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members:
Farzan Yahya
(02093-006)
Muhammad Nauman
(02093-167)
Qamar-uz-Zaman
(02093-026)
Mirza Sheriyar Raza (02093-016)
Sayyad Owais Gilani (02093-017)

Section: A

Subject: Consumer Behavior

Topic:
Strategies that change attitude components

Submitted to:

Dr. Irfan Amir

Strategies to change attitude components:
How consumers are formed and how they are changed are two closely related issues of
considerable concern to marketing practitioners. When it comes to attitude formation, it is useful
to remember that attitudes are learned and that different learning theories provide unique insights
as to how attitudes initially may be formed. Attitude formation is facilitated by direct personal
experience and influenced by the ideas and experiences of friends and family members and
exposure to mass media. In addition, it is likely that an individual’s personality plays a role in
attitude formation.

Marketers often attempts to influence consumer behavior by changing one or more of the
underlying attitude components. First it is change the cognitive component. A common and
effective approach to changing attitudes is to focus on the cognitive component. Four Basic
marketing strategies are used for altering the cognitive structure of a consumer attitude. Change
belief is the strategy involves shifting beliefs about the performance of the brand on one or more
attributes. There is some evidence that beliefs tend to be consistent with each other. Thus,
changing one belief about a brand may result in other beliefs changing to remain consistent with
the changed belief. Most consumers consider some product attributes to be more important than
others. In shift importance marketers often try to convince consumers that those attributes on
which their brands are relatively strong are the most important. Another approach to changing
the cognitive component of an attitude is to add new beliefs to the consumer’s belief structure.
The final strategy for changing the cognitive component is to change the perceptions of the ideal
brand or situation.

Now the second one is changing the effective component. Firms increasingly attempts to
influence consumers’ liking of their brands without directly influencing either beliefs or
behavior. Marketers use three basic approaches to directly increase affect: classical conditioning,
affect toward the ad itself, and mere exposure. In classical conditioning approach, a stimulus the
audience likes, such as music, is consistently paired with the brand name. Now it is the affect
toward the ad or website. Liking the advertisement generally increases the tendency to like the
brand. Somewhat similar results are associated with liking the website on which an ad appears
(Aweb). Using humor, celebrities, or emotional appeals increases Aad and Aweb. While
controversial, there is evidence that affect or brand preference may also be increased mere
exposure. That is, simply presenting a brand to an individual on a large number of occasions
might make the individual’s attitude toward the brand more positive. A common explanation of
the mere exposure effect is that “familiarity breeds liking”.

Now the last one is change the behavioral component. Behavior, specifically purchase or use
behavior, may precede the development of cognition and affect. Or it may occur in contrast to
the cognitive and affective components. For example, a consumer may dislike the taste diet soft
drinks and believe that artificial sweeteners are unhealthy. However, rather than appear rude, the
same consumer may accept a diet drink when offered one by a friend. Behavior can lead directly
to affect, to cognitions, or to both simultaneously.

Strategies of the attitude change can be classified into six distinct categories: (1) changing the
basic motivational function, (2) associating the attitude object with a specific group or event,
(3) relating the attitude object to conflicting attitudes, (4) altering components of the
multiattribute model, (5) changing beliefs about competitors’ brand, and (6) the elaboration
likelihood model. Each of these strategies provides the marketer with alternative way of
changing consumers’ existing attitudes.

There are some strategies for influencing and changing attitudes: (1) Changing existing beliefs
and values, (2) Creating new needs and aspiration, (3) Using group influences, (4) Understanding
intervening factors. Changing existing beliefs and values includes provide information that
challenges individual beliefs and challenges. Creating new needs and aspiration means point out
benefits of behavior change and reward behavior change, remove ego threats and provide ways
to better understand environment. Using group influences is to involve individual in groups
which reward the desire attitude. Understanding intervening factors means to become familiar
with individual’s background and its effects on attitude and behavior.
References:
Leon G. Schiffman, & Leslie Lazar Kanuk (2006). Consumer behavior: Consumer attitude
formation and change (9th ed.). New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall.

Hawkins, D, Mothersbaugh, D, & Best, R (2007). Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing

Strategy. New York City: McGraw-Hill

Breckler, S. J. (1984). Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct

components of attitude. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1191-1205.