Attitudes and Beliefs

Consumer Attitude Formation and Change

Learning Objectives

1. Understand what attitudes are, their nature and

characteristics

2. Composition & scope

3. How experience leads to formation of attitudes

4. Ways in which attitudes can be changed

5. How behaviour leads to attitudes and attitudes lead to

behaviour
Consumer Beliefs

• Beliefs consists of a large number of mental

impressions or verbal statements which reflect a
consumer’s accumulated knowledge and assessment
about the object
• Values are also certain beliefs, widely accepted by
people
• In a broad sense, both beliefs and values are mental
images that develop into a wide range of attitudes
Belief formation

• Complex process starts from cognitive learning

consumer gains from his environment
• Involves own observation, learning from family and
peer group, media and environment
 Popular Consumer Beliefs

• Fair skin donates royalty and beauty

• Whatever is cheap is poor in quality, you get what you pay
for
• Ready to eat food is not fresh
• Touch and feel while buying fruits, vegetables and grocery
• Nutritious healthy food cannot be tasty
• Products with beautiful packaging are good
• The more expensive the brand, the better is the quality and
performance
Consumer feelings

• Attitudes are formed on basis of how a

product/ brand makes them feel
• Marketer can influence feelings through
– As a part of “advertising experience”
– As a part of “Shopping experience”
– As a part of “Consumption Experience”
What are Attitudes ?

• An attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a

consistently favorable or unfavorable way with respect
to a given object
Nature of Attitudes

• Object refers to product, category, brand, service,

use, ad, internet, price etc
• Attitudes are formed as a result of direct experiences,
word-of-mouth information acquired, ad, internet
• Attitudes have consistency but they are not
permanent and can be changed
• Attitudes occur within a situation
Structural Models of Attitudes
Tricomponent Attitude Model

3 Major components
Conation
1. Cognitive
2. Affective
Cognition Affect
3. Conative
The Cognitive Component

• Knowledge and perceptions acquired by combination of direct experiences

with the attitude object and related information from various sources
• They form Beliefs
• Consumer believes that the attitude object possesses various attributes
and specific behaviour will lead to specific outcomes
• Helps in developing brand beliefs associated with functional/ tangible
proposition of brands
• Important during new product launch
The Affective Component

• A consumer’s emotions or feelings about a particular

product or brand
• Positive emotional state of the consumer enhance positive
experiences and thereby positive attitude formation
• Brand familiarity
• Hedonism – sensual pleasure associated with the
consumption experience
– Affects brand loyalty, associations and purchases
The Conative Component

• The likelihood or tendency that individual will

undertake a specific action or behave in particular way
• Or actual purchase behaviour
• Or intention to buy
Multiattribute Attitude Models

• Portray consumers’ attitudes with regard to an

attitude object as a function of consumers’ perception
and assessment of the key attributes or beliefs held
with regard to the particular attitude object
• The consumer’s attitude towards a product or specific
brand is function of the presence (or absence) and
evaluation of certain product specific beliefs and or
attributes
3 variations of Multi-attribute Attitude Model

1. The attitude towards object model

2. The attitude towards behaviour model
3. Theory of Reasoned Action Model (TRA)
1. Attitude towards object model

• The consumer’s attitude towards a product or brand is

a function of the presence / absence and evaluation of
certain product specific beliefs and or attributes
• Consumers have positive attitudes towards those
brands that they believe have the desired attributes,
which they feel are important
• E.g. Car with safety features considered positive
2. Attitude Toward Behaviour Model

• The model captures the individual’s attitude towards

behaving or acting with respect to an object rather
than the attitude towards the object itself
• E.g A person may have positive attitude towards Audi
due its features, attributes and image, but he may not
have positive attitude in terms of buying Audi=
negative attitude as a prospective buyer
3. Theory of Reasoned Action Model

• Represents a comprehensive integration of attitude

components into a structure
• Incorporates
– Cognitive
– Affective
– Conative component
• Arranged directly than Tri-component model
 Beliefs that the behavior
leads to certain outcomes
Attitude towards
the behavior
Evaluation of the
outcomes

Intention Behavior
Beliefs that the specific
Referents think I should
Or should not perform
The behavior
Subjective Norm

Motivation to comply with

The specific referents
 Theory of Trying-to-consume Model

• Extension of attitude models

• Model is designed to account for the many cases in which
the action or outcome is not certain but instead reflects
the consumers attempt to consume (purchase)
• Personal impediments
• Environmental impediments
Attitude-Towards-The-Ad-models

Exposure to an ad

Judgments about Feelings from

the ad (Cognition) the ad (Affect)

Beliefs about Attitude towards

The brand The ad

Attitude towards
The brand
Attitude Formation

1. How attitudes are learned

• Classical conditioning
• Purchase and consumption
• Cognition (knowledge and Beliefs) based on information
exposure
2. Sources of influence
• Personal experience, influence of family and friends, direct
marketing , mass media and the internet
3. The impact of personality on attitude formation
• High / low need for cognition
• Liking for Celebrity
Attitude Towards Product Categories
New product Creation of a
Categories Category in
Attitude
Few brands the mindset

Use
T
I
M Consumer
E familiarity

Attitudinal Attitude towards

Brands components brands
Strategies of Attitude Change

• By changing the consumers’ beliefs

• By adding new beliefs
• By changing attribute importance
• By changing ideal points
• Changing overall brand ratings
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