95.
2 Paul W. MiniardandJoel B. Cohen(1981), "AnExaminationof theFishbein-Ajzen Behavioral Intentions Model's Concepts andMeasures,"
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,17,309-339; Michael J. Ryan (1982), "Behavioral Intention Formation: The Interdependency of
Attitudinal andSocial Influence Variables," Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (December), 263-278.
3 One version ofsuch a model is proposed by Paul W. MiniardandJoel B. Cohen(1983), "ModelingPersonal andNormative Influences on
Behavior,"Journal of Consumer Research, 10(September), 169-180.

17.  Ask students to discuss the problems of predicting future behavior based on a current measure of
intended behavior.
Intentions will accurately predict future behavior ONLY IF:
(a) the person had actually formed an intention to behave prior to the measurement,
(b) no other information is encountered that would change the salient beliefs underlying
the Aact and SN components, and
(c) the behavior is under the voluntary control of the consumer.
Obviously, the longer the intervening time period, the more likely other events and information
will change the original intention, making it less predictive.
 Ask students to identify examples of products and/or marketing situations in which one or more of these
factors are not present.
For instance, do people have an intention to buy a new major appliance several months before the
purchase? What about a new car? When do people formintentions to make such purchases?
 Ask students to give their opinions as to whether the measured intention would be a good predictor o f
eventual behavior or not.
Are there circumstances in which the prediction might be good (or bad?)? A discussion of the
reasons why should touch on most of the key issues identified in the text.
Possible Mini-Lecture: Marketing Implications. Thus far, we have discussed several important relationships
between beliefs, Ao, Aact, Behavioral Intentions, and actual behavior. Following are several general implications of
these relationships for marketing practice.
 To measure consumers' Ao or Aact, a direct measure of general evaluation of the appropriate attitude
concept is best.
Be sure to precisely define the attitude concept at the level of specificity of interest.
 To understand the basis for consumers' attitudes, whether Ao or Aact, examine the salient beliefs that
are activated when consumers think about the attitude concept.
Again, be sure to define the attitude concept at the appropriate level of specificity.
 To predict consumers' behaviors, measure their intentions to behave.
Be sure to define the intention so that it closely corresponds to the level of specificity of the
behavior of interest.
 To understand the basis for consumers' intentions, examine the salient beliefs underlying Aact and SN,
and examine how Aact and SN are combined to form an intention.
 To understand the basis for the intention-behavior relationship, examine the potential of intervening
events to change consumers' beliefs about the personal and social consequences of the behavior.
PROJECT: Attitude Change Strategies.
This project concerns marketing strategies designed to change consumers' attitudes by changing their salient beliefs.
The text described four strategies--add new positive belief, increase strength of existing positive belief, increase
evaluation of strongly held belief, or increase salience of existing positive belief.

18.  First, find an ad (or other type of promotional strategy) that corresponds to one of these attitude change
strategies.
 Identify the target attitude (Is it Ao or Aact?). What is the focal attitude object (the precise object or
act)? What types of consumers are in the target audience for the attitude change strategy?
 Describe the attitude change strategy in detail. What are the intended effects of the ad on the target
belief(s) and the related means-end chains? How do these effects influence the overall attitude?
 For ads that attempt to change the ei of a belief, show the means-end chain that would produce the
desired ei.
 Analyze and evaluate the attitude change strategy. Give your opinion as to the likely effects of the
strategy on consumers' belief structures. Do you think the attitude change strategy was/would be
successful? Why?
NOTES AND ANSWERS TO REVIEW AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Define attitude and describe the two main ways that consumers can acquire attitudes.
This review question concerns what an attitude is and the processes by which consumers construct
attitudes. Students should have no trouble with the definition, but they may need some help in seeing how
attitudes are acquired by consumers.
An attitude is a person's overall (or global) evaluation of an object or concept. Essentially, attitudes are
broad and somewhat abstract affective meanings that summarize the self-relevant meaning in the question
"what is this "thing" to me?" Attitudes are thought to be formed through two entirely different learning
processes. In classical conditioning processes, attitudes or evaluations are formed directly, without
conscious thought or consideration. In the information integration process, attitudes are formed when
consumers cognitively consider their knowledge about an object or concept in terms of the personal
relevance of the object for their goals and needs. In this chapter, we consider only the cognitively based
processes of attitude formation.
2. How do salient beliefs differ from other beliefs? How can marketers attempt to influence belief salience?
This is another review question that forces students to demonstrate that they understand the important
concept of salient beliefs. A belief, of course, is the cognitive connection between two concepts.
Salient beliefs are those beliefs that are activated and considered during some type of cognitive processing,
especially in attitude formation. Salient beliefs contrast with many other beliefs in long-term memory that
are not activated in a particular context. Because they are not activated from memory, nonsalient beliefs
cannot affect the information integration process of attitude formation.
The application-oriented second question requires students to use the principles of belief salience to
develop marketing strategies.
First of all, marketers need to understand which beliefs are generally important to certain types of
consumers or consumer segments. These intrinsically important beliefs have a high chance of
being activated in situations involving the concept, and therefore of being salient.
Next, marketers need to know what environmental factors are likely to trigger (activate) certain
beliefs. Some of these factors can be incorporated into various marketing strategies, especially
advertising and sales promotions (in-store displays).
Another important issue concerns the stability of the set of salient beliefs. Some beliefs are highly sensitive
to environmental factors and will be activated (and salient) in only certain situations. Other beliefs have
high levels of intrinsic importance and are activated in many different situations (beliefs about price is an
example).

19. 3. The Gap has been doing business for over 30 years. Over this time, with its stores, clothing products, and
advertising, The Gap has built up considerable brand equity. Discuss the types of brand equity The Gap has
built among various consumer segments. Is The Gap vulnerable to losing this equity? What can The Gap do to
protect its equity?
The objective of this question is to get students thinking about the concept of brand equity and how it is
built. Brand equity is very simply the favorable attitudes that a consumer has toward a brand. There have
been numerous other bases for defining brand equity. These include balance sheet methods, as well as
defining it as the premium a consumer is willing to pay for a brand over a commodity version of the
product.
Brand equity, as the text describes, can be built through the communication that surrounds the brand. This
is the approach taken by The Gap. Brand equity can be developed in three ways. It can be built, borrowed,
or bought. The Gap has enhanced its brand equity through building and borrowing. For example, it has
built through product performance and communications and borrowed through extensions, such as baby
Gap.
Unless a brand such as The Gap keeps itself updated and current it is always vulnerable to losing equity.
Attitudes weaken and fade into the background when they are not reinforced frequently. This is especially
true for product related attributes. The Gap can protect its equity by keeping the lines of communication
between itself and its consumers open.
4. Consider a product category in which you make regular purchases (such as toothpaste or shampoo). How have
your belief strengthsand evaluationsand brand attitudes changed over time? What factors or events contributed
to those changes?
Of course, answers to this application question will be idiosyncratic. Underneath the different details,
however, students should describe the basic principles of belief formation.
Most beliefs do change over time (sometimes greatly) as people learn more about an object and have direct
experiences with it. These belief changes, in turn, are likely to change attitudes. For instance, people tend
to learn more beliefs about an object as they have more experience with it.
 You could show a transparency of Exhibit 6.2 (page 142) as a way to organize this discussion
and relate it back to attitudes.
Changes in attitude also can be classified according to the attitude change processes. These are general
ways in which beliefs can change and in turn influence attitudes. Some of these changes can be induced by
marketers whereas others can occur through everyday life. These categories include:
(1) adding a new salient belief about the attitude object,
(2) increasing the strength of an existing salient belief,
(3) changing the evaluation of a salient belief, and
(4) increasing the salience of a positive belief.
Some attitude change over time may be due in part to aging. For instance, many people's values change as
they grow older. This, in turn, can lead to changes in the ei component and subsequent changes in Ao.
Other changes may be due to the changing social influences of friends and families. For instance, as one
progresses through the family life cycle (marriage, children, divorce), new beliefs may be formed, which
could change one's attitudes. Finally, marketing strategies may change beliefs, which can change attitudes.
For instance, introducing new products often create new salient beliefs, which can change consumers'
attitudes toward brands in a product category. Sometimes a marketing strategy changes the salience of a
product attribute and the resulting beliefs changes create changes in brand attitudes (in recent years, many
food and beverage manufacturers have promoted their low carbohydrate products, making this belief more
salient for millions of consumers).

20. 5. Using a product as an example, describe the key differences between Ao and Aact. Under what circumstances
would marketers be more interested in each type of attitude?
This question has both review and application elements. It is important for students to understand the
differences between Ao and Aact. These terms are discussed on pages 150-152 of the text. Although the
distinction is fairly simple, some students may have trouble grasping the more subtle differences and their
implications for predicting behavior. Thus, it is worth your time to cover this point in class.
Ao is a person's overall evaluation of an object or concept. Aact is a person's overall evaluation of a
particular behavior concerning an object or concept. Although a consumer has one overall evaluation (one
Ao) for a product or brand, the same consumer may have several Aact--one for each specific behavior
concerning the product or brand. It is not the case that all of these Aact must be similar to Ao. For
instance, a student might like Snickers candy bars in general (positive Ao), but dislike eating them (a
behavior) as a dessert after dinner (negative Aact). However, the same student might like to eat Snickers as
a mid-afternoon snack between classes and as an energy snack when hiking in the mountains (positive Aact
in both situations).
Why are Ao and Aact often different? Because the attitude concepts are different (one is an object, the
other is a behavior), a different set of salient beliefs underlie Ao and Aact. Ao concerns an object in
general; Aact refers to a particular behavior concerning that object. Because behaviors have particular
consequences that impact the person, Aact is more self-relevant than Ao. Ao is a bit more "distant" and
abstract because it is based on beliefs about the attributes of the object.
Thus, for instance, it is possible that although Joe really likes the Porsche 928 (positive Ao), he has
a strongly negative attitude toward buying one with his own money (the severely unfavorable
consequences of this action outweigh the positive benefits). It is not the case that consumers
always behave positively toward objects that they like, and negatively toward disliked objects.
 Use the example of your consumer behavior course as an object for students' Ao. Use
attending particular class sessions, or taking an examination, or recommending the class to a
friend as specific behaviors toward which students might have different attitudes (Aact).
Marketers can be interested in both types of attitudes. The text emphasizes the importance of correctly
identifying the attitude of interest and the appropriate level of specificity before measuring consumers'
attitudes or designing marketing strategy. Whether Ao or Aact is relevant depends on the marketer's
purpose. If marketers want to predict particular behaviors (usually purchase), then Aact is normally the
appropriate type of attitude. All belief measures would concern the consequences ofthe purchase behavior.
On the other hand, if marketers want to track how consumers' general attitudes toward their brand have
changed over time, then Ao is appropriate.
6. Visit the Gap web site at www.gap.com and examine either the virtual style section or the current advertising
section. Discuss the types of beliefs and attitudes you think this information would create. What effects might
these beliefs and attitudes have on consumers’ behavioral intentions? (Use the Theory of Reasoned Action to
guide your thinking and your answer.)
This is a review and application question with a web exercise. Fishbein and Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned
Action is a powerful model for analyzing and understanding the factors that influence voluntary, overt
behaviors. Students need to understand the basic components of the model and the logic that underlies
their interrelationships.
Exhibit 6.6 in the text clearly presents the major components of the model and their interrelationships.
Students should be able to discuss these "flows of influence." The theory of reasoned action identifies two
main influences on behavioral intentions--Aact and SN that is attitudes toward the action and subjective
norms.
Different promotional strategies, such as those used by The Gap, can try to change consumers’ attitudes
and/or their subjective norms. For instance, if the weak BI is due to negative attitudes toward purchasing
clothing from The Gap, advertising needs to focus on the specific negative beliefs about the consequences

21. of buying and using the product. Alternatively, The Gap could try to use social influences to impact
subjective norms by communicating social acceptability by wearing clothing from The Gap.
7. Use the example of “The Gap” to distinguish between the multi-attribute attitude model and the theory of
reasoned action. How could each model contribute to the development of a more effective marketing strategy at
The Gap?
This review and applications question forces students to delve into the two major attitude models in this
chapter and to identify and understand their basic characteristics. It uses The Gap case that opens and
closes the chapter as a vehicle for that purpose.
The "The Gap" material points out that the most of the attitude research was directed at Ao. Several
"objects" should have been of interest, including the clothing, the store environment, and The Gap as a
company. Each of these objects is fairly complex with lots of "attributes." Attitudes toward these objects
varied over time, by situation, and consumer segment.
Students should recognize that this research, while useful, did not deal with Aact or BI. Thus, it did not
include the key components of the Theory of Reasoned Action, such as attitudes toward specific behavioral
responses, subjective or social norms, and behavioral intentions. It would appear fromthe brief description
in the text, that the company expected Ao to be related to consumers' Aact, and BI, and in turn to their overt
behaviors .
 Ask students to discuss whether they agree with this general assumption.
A multi-attribute model can help improve marketing strategy by providing insight into consumers' attitudes
toward relevant objects based on multiple salient attributes. This research can point to problems that the
company needs to fix. The Gap example nicely illustrates this perspective.
The theory of reasoned action could be used to analyze the underlying reasons for specific behaviors that
are important to The Gap management. The model would point out how these behaviors are influenced by
the perceived consequences of the behavior (Aact) versus social influences (SN). Strategies could then be
developed to influence problems. Behavioral intentions could be used to predict market responses.
Changes in all of these factors over time could be used to evaluate marketing efforts.
8. Discuss the problems in measuring behavioral intentions to (a) buy a new car, (b) buy a soda from a vending
machine, and (c) save $250 per month toward the eventual purchase of a house. What factors could occur in
each situation to make the measured intentions poor predictors of actual behavior?
This applications question forces students to think deeply about how marketers can measure behavioral
intentions. These three decisions vary in many ways, including the number and type of salient attributes,
levels of intrinsic and situational involvement, degree of social visibility, and time and effort in the decision
process.
For instance,buying a new car and saving for a house (a & c) are voluntary, conscious,"rational" decisions.
Often, consumers will spend considerable time and effort in planning for these behaviors. The planning
process might occur weeks, months, and even years before the behavior occurs. In such cases, consumers
are likely to have formed clear, stable behavioral intentions. Therefore, careful measurement should allow
a marketer to predict actual behavior with reasonable accuracy. Of course, even with stable behavioral
intentions, a number of factors can occur that can weaken the predictive accuracy (see Exhibit 6.7). For
instance, Susan might decide to buy a new Chevrolet, but finds out a few days later that she got a big raise
(and can now afford a better car), or finds out that she has been laid off (and cannot afford a new car at all).
Students should be able to highlight several other factors that influence the accuracy of measured
behavioral intentions in predicting actual behavior.
For the soda purchase (b above), the situation usually is quite different. Normally, a person does not form
an intention to buy a soda much in advance of the behavior. (It seems ridiculous to intend buy a Coke next
Thursday at 4:30 p.m. from the Friley Hall vending machine.) We would expect that the intention to buy a

22. soda from a vending machine is formed just before the actual purchase, usually on the "spur of the
moment." Marketers cannot hang around waiting to measure the behavioral intentions at the time it is
formed.
Also, because the soft drink behavioral intention is probably not very stable (easily modified by situational
factors), measured behavioral intentions are less useful for developing marketing strategies than in the other
two situations. Therefore, if marketers measure behavioral intentions at all, they would be general--"How
likely are you to buy a Coke from a vending machine in the next three days?"
Students should be able to highlight several other factors that influence the accuracy of measured
behavioral intentions in such cases. These factors then become cautions or warnings for measurement
development or measurement evaluation leading the discussion naturally into question 9 below.
9. How could marketers improve their predictions of behaviors in the situations described in question 8?
Consider improvements in measurements, as well as alternate research or forecasting techniques.
This question continues on from question 8 above. Students should be able to delve deeper into th e
measurement problems of measuring behavioral intentions and predicting overt behaviors that occur in the
future.
As one of many possible examples, marketers need to consider how much time will intervene between the
measurement of behavioral intentions and the actual behavior. If too much time occurs, too many factors
may intervene to modify the original measured behavioral intention. That is, the actual behavior will be
based on a different behavioral intention than was measured. This reduces the predictive accuracy and
makes it appear that the theory (behaviors are based on consciously considered behavioral intentions) is
wrong. The most accurate behavioral intentions would be measured just before the actual behavior.
However, this would not be very useful to marketers for planning marketing strategies. Thus, the actual
research procedures to measure behavioral intentions will be a compromise between the need for
information to help plan marketing strategies and the need to obtain reasonably accurate behavioral
intentions.
10. Negative attitudes present a special challenge for marketing strategy. Consider how what you know about
attitudes and intentions could help you to address consumers who have a brand relationship described as
"Don't like our brand; buy a competitor's brand."
The multi-attribute attitude model suggests that specialattention be given to the negative salient beliefs that
this group holds about the brand. If these negative beliefs are not extreme or strongly held, perhaps t hey
can be changed. Two options to change existing negative beliefs are to present information about the
negative beliefs through advertising or direct experience (try to get consumers to directly experience the
product through demonstrations or free trial or free samples). Both of these strategies are more suitable for
trying to change weaker, less extreme negative beliefs. Marketers could also try to present positive
information about new salient beliefs in hopes that these positive beliefs would compensate for the negative
beliefs. Students should note that this information would have to be salient.