Consumer Attitude Formation & Change

Question 1

Attitude Defined

Answer 1

A learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way toward a product or retailer

Attitudes are learned from:
- direct experience
- word-of-mouth
- exposure to mass media

Question 2

Attitude Formation

Answer 2

Consumers learn attitudes when they try new products and different brands

Sources of attitude formation
- Personal Experience
- Family and Friends
- Social Media

Question 3

Personality Factors

Answer 3

Personality traits can affect consumer behavior:

• Individuals with a high need for cognition form positive attitudes toward ads that include a lot of detailed, product-related information
• Cognitive misers form positive attitudes in response to ads that feature attractive models or celebrities

Question 4

Situations Affect Attitudes

Answer 4

Situations are circumstances that influence the relationship between attitude and behaviors

Product: Energizer Batteries
Situation: Hurricane is coming
Attitude: I know a hurricane is coming, so I better buy some batteries to be prepared

Question 5

Tri-Component Attitude Model

Answer 5

Cognitive:
Knowledge of a product or brand features (Beliefs)
- Plant-Based Burger: uses numbers and logistics to show how healthy their product is

Affective:
Emotions and feelings about a brand (Attitudes)
- 2014 Chevrolet Ad: represents the longevity of the car through the dog

Conative:
Actions or behavior towards a brand (Intention)
- Netflix Call to Action: a persuasive step in ads that encourages consumers to take specific actions (Subscriptions, Free Trials)

Question 6

Measuring the Affect Component

Answer 6

Likert Scale:
consumers’ level of “agreement” or “disagreement” with a series of statements about the studied object
- Strongly Agree - Strongly Disagree
- specific and straight to the point

Semantic Differential Scale:
A series of bipolar adjectives anchored at ends of an odd-numbered continuum
- Refreshed - Not Refreshed

Conative Component:
Likelihood that an individual will undertake a specific action with regard to the object
- I will definitely but it - I definitely will not buy it

Question 7

Altering Consumer Attitudes

Answer 7

Consumers frequently resist evidence that challenges strongly held attitudes or beliefs
- Tend to interpret any ambiguous information in ways that reinforce their preexisting attitudes

Marketers may try to change beliefs or perceptions about the brand itself
- Alter consumers’ overall perceptions of the brand
- Change beliefs about competing brands

Question 8

Multi-Attribute Attitude Models

Answer 8

Extent to which a product has/lacks fixed attributes

Importance of each attributes to the consumer

Question 9

Multi-Attribute Models: Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

Answer 9

Incorporates cognitive, affective, conative elements
- However, adds the measurement of subjective norms that influence an individual’s intention to act

Subjective Norms:
- Influenced by a person’s normative beliefs combined with the person’s motivation to comply with the preferences of what others would think about the action or behavior

Question 10

Multi-Attribute Models: Theory of Trying-To-Consume

Answer 10

Outcome of a contemplated action (purchase) is uncertain, but is still being pursued by the consumer

A person trying to consume faces two types of obstacles that may prevent the desired outcome:
- Personal Impediments
(Wants to lose weight but loves donuts)
- Environmental Impediments
(There are no low calorie donuts)

Question 11

Functional Approach

Answer 11

Changing consumers’ attitudes by appealing to the motivations behind their attitudes

Utilitarian Function:
Stems from the belief that consumers’ attitudes reflect the utilities that brands provide
- When a product has been useful, our attitude toward it tends to be favorable

Ego-Defensive Function:
Maintains that people form attitudes in order to protect themselves from experiencing uncertainty

Value-Expressive Function:
States that attitudes reflect consumers’ values/beliefs

Knowledge Function:
Strong need to understand the people, events, and objects they encounter

Marketers may also associate brands with worthy causes or objects (social or cultural events)

Question 12

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Answer 12

Attitudes can be changed by a central route or a peripheral route to persuasion

The cognitive elaboration related to the processing of information received via each route is different
- Explains how people can be persuaded to change their attitudes

Question 13

Central Route

Answer 13

High involvement

Considered thought and cognitive processing

Learning through:
- Attribute-based information
- High quality arguments
- Exertion of effort to learn, comprehend, evaluate

Comparative ads are processed centrally

Question 14

Peripheral Route

Answer 14

Low involvement

Little thought and little information processing

Learning through:
- Repetition
- Passive processing of visual cues
- Holistic processing

Non-comparative ads processed peripherally

Question 15

Dissonance

Answer 15

Cognitive Dissonance:
Occurs when a consumer holds conflicting thoughts about a belief or a product

Post-Purchase Dissonance:
When cognitive dissonance occurs after a purchase

Ways to reduce post-purchase dissonance:
- Rationalize decision
- Seek advertisements that support choices (avoid competitive ads)
- “Sell” friends on the positive features of the purchase
- Seek reassurance from satisfied owners

Question 16

Attribution Theory

Answer 16

Explain how people assign causality to events on the basis of either their own or others behavior

Internal Attribution:
People generally accept/take credit for success

External Attribution:
Assign failure to others or outside events