Consumer Intentions, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Feelings

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Chapter 10

• Consumer Intentions, Attitudes, Beliefs, and
  Feelings

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Consumer Intentions

• Useful for firms when predicting how people will
  act as consumers
• How much of an existing product should be
  produced to meet demand?
• How much demand will there be for a new product?
• Firms are interested in where consumers will buy,
  when they will buy, and how much they will buy

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How Firms Can Predict Behavior

• Rely on past behavior to predict future behavior
• Problems
• Situations change (changes in market can cause
  unpredictable changes in demand)
• Sales trends are sometimes erratic
• Past behaviors not available for new products or
  first-time behaviors
• Research can overcome these problems
• AC Nielsen BASES

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How Firms Can Predict Behavior

• Intentions subjective judgments about how we
  will behave in the future
• People often do what they intend
• Intentions can change
• Intend to do something and dont
• Intend not to do something and do

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Limitations

• Measuring intentions may be less predictive of
  future behavior than measuring what they expect
  to do
• Behavioral expectations represent perceived
  likelihood of performing a behavior
• Although smokers may intend to quit smoking, they
  may report more moderate expectations due to past
  failures

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Limitations

• Accuracy of forecasts depends on when intentions
  are measured
• How far into the future is being predicted?
• Volitional control the degree to which a
  behavior can be performed at will
• Perceived behavioral control the persons belief
  about how easy it is to perform the behavior

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New Coke and Predictive Failure

• Coke spent 4 million and interviewed 200,000
  consumers
• The research said it was a good idea

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New Coke and Predictive Failure

• Reactions of die-hard fans were bad
• "Changing Coke is like God making the grass
  purple or putting toes on our ears or teeth on
  our knees."
• "At first I was numb. Then I was shocked. Then
  I started to yell and scream and run up and
  down."
• "There are only two things in my life God and
  Coca-Cola. Now you have taken one of those
  things away from me.
• "like spitting on the flag"
• The reactions spread and the product was pulled
  within a few months

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Consumer Attitudes

• Attitudes represent what we like and dislike
• Attitudes determine intentions
• Holding a favorable attitude toward a product is
  often prerequisite for holding a favorable
  purchase or consumption intention
• Preferences represent attitudes toward one
  object in relation to another (a way to measure
  attitudes)

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Measuring Attitudes

• Ab
• Ao

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Role of Beliefs in Attitude Formation

• Beliefs subjective judgments about the
  relationship between two or more things
• Beliefs are based on knowledge (internal search)
• Multiattribute attitude models show that beliefs
  about a products attributes determine ones
  attitude toward the product

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Fishbein Multiattribute Model

• Ao attitude toward object
• bi strength of the belief that object has
  attribute i
• ei evaluation of attribute i
• n number of salient or important attributes

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Example Application of Fishbein
Research Question What is the listeners
attitude towards WXYZ radio station?
Beliefs about specific attributes For example
Do you believe that radio station WXYZ
plays lots of music? Yes 3 2 1 0
-1 -2 -3 No Evaluation weights for each
attribute For example How appealing is it to
you when a radio station plays lots of
music? Very appealing 3 2 1 0 -1 -2
-3 Not appealing
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Example Application of Fishbein
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Fishbein Multiattribute Model

• Companies want consumers to perceive their
  products as
• Possessing desirable attributes
• (when ei is positive bi should be positive)
• Not possessing undesirable attributes (when ei is
  negative bi should be negative)

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Ideal-Point Multiattribute Model

• AP attitude toward product
• Wi importance of attribute i
• Ii ideal performance on attribute i
• Xi belief about products actual performance on
  attribute i
• n number of salient attributes

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Ideal-Point Multiattribute Model

• Consumers indicate where they believe a product
  is located on scales representing the various
  levels of salient attributes
• Also report where ideal products would fall on
  these scales
• The closer ideal and actual ratings are, the more
  favorable the attitude

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Example Application of Ideal-Point
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Example Application of Ideal-Point
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Benefits of Multiattribute Attitude Models

• Reveal why consumers like or dislike a product
• Identify opportunities for new products
• Comparison of your product versus the competition

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Stimulus Importance-Performance Grid
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Role of Feelings in Attitude Formation

• Feelings an affective state (such as mood you
  currently are in) or reaction (such as feelings
  experienced during product consumption or when
  processing an advertisement)
• Can be positive or negative and range from
  overwhelming to virtually nonexistent

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Feelings As Part of The Consumption Experience
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Feelings As Part of The Advertising Experience

• Some ads may amuse while others annoy consumers
• Feelings experienced during ad processing may
  influence post-message evaluations
• Product attitudes are influenced by feelings
  evoked during ad

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Attitude Change

• Attitudes are dynamic
• Both positive and negative attitudes may become
  more neutral as time passes
• Attitude persistence an attitudes immunity to
  corrosion

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Attitude Change

• Attitude resistance the degree to which an
  attitude is immune to change
• The more resistant consumers product attitudes
  are, the more difficult it is for competitors to
  recruit them
• A strong foundation and direct experience enhance
  resistance

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Methods of Changing Attitudes

• Multiattribute models suggest three primary ways
  for changing consumer attitudes
• Changing beliefs
• Changing attribute importance
• Changing ideal points

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Changing Beliefs

• If beliefs are false, they need to be brought
  into harmony with reality
• If beliefs are accurate, it may be necessary to
  change the product
• Comparative advertising helps reduce beliefs
  about a competitive brand

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Changing Attribute Importance

• Changing an attributes importance is more
  difficult than changing a belief
• Increasing attribute importance is desirable when
  the competitors brand is farther from the ideal
  point than your product
• Firms may add a new attribute

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Questions?