Attitudes

- A person's overall evaluation of a concept (Evaluative Judgements)
- Evaluations are affective responses
- learned and persistent over time
Ex:
Good vs. bad
Strong vs. weak
General or specific

Consumer Attitudes

directed toward:
- Products
- Marketing messages
- Brands
- Or any other object or behavior in the marketplace

Attitudes Important For:

- Cognitive Functioning
- Affective Functioning
- Connative Functioning

Cognitive Functioning

Thought

Affective Functioning

Emotion

Connative Functioning

Behavior

Beliefs

- Usually concerned about product attributes and their benefits
- Marketers use ads and other strategies to influence consumers
- building block for attitude formation

3 Types of Beliefs

-Descriptive beliefs
-Informational beliefs
-Inferential beliefs

Changing A Descriptive Belief

-Offer an opportunity to have direct experience.
Ex:
Free trial
Discounts
Coupons

Changing An Informational Belief

- Increase availability of second hand information
Ex:
Encourage referrals
Encourage word of mouth
Consumer Reports reviews
Online review companies
Customer reviews

Changing Inferences

- Don't make 'em guess
- Offer all necessary information about products/brands/etc.

Negative Publicity Effecting Attitude

Ex:
-Bed, Bath, and Beyond
-Gattitown
-Mattel
-Paris Hilton

Functional Theory of Attitudes

Proposed as an explanation of how attitudes facilitate social behavior (motives)

Utilitarian Function

Related to basic reward and punishment

Value Expressive Function

Express the consumer's central values or self-concept

Functional Theory of Attitudes (Knowledge & Ego Defensive Functions)

- Marketers manipulate attitude by addressing these functions
- Communications and packaging directed toward these functions prompt favorable responses

Ego defensive function

Attitudes that protect the ego

Knowledge Function

Need for order, structure, or meaning

Cognitive Response Model

- response to a marketing message does affect your attitude toward the product

3 Types of Internal Arguments

- Counter Arguments
- Support Arguments
- Source Derrogations
- According to the cognitive response model, these responses will affect consumers' attitudes.

Counterarguments

- The thoughts that express disagreement with the message
- asks Does it work?

Support Arguments

- The thoughts that express agreement with the message

Source Derogations

- The thoughts that discount or attack the source of the message

Preferences

- Evaluative judgments concerning one or more objects
- Always involve making comparisons

Attitude Based Preferences

Compare your attitude for each product in a set

Attribute Based Preferences

- Formed by comparing one or more attributes of one or more brands/products
- Direction of comparison effect

Satisfaction Judgement

- high when the chosen product is considered better than the rejected product
- is lower when the rejected product is better
- is low when information searching is done after purchasing of the product

Expectations

We have these before we purchase a product
Met = satisfaction
Disconfirmed = dissatisfied

Attribution

How customers perceive the causal inferences of why a product performed worse/differently than expected

Internal attribution

I must not be using this right

External attribution

This product stinks!

Compliance

Formed in order to gain reward or avoid punishment

Identification

Formed in order to conform to another person or group

Internalization

Part of the person's value system

High Self Monitors

- Change their behavior to fit a situation
- Might purchase because it's expected in this situation

Low Self Monitors

- Typically will respond to internal stimuli, including attitudes
- Do what they feel comfortable with, regardless of the situation

Attitudes Affect Behavior

- Individual differences in how they affect behavior
- Strong ones affect behavior more than do weak ones
- Social, personal, and other norms strongly influence behavior
- Others factors effect behavior other than this alone

Fishbean Model

Measures 3 components of attitude:
-Salient beliefs
-Object-attribute linkages
-Evaluation
Assumes:
-We've been able to adequately specify all relevant attributes
-The consumer will identify the set of attributes, weigh them, and sum them
Ex:
Aijk = ? Bij

Theory of Reasoned Action

-One theory that has been used to understand attitudes
-Provides an expanded picture of how, when, and why attitudes predict behavior
Ex:
Attitude toward Behavior
---->behavioral intention--->behavior
Subjective Norm

Attitude Specificity

- the more specific the attitude is to the behavior of interest, the more likely the attitude will be related to the behavior

Consistency Principle

-Consumers value harmony among their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and they are motivated to maintain uniformity among these elements
-Keeping things consistent:
Changing thoughts, feelings, behaviors

Cognitive Dissonance

-When a person is faced with inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior, he/she will take some action to resolve dissonance
-Motivated to reduce negative feelings by changing:
Attitude or the behavior

Self Perception Theory

People use their observations of their own behavior to form their attitudes

Social Judgement Theory

People collect information based on their current attitude

Balance Theory

Triad:
1) The person
2) The person's perception of an attitude object
3) The person's perception of another person or object

Overt Consumer Behavior

The observable and measurable responses or actions of consumers

Shopping Addiction

90% of compulsive shoppers are women
Ratio of women to men in kleptomania = 3/1
Men are not immune!
Gambling addiction is primarily a male disease

Stages of Addiction

-Depression and anxiety
-Shopping binge generates temporary druglike highs
-Post-purchase depression, guilt, anxiety, and fatigue

Addictive Behavior

-Typically end up with huge debt
-Hoarding of merchandise
-Lack of control over the behavior
Physical:
-addiction to a substance to which the body becomes physically dependent
Behavioral:
-addiction that creates a compulsive behavior
obsession = thoughts

Treatment For Shopping Addiction

-Having one addiction appears to lower the threshold for developing other addictions
-Seeking professional help is the answer
Prevent relapse by:
-Pay cash
-Use lists
-Avoid discount stores and sales
-No TV, internet, or catalog shopping
-Window shop afte

Shoplifting Motives

Type 1: Out of greed
Type 2: Out of necessity
Type 3A: Out of unresolved trauma or abuse with depression
Type 3B: Out of unresolved trauma and abuse with rage or manipulation

Famous Shoplifters

Winona Ryder
-Clothes and make-up
Bess Myerson
-Nail polish, batteries, cheap earrings

Cost to Society

-An estimated $5.1 billion in goods is stolen from retail stores every year.
-costs the average American family $209 per year in higher prices.
-Theft from stores increased 18 percent in the four years that ended in 1991, making it one of the nation's fas

Shoplifting Facts

-66 percent of shoplifters are not reported to the police
-55 percent of shoplifters are women.
-80 percent of shoplifters have the money to pay for the items they steal.