Attitude: A
Marketing
Perspective
Consumerattitudes are
both obstacles and
advantages to marketers.
Perceptive marketers
leverage their
understanding of
attitudes to predict the
behavior of consumers.
Marketers should
distinguish between
beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviors .
Marketer should consider
all three in the
development of
marketing strategies.
2.
Attitude
Attitudes alsoknown as
“frames of reference”
provide the background
against which facts and
events are viewed.
Attitude is the
predisposition of
individual to evaluate
some objects in a
favorable or unfavorable
manner.
These are our feelings,
thoughts and behavioral
tendencies towards
specific object or
situation.
Components of attitudes are Affect,
Behavior & Cognition.
3.
Functions of
attitude.
UtilityFunction- Consumer’s
attitude is based on a utility
function when the decision
revolves around the amount of
pain or pleasure it brings.
Value-Expressive Function - This
function is used when a
consumer accepts a product or
service with the intention of
affecting their social identity.
Ego-Defensive Function- This
function is apparent when a
consumer feels that the use of a
product or service might
compromise his/her self-image.
Knowledge Function- This is
prevalent in individuals who are
careful about organizing and
providing structure regarding
their attitude or opinion of a
product or service
Daniel Katz
(1903-1998)
Psychologist
Katz theorized four functions of attitudes.
Each explains the source and purpose a
particular attitude.
4.
Attitude and
Behavior
Attitudesare actually poor predictor of
behaviors. Besides a measured
attitude may not be a person’s ‘true’
attitude.
Attitudes are more likely to guide
behavior if attitude is made salient
(e.g., ask people to consider their
attitudes, make self-conscious).
Does Behavior Determine Attitude?
Tendency for both good and evil acts
toward others to escalate. For
example, if I say I hate someone and
then I am nice to him (without being
forced to be) I am likely to view him
more positively.
However, attitude won’t change if
there is sufficient justification for the
behavior.
Agreeing to a
small commitment
can lead to larger
commitments.
5.
Cognitive
Dissonance Theory
Anyform of inconsistency between
attitude and behavior is
uncomfortable and individual will
attempt to reduce
dissonance(Leon Festinger).
The desire to reduce dissonance
is determined by the importance
of the elements creating it, the
degree of person’s perceived
influence on them and rewards
that may be involved.
Contemporary view is that
attitudes can significantly predict
future behaviors by taking
moderating variables into
account.
Leon Festinger
(1919- 1989)
Social psychologist
Powerful Moderators:
Importance- Fundamental values, self-
interest, identification with a person or
group. Specificity- More specific attitude.
Accessibility- Easily remembered. Social
pressure. Direct experience- Personal
experience.
6.
Reactance Theory
Reactanceis a motivational reaction
to offers, persons, rules, or
regulations that threaten or eliminate
specific behavioral freedoms.
Reactance can cause the person to
adopt or strengthen a view or attitude
that is contrary to what was intended,
and also increases resistance to
persuasion.
The degree of reactance is
determined by the importance of the
threatened or eliminated freedom
and the degree of threat.
A threat or elimination of freedom
results in an increase of
attractiveness of the forbidden act
and the motivation to engage in that
behavior.
Jack W. Brehm
(1928-2009)
Social
Psychologist,
Duke University.
Reactance occurs when a person feels
that someone or something is taking away
his or her choices or limiting the range of
alternatives.
7.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmationbias is a tendency of
people to favor information that
confirms their beliefs or
hypothesis. They also tend to
interpret ambiguous evidence as
supporting their existing position.
People display this bias when they
gather or remember information
selectively, or when they interpret it
in a biased way. The effect is
stronger for emotionally charged
issues and for deeply entrenched
beliefs.
In principle the availability of a
great deal of information could
protect us from the confirmation
bias.
‘Uriah Heep’ in
"David Copperfield”
by
Charles Dicken
Beliefs shape expectations, which in turn
shape perceptions, which then shape
conclusions. Thus we see what we expect
to see and conclude what we expect to
conclude.
8.
Self perception
theory
Peopledevelop their attitudes by
observing their own behavior and
concluding what attitudes must
have caused it.
People make reasonable
inferences about their own
attitudes based upon their
perceptions of their behaviors in
the same way observers draw
conclusions about our attitudes
from our behaviors.
People induce attitudes without
accessing internal cognition and
mood states. This can explain
some ambivalent situations .
Daryl J. Bem (1938)
Social Psychologist
and Prof emeritus,
Cornell University
9.
Over Justification
Effect
Rewardingpeople for activities
they enjoy may backfire.
According to self-perception
theory a person may observe
the situation and attribute
their actions to the reward not
their intrinsic motivation.
A professional athlete may
view his sport as rewarding as
opposed to something he used
to love.
Mark Lapper (1944)
Professor of
Psychology, Stanford
University
10.
Both reward and
severepunishment
provides external or
sufficient
justification.
Students can internalize
educational lessons and
to form a desire to learn
if not rewarded too
much for their efforts.
In order the child to
internalize an attitude,
severe punishment may
not be effective. Severe
punishment is equal to
external justification.
11.
The Elaboration
Likelihood Model(ELM)
ELM accounts for the differences in
persuasive impact of arguments that contain
ample informations and cogent reasons as
compared to messages that rely on simplistic
associations of negative and positive
attributes to some object, action or situation.
Key variable is involvement, the extent to
which an individual is willing and able to
‘think’ about the position advocated and its
supporting materials.
High elaboration(Central route)- It involves
cognitive processes such as evaluation,
recall, critical judgment, and inferential
judgment.
Low elaboration(Peripheral route)- The
receiver decides to follow a principle or a
decision-rule which is derived from the
persuasion situation.
While attitudes can result from
a number of things, persuasion
is a primary source.
12.
Components of
Attitudes
Consumerattitudes are a
composite of a consumer’s
(1) beliefs about, (2)
feelings about, and (3)
behavioral intentions
toward some object-within
the context of marketing,
usually a brand or retail
store.
These components are
viewed together since they
are highly interdependent
and together represent
forces that influence how
the consumer will react to
the object.
Cognition -Knowledge and perceptions
which forms the belief.
Affect- Emotions or feelings
Conation- Actual behavior or
behavioral intention.
13.
Positive - Coffeetaste good.
Negative- Coffee is easily
spilled and stains papers.
Neutral- Coffee is black.
Situational- Coffee is hot and
good on a cold morning.
Beliefs that consumers hold need
not be accurate (e.g., that pork
contains little fat), and some
beliefs may, upon closer
examination, be contradictory
(e.g., that a historical figure was a
good person but also owned
slaves).
The Multi-attribute Model
(Fishbein) attempts to summarize
overall attitudes into one score .
Consumers tend to have many
beliefs and each can be added to
obtain an accurate measurement.
(Wi= Weight and Xib= Evaluation on
a scale)
Belief
14.
Affect
Consumers alsohold certain
feelings toward brands or other
objects.
Sometimes these feelings are
based on the beliefs (e.g., a
person feels nauseated when
thinking about a hamburger
because of the tremendous
amount of fat it contains).
Feelings may be relatively
independent of beliefs. For
example, an environmentalist may
believe that cutting down trees is
immoral, but may have positive
affect toward Christmas trees.
15.
Behavioral
Intention
The behavioralintention
is what the consumer
plans to do with respect
to the object (e.g., buy or
not buy the brand).
As with affect, this is
sometimes a logical
consequence of beliefs
(or affect).
May sometimes reflect
other circumstances--
e.g., although a
consumer does not really
like a restaurant, he or
she will go there because
it is a hangout for his or
her friends.
16.
Attitude-
Behavior
Inconsistency
Consumers oftendo not behave
consistently with their attitudes
for other reasons as under:
(1)Ability. He or she may
be unable to do so.
(2) Competing demands
for resources.
(3) Social influence.
(4) Measurement
problems. Measuring attitudes
is difficult.
(The consumers may act
inconsistently with their true
attitudes, which were never
uncovered because an erroneous
measurement was made.)
17.
Attitude Change-
Appeals -
Response
Effect of involvement and
Argument.
Quality vs. quantity of persuasion.
The “Sleeper” Effect. A state of
delayed persuasion occurs when
someone initially ignores a
persuasive message because it
doesn’t seem to be credible, and
then gradually starts to believe the
message.
( It may happen that emotions of the
message are strong enough to outlast
the distrust at the initial point when
the message was received.)
Studies have shown that
Sneezing is like
an orgasm:
‘The Lonely Guy’,
starring Steve
Martin.
18.
Attitude change
strategies
Changingattitudes is
generally very difficult,
particularly when consumers
suspect that the marketer
has a self-serving agenda in
bringing about this change.
However strategies should
aim at changing affects,
beliefs and behavioral
intentions.
19.
Changing
Affect
Changing affect,which may or may not
involve getting consumers to change
their beliefs. Classical conditioning -
Pairing the product with a liked
stimulus .
Alternatively, getting people to like the
advertisement. Liking may “spill over”
into the purchase of a product e.g.
attempts to create a warm, fuzzy image
(Pillsbury Doughboy ).
Finally, products which are better
known, through the mere exposure
effect, tend to be better liked- that is,
the more a product is advertised and
seen in stores, the more it will generally
be liked, even if consumers to do not
develop any specific beliefs about the
product.
20.
Changing
behavior.
People believethat their behavior is
rational; thus, once they use a product,
chances are that they will continue
unless someone is able to get them to
switch.
One way to get people to switch is to
use price discounts and coupons;
however, when consumers buy a product
on deal, they may justify the purchase
based on that deal (i.e., the low price)
and may then switch again when deal is
over.
A better way to get people to switch is to
at least temporarily obtain better shelf
space so that the product is more
convenient.
Consumers are less likely to use this
availability as a rationale for their
purchase and may continue to buy the
product even when the product is less
conveniently located.
21.
Changing beliefs
Attemptto change beliefs is the
obvious way to attempt attitude
change, particularly when
consumers hold unfavorable or
inaccurate ones. This is often
difficult to achieve because
consumers tend to resist.
Several approaches to belief
change exist:
Change currently held
beliefs.
Change the importance of
beliefs.
Add beliefs. So long as they
do not conflict with existing beliefs.
22.
The Elaboration
Likelihood Model
(ELM)and
Celebrity
Endorsements
The ELM suggests that
consumers will scrutinize claims
more in important situations
than in unimportant ones.
For products which are either
expensive or important for some
other reason elaboration is likely
to be more extensive, and the
endorser is expected to be
“congruent,” or compatible, with
the product.
A basket ball player is likely to be
effective in endorsing athletic
shoes, but not in endorsing
automobiles.
All, however, could endorse fast
food restaurants effectively.
23.
Appeal
Approaches
Affect inducedempathy with advertising
characters may increase attraction to a
product, but may backfire if consumers
believe that people’s feelings are being
exploited.
Fear appeals appear to work only if (1) an
optimal level of fear is evoked- not so much
that people tune it out, but enough to scare
people into action and (2) a way to avoid the
feared stimulus is explicitly indicated.
Humor appears to be effective in gaining
attention, but does not increases persuasion
in practice. However, a more favorable
attitude toward the advertisement may be
created by humorous advertising.
Comparative advertising, which is illegal in
many countries, often increases sales for the
sponsoring brand, but may backfire in
certain cultures.
24.
Value Expressive
vs. Utilitarian
Appeals
Utilitarian: Functional,
“bottom line” performance
benefits.
Value-expressive: Product
serves more personal
purpose; style or
philosophical expression is
more relevant.
Congruence between
product type and ad type is
important
25.
One-sided vs. two-
sidedappeals.
Consumers tend to react more
favorably to advertisements which
either :
(1) admit something negative
about the sponsoring brand (e.g., the
Volvo is a clumsy car, but very
safe)
(2) admits something positive
about a competing brand (e.g., a
competing supermarket has slightly
lower prices, but offers less
service and selection).
Two-sided appeals must, contain
overriding arguments why the
sponsoring brand is ultimately
superior--that is, in the above
examples, the “but” part must be
emphasized.
26.
Perception Perceptionis an
approximation of reality.
Our brain attempts to
make sense out of the
stimuli to which we are
exposed.
Priming and Subliminal
stimuli are subconscious
perceptions which may
influence behaviors.
Perception is the organization,
identification, and interpretation of
sensory information in order to represent
and understand the environment.
- Wikipedia.
27.
Generating Beliefs
Through Advertising
HarIdea Se Zindagi Muskuraye
Belief is the psychological state in
which an individual holds a conjecture
or premise to be true.
-Wikipedia
Advertising can form or
change beliefs through
repetition, shock, and
association with images
of sexuality, love,
beauty, and other
strong positive
emotions.
Statements must be
Perceived,
Comprehended,
Remembered, and
Believed (at least in
part).
28.
Positioning
Through Creating
Beliefs
Whatmost will agree on is that
positioning is something (perception)
that happens in the minds of the target
market. It is the aggregate perception
the market has of a particular
company, product or service in relation
to their perceptions of the competitors
in the same category.
In today's diverse marketplace,
multiple advertising messages are
often required to appeal to potential
customers with dissimilar needs and
requirements.
Creating beliefs through
communication can provide a position
for the product distinct from
competitors .
Positioning may also be defined as the
way by which the marketers attempt to
create a distinct impression in the
customer's mind.
29.
Pricing: Creating
Beliefs of
“NormalPrices”:
External reference prices—e.g.,
“Regular price…” “Manufacturer’s
suggested retail price” “Sold
elsewhere for…” Comparison to
internal reference prices.
Assimilation-Contrast “Discounting
of Discounts”
30.
Multi-attribute
Models of Attitude
Multi attribute models are used
to understand and measure
attitudes.
The basic multi attribute model
has three elements—
attributes, beliefs, and weights.
Attributes are the
characteristics of the attitude
object. Beliefs are a
measurement of a particular
attribute. Weights are the
indications of importance or
priority of a particular
attribute.
(Ab= attitude toward brand b, Wi:
weight of attribute I, Xib: belief
about brand b’s performance on
attribute I)
Model assumes rationality. The
Matin Fishbein
(1936-20090)
Social
Psychologist,
Professor,
University of
Illinois
31.
Attitude
measurement
• Direct Measurement(Likert scale
and semantic differential)
• Indirect Measurement (Projective
techniques)
Rensis Likert
(1903-1981)
American
Educator and
Organizational
Psychologist
32.
Measurement
of
Components
Beliefs:
Semantic Differential
Scales:
Good------------Bad
Fast -------------Slow
Reliable--------Unreliable.
Feelings
Likert Scales
(Strongly agree …
Strongly Disagree) “This
product makes me happy.” etc.
Behavioral Intention:
Rating of likelihood of
purchase. May need
projection if social
desirability affects
willingness to admit to product
use.
33.
Attitudes toward
Objects vis-a-vis
Behaviors
Attitudes toward brands is important
because that's what comes closest to
revealing if a consumer intends to buy
the brand in question.
Attitude toward a product or brand is a
function of the presence (or absence)
and evaluation of certain product-
specific beliefs and/or attributes.
Consumer's attitude toward behaving
or acting with respect to an object is
different from the attitude toward the
object itself.
Consumer may resist actual behavior
change despite beliefs. Liking a product
may not translate into wanting to use it.
34.
Message
Framing
Message framingcan help connect
people to issues with a new
perspective and establish new
associations, thus changing the
dominant frame.
There are many facets to successfully
framing an issue. Once identified, a
new frame must be established
through consistent, repetitive, strong,
and broad-based communication,
usually over a number of years.
Linking an issue to a widely held
cultural value helps start the framing
process by resonating with the
audience and increasing interest in
learning more about how the issue
connects with this cultural value.
Adding Power to Our
Voices
Many tradeoffs can be stated in two,
mathematically equivalent ways—e.g.,
“80% lean” vs. “20% fat” $49.00 per
person per night based on double
occupancy.
35.
Conclusion
Attitudes arepervasive and play
important roles in human behaviors.
Every person forms attitudes about
events, objects, ideas or persons he
or she comes across in life and
these attitudes provide the ‘frames
of reference’ for all future
evaluations.
An insight of ‘attitude’ is essential
for marketers which they can
leverage in their marketing
strategies for favorable consumer
responses.
Keeping the perspective in mind
materials from many sources have
been collated and interpreted in
ppt. format. Clarity may have been
lacking in some instances due to
brevity but meanings indicated
symbolically.