ATTITUDES AND ATTITUDE FORMATION IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR combined

ATTITUDES
The topic attitude is the most researched and theorized
sub-subject of the science of consumer behavior.
Due to its non-salient nature, attitude of a person always
demanded probing studies.
Social psychologists all over the world have been doing
extensive research to identify and explain attitude
formation (Raju, 2005).

ATTITUDE – DEFINED AND EXPLANED
Attitude is commonly used in English language and has
different interpretations in different contexts.
Attitude means posture or orientation in which an
object, including the abstract mind, is placed.
All these meanings are not related to the science of the
consumer behavior (Raju, 2005).

ATTITUDE – DEFINED AND EXPLANED (cont’d)
“In consumer behavior, attitude is defined as an
enduring predisposition of the consumer to behave
consistently in favorable or unfavorable manner with
respect to a given object. This enduring disposition is not
inborn but is learned by the consumer depending on
his/her cognitive process (Raju, 2005).”

ATTITUDES ARISE OUT OF BELIEFS AND LIE DORMANT
All individuals during the formative years of their lives
collect beliefs depending on their backgrounds,
upbringing, cultural exposure and several other factors.
These beliefs are stored in the person’s mind with a
conferred status of facts and truths.
Individuals usually make no efforts to
apply rationale or to verify these beliefs
(Raju, 2005).

ATTITUDES ARISE OUT OF BELIEFS AND LIE DORMANT
(cont’d)
For example, if an individual has a belief that all multi-
national companies are colonial in nature and are
exploiters.
 These beliefs might have been implanted in him during his
early years.
 The attitude that can be developed out of such a belief is
that all the products of such companies are undesirable.

INFLUNECE OF ATTITUDES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
All the beliefs in the human mind may not give birth to
attitudes.
Attitudes can be compared to offsprings and beliefs to
their parents.
Attitudes unlike beliefs are not neutral but are either
positive or negative.
They influence the consumer to act in a certain way under
their direction.

INFLUNECE OF ATTITUDES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
(cont’d)
For example, when a consumer faces a decision-making
situation, attitudes influence him/her to act in such a
situation regarding the product or a service.

CONSISTENCY OF ATTITUDES
As attitudes are the enduring predispositions of the
consumers to act consistently in a favorable or
unfavorable manner towards a given object.
Consistency is the most important characteristic of an
attitude.
For example, if a person has a belief that imported goods
are more reliable than the local goods, then he will
develop a consistent attitude of preferring imported brands
instead of local brands (Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown,
1998).

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ATTITUDES
All the attitudes, whether positive or negative are
undesirable.
Positive attitude means the person has a fixed notion
that the product is good.
Negative attitude means the person has fixed notion
that the product is not good (Raju, 2005).

MARKETER’S CONCERN WITH ATTITUDES
Attitudes influence the purchase behaviors of the
consumers.
Discovery, Understanding, Analysis, Erasing and
Abetting of attitudes are the prime functions of marketing.
Marketers need to evaluate the response behaviors of their
consumers in actual as well as
simulated situations (Raju, 2005).

FORMATION OF ATTITUDES
Attitudes are not inborn characteristics but are leaned by
the consumer depending on his/her cognitive process.
The process of learning involves direct experience of the
consumer with the product or service, which can be
carried out through;
 Observation
 Information Obtained and Influence Received
 Exposure to Media and
 Reflections of Own Beliefs (Raju, 2005).

ATTITUDES MOTIVATE
Attitudes are not neutral by standers but they influence
the consumer in decision-making situation regarding the
product of service.
If they remain in a person’s mind for a long time, they
may become consistent.
For example, if a consumer has an attitude that French
products are elegant but the German products are more
sturdy, he/she will prefer the German products
of an unknown brand especially in the case of
machinery items.

ECLIPSING OF AN ATTITUDE
If the attitude remains in the consumer’s mind for a long
time, it may be set aside and is overridden by the
consumer (Raju, 2005).
For example, if the preferred product is unavailable
or unaffordable, the consumer will prefer the
competing items. Here the attitude has not changed
but only a temporary eclipse has
occurred.

Attitudes are Die-Hard but can
Change
Attitudes can change and get erased altogether by
new learning.
Attitudes can change for a number of reasons.
Attitudes most commonly change in
response to social influence.
 What other people do or say can have
a huge effect on our own cognitions.

Role of Influences in Attitude
Change
Attitudes learned by the individual are stored
and manifested when the occasions arise.
An individual’s attitude is driven or influenced
by his family, peers, groups,
his personality and media.
Each of this influence is discussed

Change
Influence of Family
The family is considered major factor
that influence consumer behavior.
It is important to analyze family habits and influences to
explain the origins of a consumer attitude.
Family influence is also important in brand loyalty and or
brand preferences.

Change
Influence of Family
Once young adults leave their homes, they face new situations
of consumptions such as buying certain product for first time.
In such condition, they usually recognize a certain brand
because they have already seen it at their parents’ home
Example: A newly married girl goes to a grocery market for
grocery shopping. She does not have much knowledge about
grocery products. She will pick those brands which have been
used by her mother. Such as, washing detergents like Ariel or
Tide, cooking oils like Habeeb or Sufi etc.

Change
Influence of Groups and Peers
Individuals in a society have to fall into or
associated with a group, when they work
outside of the family.
An individual fit into a group according to his place of study,
his work or play.
In a group, an individual is exposed to some attitudes that are
exhibited by other members of the group (Raju, 2005).

Change
Influence of Groups and Peers
Larger groups like religions impose certain beliefs and
traditions which are unquestioningly learned by the
individuals. These beliefs later translate into attitudes
(Raju, 2005).
Example: Individuals brought up in Hindu may find
consumption of beef distasteful because of their religion
belief that it is a sin to kill a cow that gives milk.

Change
Influence of Personality
Personality is sum total of those inner characteristics of a person
that direct and dictate the person’s responses to environment.
Personality is highly individualized. Even when two individuals
receive identical experiences, information or influences, there is no
certainty that both form the same attitudes.
Personality plays a large role in making an individual accessible.

Change
Milton Rokeach has stated that there are two different
types of human beings: the pragmatic open-minded and
the dogmatic closed-minded.
The open-minded personalities are in majority and there
proportion is increasing day by day due to the flow of
information
whereas closed minded show rejection of opposing beliefs
and resist the change (Raju, 2005).

Change
Individuals with high cognition needs are likely to form
positive attitudes in response to the ads that are rich in
product related information.
Whereas the individual with low cognition needs are
likely to form positive attitudes that feature an attractive
model or celebrity

Change
Example:
 Such as, the ad of Kellogg’s chocos ad
 An individual who is high in cognition needs will response to
this brand because it will be giving more nutrients related
information.
 Whereas, an individual with low cognition needs will respond
positively to this ad because it is advertised by Karishma
Kapoor.

Change
Influence of Mass Media:
The influence of mass media on attitudes is most
influential.
 Today, people have easy access to newspapers and
special interest in magazines and television channels.
As a result, consumers are constantly
exposed to new ideas, products, opinions
and advertisements (Raju, 2005).

Change
These mass media communication provide an important
source of information that influences the formation of
consumer attitudes
The one advantage is that it is changing with time and
there is no danger of its leading to permanent beliefs and
attitudes (Raju, 2005).

Correcting of Attitudes
Marketers identify the attitudes and their causative factors
first and
then they address them in several ways to attract
consumers towards their products.

For example:
 There are two competing companies.
 The brand (Brand A) of first company is in market for last
five years and is favored by consumer attitudes
 Whereas the other company is a new in market and wants
to promote its brand (Brand B). Its brand quality and price
is comparable but is suffering because of attitudes of
consumers.

Strategies:
They can use different strategies to attract consumers.
These strategies are following:

1. Consumer’s attitude:
Brand A is made by a company which is very large and
therefore it is good.
Strategy:
Company should create awareness among the consumers that
the size of the manufacturer has nothing to do with the quality
of the product.
In fact B’s quality is equal or better and the company I small
enough to devote greater attention.

2. Consumer’s attitude
Brand A has been giving good services for many years
and why should I use anything else.
Strategy:
The advertiser should advertise some specific advantages
of Brand B. They should compel people to try something
new.

Brand A is a tried product.
Strategy:
They should highlight the latest techniques or innovations
that have been used in making Brand B.

Brand A is the most popular one in our market. It must be
good.
Strategy:
They should highlight that Brand B is equally popular in
other states’s markets and many people are changing to it.

Brand A claims that it is the best brand in the market.
Strategy:
They should make consumers aware that claims and
counter claims are not to be taken at face value.

POST-BEHAVIORAL ATTITUDESPOST-BEHAVIORAL ATTITUDES
Attitudes and beliefs are first formed and in turn
affect the behavior of an individual.
However, there are situations where an individual
first exhibits a behavior and later tries to justify it by
forming an attitude in self-justification
(Raju, 2005).

POST-BEHAVIORAL ATTITUDESPOST-BEHAVIORAL ATTITUDES
Two well-known phenomenon that help to study
formation of attitude in self-justification are:
Cognitive Dissonance
Attribution

Attitude Following Cognitive DissonanceAttitude Following Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance theory was developed by Leon
Festinger in 1957.
It states that a discomfort or dissonance arises in the
mind of the consumer when he has already taken a
purchase decision and later on is confronted with new
evidence. The new evidence indicates there are
reasons to doubt the wisdom of the purchase decision
(Raju, 2005).

(Cont…)(Cont…)
For example, a consumer decides to buy a LCD of
Samsung company. He makes a down payment and is
waiting for delivery of LCD.
Subsequent to this decision the consumer comes
across advertisements, new information or opinions
that point out that there are better products in market
which he did not consider while making decision
(Raju, 2005).

(Cont…)(Cont…)
A cognitive dissonance occurs due to the conflict between the
belief the consumer held while making the decision and the
dissonant information he is receiving about the product.
At this point, the consumer can get some relief by any bits of
information favorable to the product he has chosen. Relief is
also obtained by forming an attitude that the competing
product is not good (Raju, 2005).

Attitude Arising out of the AttributionAttitude Arising out of the Attribution
According to attribution theory consumer can
attribute his/her own behavior to certain imagined
causative factors.
The consumer here is justifying his/her own decision
and attributing it to a cause (Raju, 2005).

(Cont…)(Cont…)
For instance, a lady routinely buys expensive suits of
Gul Ahmed. She tends to conclude that she is a
quality and economy conscious individual and gets
better durability only from Gul Ahmed.
This will develop, into an attitude that other brands,
which she has not even tried, are inferior.

(Cont…)(Cont…)
Sometimes the attribution is external.
For instance, the consumer routinely goes to Al-
Fatah and shops there even for minor purchases. He
ignores the neighborhood stores though feels guilty in
doing so. He attributes that the neighborhood stores
person is too talkative and will not allow him to shop
and select in peace. He develops an attitude that
neighborhood shops are only for senior citizens and
kids.

ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR RELATIONSHIPATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR RELATIONSHIP
Motivated by a desire to understand the relationship
between attitudes and behavior, psychologists have
sought to construct models that capture the underlying
dimensions of an attitude.
The focus has been on specifying the composition of
an attitude to better explain or predict behavior. There
are several important attitude models among which
tri-component attitude model is most popular
(Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010).

Tri-component Attitude ModelTri-component Attitude Model
Tri-component attitude model postulates that attitudes
consist of three major components:
a cognitive component,
an affective component
a conative component.
This model is also known as the
CAC model

A Simple Representation of the Tri-component Attitude
Model

The Cognitive ComponentThe Cognitive Component
The first part consists of a person's cognitions, that is,
the knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by
a combination of direct experiences with the attitude
object and related information from various sources.
The knowledge and resulting perceptions commonly
take the form of beliefs; that specific behavior will
lead to specific outcomes (Schiffman & Kanuk,
2010).

The Affective ComponentThe Affective Component
A person's emotions and feelings about a particular object
constitute the affective component of an attitude.
These emotions and feeling are frequently treated by
consumer researchers as primarily evaluative in nature;
they capture an individual’s direct or global assessment of
an attitude object (i.e. the extent to which the individual
rates the attitude object as "favorable" or "unfavorable" ,
"good" or "bad") (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010).

The Conation ComponentThe Conation Component
Conation is concerned with the likelihood or
tendency that the individual will undertake a specific
action or behave in particular way in regard to the
attitude object.
The conative component may include the actual
behavior itself (Schiffman & Kanuk,
2010).

Case StudyCase Study
Noel Soyza, a Sri Lankan citizen was posted to work
at India for five years. During this time he joined the
part-time course at the Indian Institute of Advanced
Management (IIAM) and obtained a postgraduate
diploma in Management (PGDM).
Later he returned to Colombo and started his own
business. Over a period of time he realized that among
his competitors he was the most successful. He started
attributing his success to the diploma he had obtained
and this attribution led to a mild and positive attitude
towards IIAM.

Time came when Noel's son Vikram had to choose a
career and the father strongly recommended that the son
also should seek admission to the PGDM course of IIAM.
When admission opened early Vikram was one of the first
students to get enrolled.
This story illustrates an ideal Cognition Affect Conation
(CAC) model. There was a cognitive component in the
experience of Noel; an affective component due to his
pleasant experience and good feeling towards IIAM. Both
these components being positive resulted in a strongly
positive conative component that dictated Noel's
behavior.

SHOULD I NAME MY COMPETITOR?SHOULD I NAME MY COMPETITOR?
A question faced by a marketer who has to introduce
corrective advertisement for his product is should I
name my competitor?
On occasions marketer may find that the competitor
is making false claims and enjoying an unfair
advantage. On other occasions he finds that certain
favorable information of his own product is not
reaching the consumer (Raju, 2005).

For corrective advertisements the marketer has to
present a multisided or at least a two-sided picture
making a comparison of brand with the competing
brands.
Marketer has to address to the strengths of the
competing brand. In the first place highlight strengths
of own brand which are going unnoticed (Raju, 2005).

Researchers have conducted experiments to assess the
effect of corrective advertisement and some points that
come out are:
Two-sided communications are noticed more by all
consumers irrespective of their brand loyalties.
Even if the communication does not name the
competitor, the consumers will make an intelligent
guess.

If communicator names the competitor, it may invite
him for fight, but it does not make the consumer
hostile to him.
Ad-wars do not cause loss of existing consumers.
Communicators should expect only small scale
changes in behavior and not automatic switchovers
whatever may be the facts presented in the
communication (Raju, 2005).

ATTITUDES AND ATTITUDE FORMATION IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR combined

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