Consumer Attitudes

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Consumer Attitudes
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Attitudes
What is an attitude?

• 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.

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Why, From a Marketers point of view, is it
important to know about Attitudes?
If a consumer is favorably disposed towards your
product or service then you want to keep them so
disposed If they are unfavorably disposed then
you want to change their attitude.

• Therefore we need to know.
• What they are
• How they are formed
• What influences them
• How they can be changed

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Development of Attitudes
Attitudes are learned predispositions therefore,
their development is influenced by

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

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Functions of Attitudes

• Utilitarian guide consumers to seek out products
  for certain benefit Do they like it or not.

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• Value-expressive consumers attitudes guide them
  to use products that are an expression of
  themselves what does it say about them.

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• Ego-defensive consumers attitudes guide them to
  use products that protect their self-esteem
  What self doubts do they help overcome.

Edna's plight Bad breath. A Listerine ad from
the 1920s.
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• Knowledge function attitudes enable us to
  organize the information does the product meet
  the needs for order and structure

Shells ad provides reassurance
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Three Components of Attitudes

• The ABCs of attitudes
• The Affective Component (based on feelings or
  overall evaluation) I feel good about myself
  when I drive a BMW
• The Behavioral Component (likely action toward
  object e.g. from a consumer behavior point of
  view, the consumers intention to buy a product)
  I will buy a BMW next time
• The Cognitive Component (based on beliefs what
  you think about a marketing stimulus) I think
  BMWs are quality cars

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Hierarchy of Effects
This sweater looks so good on the mannequin that
some consumers just have to have it. In other
words, they fall in love with it and buy it. Once
they get it home they learn about it by looking
at the tag to see if it needs to be dry cleaned
etc. Whats the ABC sequence.
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Golf Pro shops encourage shoppers to take clubs
to the driving range to try them out before
buying them. Many companies give out free
samples. Consumers first try the product, then
decide whether they like it or not. Finally they
form an opinion of it. The ABC sequence is?
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Washing machines are about as expensive as other
major appliances but are usually hidden in the
basement, and few care about how they look.
Washing machines are functional. When buying one
it is likely consumers will visit several stores
first, talk to salesmen check the Internet etc.
i.e. Consumers gather information, consider the
alternatives and then choose a model. The ABC
sequence is?


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• High Involvement
• Learn-Feel-Do
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• Low Involvement
• Learn-Do-Feel
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• Experiential
• Feel-Do-Learn

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Our attitude can be influenced by the ad over and
above the product
An ad with a warm feeling
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The Woman in This Ad Exhibits a High Level of
Attitudinal Commitment to Her Employer
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Fishbeins Multi-attribute Theory

• Fishbeins 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
• salient attributes for an object/product
• extent to which consumer believes product
  contains these salient attributes
• Importance of the attribute to the consumer

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Fishbeins Multiattribute Theory

• Step One List of Attributes
• Step Two Obtain the relative importance of them
  (weights).
• Step Three Obtain the evaluation of each brand
  with respect to each attribute.
• (6Excellent, 5Very Good, 4Good, 3Bad, 2Very
  Bad, 1Poor)
• Step Four Obtain the mathematical solution,
  applying Fishbeins Formula.

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Fishbeins Multi-attribute Theory

• Aijk ? (Bijk x Iik) where
• i attribute
• j brand
• k consumer
• I Importance weighting
• B Extent to which the brand is believed to
  possess the attribute
• A Attitude toward brand/product/etc.

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Example Application of Fishbeins Multi-attribute
Theory

• In Crowfoot, there are 3 banks TD, CIBC, Royal.
• We would like to know the degree of preference
  clients have to each
• Step One List of Attributes quickness in
  service, office hours, localization, parking
  facilities, etc
• Step Two Obtain the relative importance of them
  (weights). Quickness 1, Hours 4, Localization 3,
  Parking 2
• Step Three Obtain the evaluation of each bank
  with respect to each attribute. (6 Excellent,
  5Very Good, 4Good, 3Bad, 2Very Bad, 1Poor)
• Step Four Obtain the mathematical solution,
  applying Fishbeins Model.

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Example Application of Fishbeins Multi-attribute
Theory

• Importance Royal TD
  CIBC
• Quickness 1 4 3
  1
• Hours 4 3
  3 3
• Localization 3 4
  3 2
• Parking 2 1 2
  5
• Total 30 28
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Which is the best Bank? Which is the worst
Bank? What would you do if you were responsible
for TD?
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Problems with Fishbeins Model

• Measure of Attitude not equal to Behaviour
• Does not address situational factors
• Not all attitudes are equal - some strongly held
  others weakly
• Does not consider social factors
• Some things are beyond consumer's control
• Assumes that we have been able to specify
  adequately all the relevant attributes

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Fishbeins Theory of Reasoned Action

• A refinement of his multi-attribute model
• Now considers conviction with which attitude held
  - more of a behavioral intention model
• Introduces ideas of importance of opinions of
  significant others (subjective norms) and a
  consumers motivation to comply with the opinions
  of these significant others.

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Attitude-Behavior Consistency

• Note A positive attitude toward a product does
  not necessarily mean that the consumer will buy
• Attitude-behavior consistency, the extent to
  which attitudes lead to purchase, is determined
  by a variety of consumer, situational, and
  measurement factors

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Attitude-Behavior Consistency

• Consumer Characteristics
• Resources, experience, state vs. action
  orientation, degree of conviction with which
  attitude is held
• Situational Characteristics
• Intervening time, unforeseen events, social
  influences, message repetition
• Measurement Characteristics
• timing of measurement, reliability of measurement

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Implications of Attitude Research for Marketing
Strategy

• Product positioning and repositioning
• Advertising-focus on certain attributes/benefits
• Marketing research
• Segmentation
• Distribution select outlets for which consumers
  have favorable attitudes

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Consumers can also have attitudes towards the act
of buying
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Attitude Change
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The Marketers Challenge

• Deep seated attitudes are internalized 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

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Branding America
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• Persuasion - the active attempt to change
  attitudes
• 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

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Interactive Communications
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THE ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION
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• THE SOURCE
• Who is delivering the message can have a big
  impact on whether it will be accepted.
• source credibility
• a credible source can be particularly persuasive

Expertise
Trustworthiness
Objectivity
Attractiveness
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Source Credibility Credibility can be enhanced if
the sources qualifications are perceived as
relevant to the product being endorsed. If they
are seen as experts.
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Celebrities as Credible Sources

• Awareness
• Due 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 credibility
• when consumers see a credible celebrity endorsing
  a product, consumers think that the product must
  be at least OK

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• 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

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Drawbacks of using Celebrities

Pepsi Shaquille O'Neal 25 million Nike
Tiger Woods 40 million Reebok Venus Williams
40 million Reebok Allen Iverson 100 million
(lifetime) Shick Andre Agassi 19
million Nike Michael Jordan 40 million
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Drawbacks of using Celebrities
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• Consumer cynicism
• People know celebrities get paid a lot of money
  for endorsements and this knowledge leads them to
  cynicism about celebrity endorsements.

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Consumer cynicism
Introducing The New Kmart!

• The logo does signify the change that we are
  making. It's truly a new beginning for us.
• Jeff Smith, Kmart
• "The new logo will signify change but the reality
  is they have to do a better job inside the
  store.
• David Littmann, Comerica economist

• K-Mart forgot the basics, like a clean store,
  well-stocked shelves, helpful personnel and
  attention to detail. The stores are a mess.
• The Shopper Report

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There has to be a link between product and
celebrity
Cybill Shepherd was endorsing beef industry when
said she did not eat meat.
Sainsburys used Catherine Zeta Jones for its
recipe advertisements when she was caught
shopping in Tesco (UK grocery stores)
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Guidelines For selecting a spokesperson
(FRED) Familiarity The target market must
recognize the celebrity, and perceive the person
as friendly, likeable, and trustworthy. The more
familiar an endorser, the more likely consumers
are to buy the endorsed product Relevance For
credibility there should be some link between the
celebrity and the product, and between the
celebrity and the audience. It is important for
audience to identify with the celebrity. E.g.
older consumers feel a tie to Arnold Palmer. If
consumers can associate with the endorser, they
will feel more comfortable accepting and buying
the product or service. Esteem Consumers must
respect celebrity for the commercial credibility.
Differentiation The public must see the
endorser as different from all the rest. Michael
Jordan is an example of a celebrity that stands
apart from the normal athlete, one of the
contributing factors to his success as an
endorser.
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• 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.

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Trustworthiness
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The Message What makes a marketing message
persuasive?

• stress a unique attribute or benefit of the
  product - USP
• showing convenience of use
• showing new product or improved features
• people incidental to the message
• 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

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Words or Pictures Which conveys the message best?

• Visual
• affects aesthetic evaluations
• stress on creativity
• don't convey factual information well
• Verbal
• Take 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
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Bloomingdales 1898
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.
Corn Flakes, 1933
Cosmopolitan, 1997
Puerto Rican Rum, 1974
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• VIVIDNESS
• precise descriptions or vivid graphics
• command attention
• remembered more than vague messages
• Companies that focused attention on the 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.

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• Repetition
• is the mother of teachers
• 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
• increases familiarity and brand awareness
• 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.

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

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Constructing the Argument One-Versus two-sided
arguments

• One-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..

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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
• possess the potential for different types of
  delivery. E.g. do you deliver positive or
  negative first

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

• audience may pay more attention to it.
• By presenting the opposing side, the advertiser
  causes its audience to question the product or
  service. By questioning it, the individuals are
  made to think about the attributes. The more
  these attributes are considered...the longer the
  product or service is in the mind of the
  consumer.
• When topics are made more interesting or
  involving messages are processed more thoroughly.
  Consumers think more highly of products, brands,
  and services which make them think. The process
  is viewed as novel and pleasant.
• more credible than one-sided ads because they
  admit that the advertised brands have
  shortcomings.
• researchers have found that those exposed to the
  two-sided messages were more likely to have a
  more favorable attitude after the exposure. That
  is the negative aspects of the message can yield
  a positive, desired attitude after exposure

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• Providing positive attributes first followed by
  negative attributes.
• allows consumer to hear about a product or
  service in a positive light first.
• provides a built-in counter claim, or opposing
  message. By providing only mild negative
  information to the consumer, the consumer is
  prevented from concocting potentially worse
  negative images on their own. Thus, it leads the
  consumer to perceive that the positive attributes
  presented are the stronger attributes.

• Providing negative attributes first followed by
  positive attributes
• Positive attributes remembered best since they
  came last.

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• Comparative advertisement
• 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.
• 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.
• acknowledgement of the competitors may be direct
  or indirect.

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Pitfalls of Comparative Advertising

• 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. Research commonly finds that a large
  percentage of the audience will believe that the
  competitor's product is the one being advertised.
• audience may also doubt the credibility of the
  biased ad
• 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.

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• 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.

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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
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Heart or Head?
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• Humorous Appeals
• Culturally relative
• 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
• Does not work well for products where consumers
  want the facts - e.g. food or where people have
  personal ties to the goods eg designer clothing,
  jewellery and sports cars. Ads poking fun at
  those products offend some consumers so much that
  they will not buy the product - it's like poking
  fun of the consumers
• Humor is an effective tool for selling products
  like candy and gum, because consumers don't have
  to do much decision-making before they buy such
  items,

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• 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

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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"
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Brands will be remembered more if they are
intimately entwined in the humour
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• Pitfalls of Humorous Appeals
• funny material can dominate the message and thus
  the product recognition is lost
• Reduces Comprehension
• a punch line that doesn't pay off can backfire

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Fear Factor

• Highlight the risk or negative consequences of
  not using the advertised 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
  smoking
• 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
• Lead customer to believe advertised product is
  insufficient to alleviate problem
• Pitfall - distract customer from focal product
  (ie. dwell on the fearful event rather than the
  proposed solution)

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Which ad is more effective?
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a solution to the problem should be presented.
otherwise consumers will tune out the ad since
they can do nothing it solve the problem
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Message as Metaphor

• the use of an explicit comparison -- A is B
• Truth in advertising" laws make it highly
  desirable for advertisers to avoid making
  explicit statements that could be true or false
  therefore metaphors (and other devices) are
  typically conveyed in "non-sentences - eg Gateway
  Computer ad
• More muscle.
• More juice.
• More room.
• More RAM.
• More gigabytes.
• More glory.
• More mail
• Even more mail.

. More than one program running at a time. More
brains. More brawn. More music. More modem.
More software. More music. More tools.
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• Resonance
• a literary device that employs a play on words
  (a double meaning) to communicate a product
  benefit.
• puns are used as attention-grabbers