Attitudes & In Tensions

8/3/2019 Attitudes & In Tensions

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Chapter 6

Attitudes and

Intentions



6-2

What Is an Attitude?

Attitude is a person’s overall evaluation of aconcept.

Evaluations are affective responses created by:Affective systems

Cognitive systems

Overall evaluation is formed when consumersintegrate knowledge, meanings, or beliefs aboutthe attitude concept (integration process).Analyzes the personal relevance of the concept and

determines whether it is favorable or unfavorable.

Evaluations may be stored in memory.



6-3

What is an Attitude? cont.

Whether an attitude will affect interpretation orintegration processes depends on its:

Accessibility in memory (or probability of activation), influenced by:

Salience or importance.

Frequency of prior activation.

Strength of the association between a concept and its

attitude.

Attitudes can be measured by asking consumersto evaluate the concept of interest.



6-4

Attitudes Toward What?

Various physical and social objects

Intangible objects

Behaviors or actions



6-5

Levels of Attitude Concepts

Concepts vary in their levels of specificity:

Product class

Product form

Brand

Model

Brand/model general situation

Brand/model specific situation

Marketers must measure the attitude concept at the level

of specificity most relevant to the marketing problem.



6-6

Exhibit 6.1 - Levels of Specificity of an Attitude

Concept


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What is an Attitude? - Marketing Implications

Brand equity involves a strong, positive brandattitude based on favorable meanings and beliefsthat are accessible in memory.

Creates a strong, favorable consumer-brandrelationship.

Can be built, borrowed, or bought.

Attitude tracking studiesMarketers can use measures of consumers’

attitudes to indicate the success of marketingstrategies.



Attitudes Toward Objects

Salient beliefs

Activated beliefs.

Only salient beliefs about an object create aperson’s attitude toward that object.

Many factors influence which beliefs about anobject will be activated in a situation and thusbecome salient determinants of A

o(attitude

toward objects).

Salient beliefs vary over time or situations forsome products.



The Multiattribute Attitude Model

Multiattribute attitude models focus on

consumers’ beliefs about multiple product or

brand attributes.Martin Fishbein’s model is most influential in

marketing.



The Multiattribute Attitude Model (cont.)

Key proposition

Evaluations of salient beliefs cause overallattitude.

Overall attitude is a function of two factors

Strengths of the salient beliefs associated withthe object.

Evaluation of those beliefs.




AO

= attitude toward the object

bi = strength of the belief that the object has

attribute i

ei = evaluation of attribute i

n = number of salient beliefs about the object




Model components

Belief strength is the perceived probability ofassociation between an object and its relative

attributes.Affected by past consumer experiences.

Number of salient beliefs about an attitude objectunlikely to exceed seven to nine.

Belief evaluation reflects how favorably theconsumer perceives that attribute.Not necessarily fixed over time or constant across

different situations



Attitudes Toward Objects -

Marketing Implications

Understanding your customers.

Diagnosis of marketing strategies.

Understanding situational influences.



Attitude-Change Strategies

Add a new salient belief about the attitude object.

Increase the strength of an existing positive

belief.Improve the evaluation of a strongly held belief.

Make an existing favorable belief more salient.



Attitudes Toward Behavior

Most research has found rather weak

relationships between attitudes toward an object

and specific single behaviors.It is not possible to predict with accuracy any

specific behavior based on knowing a person’s

overall attitude toward the object of the behavior.



Exhibit 6.6 - The Theory of Reasoned Action



The Theory of Reasoned Action cont.

Any reasonably complex voluntary behavior is

determined by the person’s intention to perform that

behavior.

Assumes consumers:Consciously consider the consequences of alternative behaviors.

Choose the one that leads to the most desirable consequences.

Outcome is an intention to engage in the selected

behavior.The theory is not relevant for extremely simple or

involuntary behaviors.



6-18

The Theory of Reasoned Action cont.

Model components

Behaviors are specific actions directed at sometarget object.

Behavioral intention is a propositionconnecting self and a future action.

Attitude toward the behavior or action reflectsthe consumer’s overall evaluation of performingthe behavior.

The subjective or social norm componentreflects consumers’ perceptions of what other people want them to do.



6-19

Attitudes Toward Behavior -

Marketing Implications

Situational context has powerful influences onconsumers’ behavioral intentions.

To develop effective strategies

Determine whether the attitude toward thebehavior or action or the subjective normcomponent has the major influence onbehavioral intentions.

Measures of consumers’ intentions may not beperfect indicators of the actual intentions thatdetermine the behavior.



6-20

Intentions and Behaviors

To accurately predict behaviors, marketers should

measure consumers’ intentions at the same level

of abstraction and specificity as the action, target,and time components of the behavior.

Situation context also should be specified when it

is important.



6-21

Intentions and Behaviors (cont.)

Factors that reduce or weaken the relationshipbetween measured behavioral intentions andobserved behavior:

Intervening time

Different levels of specificity

Unforeseen environmental event

Unforeseen situational contextDegree of voluntary control

Stability of intentions

New information



6-22

Intentions and Behaviors (cont.)

Despite less-than-perfect accuracy, measures of

purchase intentions are often the best way to

predict future purchase behaviors.Certain behaviors just cannot be accurately

predicted from beliefs, attitudes, and intentions.



6-23

Summary

Attitude is a consumers’ overall evaluation of an

object.

Attitude objects vary in levels of abstraction andspecificity.

Discussed consumers’ attitudes toward objects

and described Fishbein’s multiattribute model.



6-24

Summary (cont.)

The theory of reasoned action identifies

consumers’ attitudes toward performing

behaviors and social influences as the basis forbehavioral intentions.

The problems of using measures of behavioral

intentions to predict actual behaviors were

discussed.



6 25

Summary (cont.)

Consumers’ activated knowledge is the basic

factor underlying their attitudes, subjective

norms, and intentions, and ultimately their

behaviors.

Activated salient beliefs and the resulting

attitudes and intentions are sensitive to situational

factors in the environment, including marketing

strategies.

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Attitudes & In Tensions