Consumer Attitudes
Attitude: A learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object.
The "Object" could be a category, brand, model, etc.
Attitudes are learned / influenced by:
- Personality, Knowledge, Beliefs
- Family / Friends (Word of Mouth Advertising)
- Personal Experience (Samples, Trials)
- Mass Media (Ads, News, Marketing Influences)
A simple consumer attitude model: ABC
Where your attitude towards an object is a combination of:
Affect: How you feel towards the object
Cognition: How you think about the object
Behavior: How you act towards the object
Fishbein's multi-attribute attitude model
Attributes are features that an object might have.
Companies want consumers to perceive their products as having desirable attributes.
The key assumption in this model is: People's attitudes towards an object depend on their beliefs about its various attributes.
Fishbein Model summarizes overall attitude into a score:
A consumer's overall Attitude (A) towards an Object (o), is determined by weighted sum of the Evaluation (E) of the goodness of a particular attribute of an object, and the strength of Belief (B) that a particular object has said attribute.
The consumer's Total attitude (T) towards an object is the sum of all attributes.
Ao = (E x B)
T = Ao + Ao + (Add all Ao)
Weaknesses of Fishbein Model
- Requires all attributes and beliefs to be broken down neatly.
- Assumes consumers are rational and engage in such thinking, at least implicitly. Eg: Impulse buy.
- Does not differentiate between attitude and action. Change in attitude does not always lead to change in action, only change in beliefs.
- Sometimes, behaviour leads to change in attitude.
- Does not take into account the environment and external influences. Eg: Do my parents approve of this purchase? How important is my parents' approval?
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