Slides - Attitude

• Objectives of Attitude and Attitude Change

  • To understand the make-up of attitudes
  • To understand the relationship between attitudes and behaviour
  • To critically evaluate expectancy value models
  • To introduce the idea of compensatory and non-compensatory models of choice
• Attitude

  A learned predisposition to respond consistently with respect to a given object or act
• Characteristics of Attitudes

  • Attitudes are learned
  • Attitudes have consistency
  • Attitudes occur within a situation
  • Attitudes always have a value judgement aspect
  • Attitudes can be changed
  • A certain attitude does not ensure or predispose to perform any specific behaviour
• Utilitarian function

  • Related to the basic principles of reward and punishment
  • Value expressive function - attitudes that express the consumers’ central values or self-concept
  • Ego defensive function - formed to protect consumers from external threats or internal feelings
  • Knowledge function - attitudes formed as the result of a need for order, structure or meaning
• Approaches to modelling attitude

  1. Tri-Component Model: Cognitive Component, Affective Component, Conative Component

  2. Unidimensionalist Model: Beliefs, Attitude, Intentions, Behaviour
• Attitude Formation and Change

  1. To organise world and operate easily and efficiently, need consistency among beliefs, attitudes and propensity to certain type of behaviour

  2. Attitude formation will be affected by: direct and past experience, influence of family and friends, exposure to mass media
• Cognitive Dissonance

  1. Much inconsistency between attitudes and behaviour can be explained by cognitive dissonance

  2. Situations which give rise to cognitive dissonance: Decision making, Forced compliance, Voluntary and involuntary exposure to dissonant information, Disagreement with others
• Relationship between attitude and beliefs


  We know that attitudes relate in some way to beliefs about the attitude object where belief is a statement which connects the attitude object with some other object, goal, or value
• Multi-attribute or Expectancy value model (Fishbein)


  Attitude (act) = ∑ b . e, Where A (act) = attitude to (act of purchasing) behaviour, b = strength of belief that behaviour will produce specific outcome, e = evaluation of attribute (e.g. Good to bad) Summed over n attributes
• Attitude Change

  1. Cognitive aspect of attitudes (beliefs) is easier to change than evaluative aspect

  2. Attitudes vary in strength held

  3. Attitudes are easier to change when there is a lower level of personal involvement

  4. The greater our identification with a product, the more difficult it will be to change our attitudes to that product - we may screen out con
• Attitudes vary in strength
• Attitudes are easier to change when there is a lower level of personal involvement
• The greater our identification with a product, the more difficult it will be to change our attitudes to that product - we may screen out conflicting messages
• Attitudes are easier to change when they conflict
• Limitations of Model: Predictive power is poor, Assumes more (or less) is always better, The purchase/decision situation not directly taken into account, Social conformity pressures were not taken into account e.g. family, peer group, Other circumstances (situational, economic etc.) affect behaviour
• Watch the McDonalds video and consider beliefs that brought about a more negative attitude. Think about changes in the brand and people's beliefs about the brand
• Theory of Reasoned Action: B ≈ BI = W1(A) + W2(SN), B = Behaviour, BI = Behavioural Intent, A = Attitude to performing behaviour B, SN = subjective norm/social influence, W1 and W2 are weights
• Behavioural Intent

  BI is the immediate antecedent to overt behaviour, It is different to behaviour: something may intervene to stop BI becoming Behaviour, BI can be more or less specific, The closer in time to the actual behaviour the BI is measured, the more accurately it is likely to predict behaviour, In trying to measure behaviour we are almost always measuring BI as usually we are asking people to indicate what they are likely to do rather than directly observing behaviour
• Subjective Norm

  In forming a subjective norm an individual takes into account the normative expectations of various others in the environment and considers whether specific individuals and groups think should engage in behaviour
• Subjective Norm

  Not every referent will be relevant or important, Only salient referents will influence subjective norm
• Subjective Norm: Normative Beliefs

  Intensity of belief that others believe an action should be taken or not taken
• Subjective Norm: Motivation to Comply

  Motivation to comply with that belief
• Subjective norm refers specifically to the person’s perception that important others desire the performance/non-performance of a specific behaviour; this may or may not reflect what the important others actually think he should do
• Strategies of Attitude Change: Change degree of normative belief strength associated with existing referent, Change motivation to comply, Introduce previously non-salient referent/person
• Strategies of Attitude Change: Change beliefs about existing brand, Change brand, Add a salient attribute, Change beliefs about competitor brand, Associate brand with admired object e.g. celebrity sponsorship (warning, be sure celebrity is admired by audience and beware celebrity letting you down), Associate competitor with negatives, Show two attitudes conflict and resolve by aligning with one
• Strategies of Attitude Change

  1. Associate brand with admired object (e.g. celebrity sponsorship)

  2. Associate competitor with negatives

  3. Show two attitudes conflict and resolve by aligning your brand with superior
• Using Celebrities

  • Celebrity sponsorship
• Strategies of Attitude Change

  1. Importance of appropriate message and media

  2. Establish primary communications objectives (e.g. Awareness, sales)

  3. Select audience and segment into homogeneous groups (e.g. Need for different messages to each group)

  4. Be sure advertising appeal is appropriate and relevant to target audience

  5. Creative design: resonance with audience

  6. Media Strategy: place ads in specific, appropriate media

  7. Source of the message should be credible and attractive
• SCDF: 'Chong was chosen because of her "versatility and ability to connect with a wide audience"'
• Behavioural and Personal


  • Make behaviour more fun
• Most purchases do not represent a single piece of behaviour but choices among alternatives
• Generally people are not brand loyal, do have favourites but also have a repertoire of brands they will choose between
• You cannot explain every switch between brands because there does not need to be complete change in attitudes for a person to buy a different brand
• Decision Rules

  • Procedures consumers use in forming an evaluation or attitude toward the choice alternative
• Decision Rules

  • Types of decision rules: Compensatory, Non-compensatory
• Decision Rules

  1. Processed by Brand

  2. Processed by Attribute
• Decision Rules

  Decision rule types: Lexicographic, Elimination by aspects, Conjunctive, Disjunctive, Phased decision strategies
• Decision Rules may provide satisfactory rather than ‘best’ choice
• Decision rule types: Lexicographic, Elimination by aspects, Conjunctive, Disjunctive, Phased decision strategies
• Phased decision strategies involve sequential use of at least two different decision rules as means of coping with a large amount of choice alternatives