RMIT Classification: Trusted

MKTG 1421 -
Consumer Psychology
& Behaviour

Topic 11: Attitude and attitude

change

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Internal influences: Motivation

The underlying
psychological
processes that
influence consumer Attitude

decision making
steps Attitude

Attitude

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Learning objectives

1. Nature of attitudes

2. The main components of attitudes

3. The strategies that can be used to change attitudes

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Attitudes

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We have an opinion or attitude towards

many “objects”
• Attitude: An enduring combination of Brand

motivational, emotional, perceptual and

Event Company
cognitive processes with respect to an
object or an aspect of the environment;
Learned predisposition to respond in Celebrity Shopping

positive or negative way Attitude

• Attitude object: Anything about which

an individual can have an attitude, such Ad Store

as a physical object, issue, behaviour,

other person, experience, event and so Sales
person
Other
Customers

on
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Attitudes are important because . . .

Strong Attitudes Weak attitudes Implications

• Highly accessible
from memory
• Not highly
• Maintained with • Focus of a
correlated with
confidence marketing and
behavior
• Held confidently advertising strategy
• So, not predictive.
• Often predicts
behaviour

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How marketing strategy can affect behaviour

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How marketers set to change attitude?

(Google
Philippines
2014)
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Attitude components
• Cognitive component (beliefs)
• Affective component (feelings)
• Behavioural component (response tendencies)

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Components of attitude

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Example: Attitude’s components

Famous brand name

Affective
Cool design

Multi-functions
Attitude toward a
Cognitive Ease of use
cell phone brand
Affordable price

Read more about

Put in evoked set
Behavioral
Purchase
Recommend to others
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Cognitive or behavioral component

• Represents the consumer’s tendency (intention) to respond in a

particular way towards the object or event

Pre-behaviour and behavioral component

Attitude Intention Behaviour

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Attitude-component consistency

• Principle of cognitive consistency: The principle that all 3 attitude

components tend towards consistency: a change in one attitude component
typically produces related changes in the other two components

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Component consistency

• The three components of attitude tend to be consistent.

• A change in one component will have a flow-on effect on the other

components.

Example:

Cognitive: “Toyota has a solid expertise in car making”

Affective: “I love the feeling of driving a Toyota”

What would be the consistent behavior for this person?

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Measuring attitude components

Before attempting to change attitudes, we first need to measure them

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Qualitative Observation of Attitude Scales
Research Behaviour • Rank order
Methods • A subjective scales, Constant
• In depth method of sum, Likert
interviews, measuring scale, Semantic
focus group etc differential scale.

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Attitude-change strategies
• Changing the cognitive component
• Changing the affective component
• Changing the behavioural component

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Attitude-change strategies

Creating, increasing, maintaining or changing an attitude requires

strategies aimed at one or more components of attitude

Affective
Cognitive component
component

Behavioural
component

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Strategies aimed at
the affective component
Creating, increasing or changing the consumer’s ‘feelings toward a brand, store etc

1. Classical conditioning learning

o E.g. a stimulus that the audience likes, such as music, is consistently paired with the brand name. Over
time, some of the positive affect associated with the music will transfer to the brand.

2. Positive affect towards the advertisement

3. Mere exposure or familiarity effect

Enchanteur TVC body lotion dancing Tango

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What attitude components have been used?

(Interpublic
Group of
Cos Canada
2019)
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Strategies aimed at
the cognitive component
Change in beliefs or improved knowledge base that will have an
influence on affect and behavior (can apply reasoning)
1. Change the beliefs about the attributes of the brand
2. Change the relative importance of these beliefs
3. Add new beliefs
4. Change the beliefs about the attributes of the ‘ideal’ brand

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How Rinse changes attitude

and behaviour?

(Mullen Lowe
Group
Singapore
2020)
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Strategies aimed at
the behavioral component
• Strategies focusing on behaviour usually rely on trial or re-trial sales
promotions

• This is an example of operant conditioning

a. sampling

b. trial of website (leads to cognitive learning/higher involvement

levels)

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What attitude components have been

mobilized in this Xbox campaign?

(Xbox 2019)
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Activity: attitude change

If you want to improve attitudes among university students towards the

following issues, would you focus primarily on the cognitive, affective or
behavioural component? Why?

(a) Team work skills

(b) The rights of gay and lesbian students

(c) Member recruitment for a dance club

(d) Plagiarism

(e) Usefulness of the e-library

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Communication and types of appeals

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Communication and types of appeals

Fear Appeal
Unpleasant Humour Appeal
consequences if Good mood. Like the
attitude and/or ad like the brand.
behavior is not altered

Emotional Appeal Comparative

Message designed to advertisement
elicit a positive Comparing attributes
response/feeling rather of the brand to
than information competitor/s

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Fear

This ad reminds people of the dangers of

overexposure to the sun.

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An example of a humor appeal (1)

Source

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An example of a humor appeal (2)

Source

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An example of an ad using emotional

appeal (1)

Source
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Pepsodent ad using comparison appeal

Source

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Summary: Attitude

Strategies aimed at one or more

attitude components

Attitude
Affective
Cognitive component
Attitude component

Behavioural
Attitude component

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Assignment 3 debrief

• Three groups to read the

assignment guidelines and
summarize the key requirements
and structure

• Two groups to read the marking

rubrics and summarize the key
marking criteria

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Reference list (1)

Google Philippines 2014, Labels Against Women P&G Pantene Case

Study, YouTube, viewed 18 April 2021, link to external site.

Nguyen, H, Nguyen, H & Hoang, T 2018, ‘Green consumption: Closing the

intention-behavior gap’, Wiley Online Library.

Quester et al., 2012, ‘Consumer Behaviour’, 5th edition, Mc Graw-Hill

Mullen Lowe Group Singapore 2020, Rinso: Let's Be Plastic Responsible,

WARC, viewed 18 April 2021, link to external site.

Xbox 2019, Microsoft Changing the Game, Clios.com, viewed 19 April

2021, link to external site.
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