Consumer Attitudes

Attitudes

– Expressions of inner feelings that reflect whether a person is favorably or unfavorably predisposed to some object

– in marketing, “object” can be a brand, a brand name, a service, a service provider, a retail store, a company, an advertisement, in essence, any marketing stimuli.

What is an attitude?

Attitudes attitudes are acquired, we are not born with them attitudes can be positive or negative attitudes may be complex and contradictory attitudes are functional for an individual's lifestyle attitudes have different intensities attitudes fit our central values attitudes are unique to each individual attitudes can be modified and influenced by persuasion attitudes are assumed to be linked to behaviour (e.g

purchasing)

Why, From a Marketer’s point of view, is it important to know about Attitudes?

If a consumer is favorably disposed towards your product or service (i.e. has a positive attitude) then you want to keep them so disposed

If they are unfavorably disposed or neutral then you want to change their attitude.

Therefore we need to know

How to Change Consumers Attitudes?

Why Consumers Form Attitudes?

How Consumers Form Attitudes?

How to Measure Consumers Attitudes

Development of Attitudes

– personality of the individual– family – peers– experience– education– culture– subculture, nationality

Attitudes are learned predispositions; therefore, their development is influenced by

Functions of AttitudesUtilitarian: Do the products provide some benefit or reward?

Any attitude adopted in a person’s own self-interest

Value-expressive: Does the product say something about who I am or would like to be? Is it self-expressive.

Ego-defensive: Does the product protect my self-esteem Does it help overcome any self doubts

Edna's plight: Bad breath. A Listerine ad from the 1920s.

“If it’s bad you won’t be welcome… Play safe….use listerine”

Knowledge function: does the product help me to organize the information – does the product meet the needs for order and structure

Rooibos ad provides reassurance that product is organic and caffeine free

Which is more likely to be affective in forming a positive attitude toward a particular brand of coffee?

Copy that said the coffee was flavourful

Copy that said the person was discriminating

What type of attitude function do each of the above appeal to?

The ABCs of attitudes: The Affective Component

(feelings)I feel good about myself when I

drive a BMW

The Behavioral Component (action toward object)I will buy a BMW next time

The Cognitive Component (beliefs)I think BMWs are quality cars

Three Components of Attitudes

Attitudes and the High-Involvement Decision Process

• Need arousal• Information search• Evaluation of Alternatives

– Beliefs

– Feelings

– Intention to Act

• Purchase• Post-Purchase behaviour

Hierarchy of Effects

Fishbein’s Multi-attribute Theory Fishbein’s model argues that consumers’

attitudes towards a brand derive from their beliefs about the attributes of the brand and their evaluations of those attributes

Three factors influence attitude formation:1. salient attributes for an object/product

2. extent to which consumer believes product contains these salient attributes

3. Importance of the attribute to the consumer

Fishbein’s Multiattribute Theory

Step One: List of AttributesStep Two: Obtain the relative importance of them (weights). The more important the higher the weightStep Three: Obtain the evaluation of each brand with respect to each attribute.

(6=Excellent, 5=Very Good, 4=Good, 3=Bad, 2= Very Bad, 1=Poor)

Step Four: Apply Fishbein’s Formula to obtain the mathematical solution

Fishbein’s Multi-attribute Theory

Aijk = (Bijk x Iik): where

– A = Attitude toward brand/product/etc.;– i = attribute– j = brand– k = consumer– I = Importance weighting– B = Extent to which the brand is believed to

possess the attribute

Example Application of Fishbein’s Multi-attribute Theory

In Crowfoot, there are 3 banks: TD, CIBC, Royal. We would like to know the overall or general attitude consumers

have to each Step One: List of Attributes: customer service, hours, products,

parking facilities, etc Step Two: Obtain the relative importance of them (weights).

Service 2, Parking 1 Products 3, Hours 4 Step Three: Obtain the evaluation of each bank with respect to each

attribute. (6= Excellent, 5=Very Good, 4=Good, 3=Bad, 2=Very Bad, 1=Poor)

Step Four: Obtain the mathematical solution, applying Fishbein’s Model.

Example Application of Fishbein’s Multi-attribute Theory

Importance Royal TD CIBC

Service 2 5 2 3

Hours 4 3 5 3

Products 3 5 3 3

Parking 1 2 2 2

___ ___ ___

Total 39 35 29Which Bank does the customer have the best attitude toward?Which the worst attitude?What would you do if you were responsible for CIBC?

Implications of Attitude Research for Marketing Strategy

Product positioning and repositioningShows which attribute has a competitive

advantage and which a disadvantageAdvertising-focus on certain

attributes/benefitsMarketing researchSegmentation

Measure of Attitude not equal to Behaviour

Does not address situational factors

Not all attitudes are equal - some strongly held others weakly (conviction)

Does not consider social factors e.g. influence of friends and family ‘my family think I should buy X’

Assumes that we have been able to specify adequately all the relevant attributes (e.g. interest rates)

Problems with Fishbein’s Model

Fishbein’s Theory of Reasoned Action

A refinement of his multi-attribute modelNow considers conviction with which attitude

held - more of a behavioral intention modelIntroduces ideas of importance of opinions of

significant others (subjective norms) and a consumer’s motivation to comply with the opinions of these significant others.

Attitudes can also apply to ads?

Most people hate pop-up ads

How do the ads influence attitudes towards the brand?

Attitude-Toward-the-Ad Model

A model that proposes that a consumer forms various feelings (affects) and judgments (cognitions) as the result of exposure to an advertisement, which, in turn, affect the consumer’s attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand.

Head on

Measuring Attitudes

Ideally one would measure– consumers’ beliefs towards a brand– consumers’ feelings towards owning or using the

brand – consumers’ intentions towards purchasing the brand

In practice most measures focus on measuring beliefs and feelings

ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT Semantic differential scale Likert scale Rank-order scales

Modern Store

Low prices

Unfriendly staff

Narrow product range

Sophisticated customers

Old- fashioned store

High prices

Friendly staff

Wide product range

Unsophisticated customers

Semantic Differential ScaleFor each statement tick ( X ) the box that best

describes your feelings about WalMart.

ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT

Likert scaleStrongly

agreedisagree Neither

agree nor disagree

agree Strongly agree

Cost is the most important consideration when buying a new car

1 2 3 4 5

AGREEMENT IMPORTANCE

FREQUENCY QUALITY

LIKELIHOOD

ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT

Rank the following soft-drinks from 1 (best) to 5 (worst) according to your taste preference:

Coca-Cola _____

7-Up _____

Dr. Pepper _____

Pepsi-Cola _____

Mountain Dew _____

Rank-Order Scales

–Top and bottom rank choices are ‘easy’

–Middle ranks are usually most ‘difficult’

ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT

General Strategy

e.g. general attitude towards buying a car

1. elicit important attributes. E.g. reliability, safety, economy, cost, style, performance.

2. quantify the beliefs and feelings about these attributes by ranking the attributes according to some scale (e.g. Likert)

3. Compare brands on various attributes

Attitudes and Marketing Strategy Market research to track changes in attitude over

time and for brand comparison In new product development - focus on preferred

attributes In segmentation - focus on those attributes which

particular segments favour In helping tailor promotional strategies and in

measuring the effectiveness of promotions

Attitude Change

How can marketers

change attitudes?

Deep seated attitudes are internalised and become part of the person's value system

Attitudes are difficult to change because they are so important to the individual – e.g. New Coke

The Marketer’s Challenge

What is this ad trying to do?

“You think smoking makes you look cool, think again. Cigarettes stain your teeth permanently. And there’s nothing cool about that”

Branding

America

http://adbusters.org/campaigns/boycott_america/

Marketing messages are designed to persuade consumers to change brands

The effort to persuade will influence how to market/advertise

Who will be depicted using the product in the ad

How the message should be constructed

What media to use

Where to advertise

Persuasionthe active attempt to change attitudes

Strategies of Attitude Change

Changing the Basic Motivational Function.

Associating the Product With an Admired Group or Event.

Resolving Two Conflicting Attitudes.

Altering Components of the Multi-attribute Mode.

Changing Beliefs About Competitors’ Brands.

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SourceSource

MessageMessage

MediumMedium

ReceiverReceiver

FeedbackFeedback

FeedbackFeedback

EncodingEncoding

TransmissionTransmission

DecodingDecoding

THE ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION

THE SOURCE

Who is delivering the message can have a big impact on whether it will be accepted.

a credible source can be particularly persuasive

ExpertiseExpertise TrustworthinessTrustworthiness

ObjectivityObjectivityAttractivenessAttractiveness

source credibility

Source Credibility

Credibility can be enhanced if the source’s qualifications are perceived as relevant to the product being endorsed. If they are seen as experts.

Expertise

AwarenessDue to their fame and high profile, celebrity endorsers enable messages to stand out and break through the media clutter.

hold the viewer's attention a consumer is more likely to keep the television on the channel showing a commercial with Wayne Gretzky than a commercial with an unknown actor.

provide testimony for a product or service,especially effective when the product has contributed to their celebrity eg. consumers may be more likely to try a motor oil endorsed by Al Unser, Jr. This relationship can increase a consumer's belief and trust in the product and its benefits.

Instant credibilitywhen consumers see a credible celebrity endorsing a product, consumers think that the product must be at least ‘OK’

Celebrities as Credible Sources

PR coverage: celebrities are topical and create high PR coverage. Celebrity-company marriages are covered by most media

To create positive attitudes towards products and generate sales EG for sports figures, people know they are not going to be as good as these athletes, but having their equipment makes them feel better.

Approximately 20% of all television commercials feature a famous person from the world of sport, television, movies or musical entertainment

The goal of the “got Milk” campaign is to reverse the 30-year decline in milk consumption by increasing consumers’ awareness of the nutritional value of milk and changing their attitudes toward the product.

Celebrities and athletes are appropriate endorser for a product such as milk since they are highly recognizable and respected (at least most are)

Drawbacks of using Celebrities

$ $Pepsi Shaquille O'Neal $25 million

Nike Tiger Woods $105 million

Buick Tiger Woods $40 million

Reebok Venus Williams $40 million

Reebok Allen Iverson $100 million

Shick Andre Agassi $19 million

Nike Michael Jordan $40 million

Drawbacks of using Celebrities

Buick Onstar

Electronic arts

Consumer cynicismPeople know celebrities get paid a lot of money for endorsements and this knowledge leads them to cynicism about celebrity endorsements.

There has to be a link between product and celebrity

Sainsbury’s used Catherine Zeta Jones for its recipe advertisements when she was caught shopping in Tesco (UK grocery stores)

Cybill Shepherd was endorsing beef industry when said she did not eat meat.

Source Attractiveness

Beautiful people are used in advertising because

consumer's pay more attention to ads containing attractive models

degree of attractiveness influences consumer's product evaluation - the more attractive the higher we evaluate the product.

Trustworthiness

stress a unique attribute or benefit of the product - USP

showing convenience of use

showing new product or improved features

indirect comparison with other products

demonstration of the product in use

demonstration of tangible results

no principal character - i.e. more time is devoted to the product

people incidental to the message

The Message

What makes a marketing message persuasive?

WordsVersus

Pictures

WordsVersus

Pictures

ArgumentArgument

Messageas Metaphor

Messageas Metaphor

VividnessVividness

Type ofAppeal

Type ofAppeal

RepetitionRepetition

FactorsAffecting

Persuasiveness

FactorsAffecting

Persuasiveness

Words or PicturesWhich conveys the message best?

Visual

affects aesthetic evaluations

stress on creativity

factual information conveyed poorly

Verbal

Takes more time for consumer to process

Better suited to high involvement medium - eg print

harder to remember therefore more repetition needed

verbal elements are more effective when reinforced by an accompanying picture

Bloomingdales 1898

Corn Flakes, 1933 Cosmopolitan, 2004Royal Crown Cola, 1963

Throughout the 20th century pictures have gradually replaced words.

Early advertising tried to persuade the reader with a series of facts about the product contained in the ad.

VIVIDNESS precise descriptions or vivid graphics command attention remembered more than vague messages

Companies that focused attention on their culture kept employee turnover to just 6.2% compared to 20% for industry at large.

Vs Companies that focused attention on the culture kept employee turnover lower than for the industry at large.

according to industry sources three out of every four watch breakdowns are due to water getting into the case

Vsaccording to industry sources, many watch breakdowns are due to water getting into the case

Repetition is the mother of teachers

increases familiarity and brand awareness

The idea behind the use of repetition in advertising is that we, like Pavlov's dog, will become conditioned to behave in a certain manner; namely, we will respond by buying the product

Not only are ads repeated, but repetition is also used within the ads or commercials themselves

too much repetition leads to habituation -- consumer ignores stimulus because of boredom.

boredom can be eliminated by slightly varying the content of ads around a common theme

Constructing the Argument

One-Versus two-sided argumentsOne-sided arguments

persuasive messages that support one side of an issue or one product - stress on attributes and benefits

cannot address questions

usually more persuasive with audiences who have little or no comprehension of an issue..

two-sided arguments

provide information about both positive and negative attributes of a product or service

Negative attributes trivialised or refuted

Help to differentiate the product

works well when receivers are not already loyal to the product

Why would a marketer want to draw attention to the negative aspects of their product?

audience may pay more attention to it. When topics are made more interesting or involving messages are processed more thoroughly.

more credible than one-sided ads because they admit that the advertised brands have shortcomings.those exposed to the two-sided messages were more likely to have a more favourable attitude after the exposure. provides a built-in counter claim, or opposing message.

type of two-sided message

includes positive attributes about a product or service and some negative aspects of its competitor's product product A is better than product B.”

Comparative advertisement

Can be direct or indirect.

the negative inclusions may lead a consumer to believe that there are more positive attributes to associated with the product or service when it admits that it has competitors.

often works in priced-based advertising in print media, where competitors' prices are compared side-by-side.

This ad positions Savin against Xerox. The X is obviously in reference to Xerox. Canon and Mita are also mentioned in the ad

Pitfalls of Comparative AdvertisingConfusing

Every mention of a competitor's name or product in an advertisement increases the probability that the audience will think the ad is for that competitor.

audience may also doubt the credibility of the biased ad

Free exposure for the compared brand

http:/www.arbys.com/features/arbys_commercial.php?comm_nbr=1

Pitfalls of Comparative Advertising

false or misleading statements could lead to litigation.

Eg. 1992 Ad for Maytag dishwasher said that "Nobody, But Nobody Cleans Better than Maytag or Holds More Dishes!" supported by results of a proprietary test. Whirlpool argued that its dishwasher cleaned better based on independent tests.

                                                               

Comparative AdvertisingThe FTC considers comparative advertising

deceptive unless:1. The comparisons are based on fact.2. The differences advertised are statistically

significant.3. The comparisons involve meaningful issues.4. The comparisons are to meaningful

competitors.

Types ofMessageAppeals

EmotionalVersus

Rational

Humourous

Fear Sex

EMOTIONAL APPEALS

emotional versus rational appeals

to head or heart depends on the product and the

type of relationship the consumers

have with it. - ads for cars focus on

emotion recall for ad contents tends to be

better for thinking ads than for

feeling ads Products are sold today through

the use of emotional appeals and

identifications.

This ad created an avalanche of response by featuring a call to action combined with a highly charged emotional appeal.

images and text in this ad are designed to have the maximum emotional effect for one purpose: to persuade the reader to make an act of charity

Heart or Head?

Humorous appeals

Effective humour surprises the audience, and at the same time, speaks some sort of truth.

The goal in using humour in advertising is to make the audience laugh, and, more importantly, have them walk away thinking "this company understands me"

Effective at catching people's attention.

Recognition scores high for humorous ads

Inhibit consumer from counter arguing which increases the likelihood of message acceptance

more effective when brand is clearly identified – creates a positive attitude

subtle humour usually best

Humor enhances liking.

Advantages of Humorous Appeals

Brands will be remembered more if they are intimately entwined in the humour

Humor is more appropriate for low-involvement products and feeling-oriented products than for high-involvement products.

1996 advertisers spent $10 billion on humorous ads out of the total $100 billion spent on all ads

72 percent of the 100 Best Commercials of All Time use humor to reach the target audience

funny material can dominate the message and thus the product recognition is lostCulturally relativeReduces Comprehensiona punch line that doesn't pay off – can backfire

Pitfalls of Humorous Appeals

Fear Factor Highlight the risk or negative consequences of not using the brand or of engaging in unsafe behaviour Fear of social physical harm or social disapproval Fear stimulates message involvement common factor for public-policy issues e.g. stop smokingPitfall - distract customer from focal product (ie. dwell on the fearful event rather than the proposed solution)

Ads with fear appeals are also effective in capturing people’s attention. However, self-defense mechanisms (distraction and counter arguing) may decrease its evaluative effects Fear appeals are usually most effective when only a moderate amount of fear is induced increasing levels of fear do no result in increased change

Which ad is more effective?

And this one…

ATTITUDE CHANGE (cont’d..)

Attitude Change Induced by Shock: “Meth – Not Even Once”

a solution to the problem should be presented. otherwise consumers will tune out the ad since they can do nothing it solve the problem

Sex Appeal

Resonance

a literary device that employs a play on words (a double meaning) to communicate a product benefit.

puns are used as “attention-grabbers

The ad we’ve all been waiting for: THE SACK O' SAUCE IN A CAN O' MEAT!