Chapter 7

Consumer attitude
formation and
change
Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk:
Consumer Behaviour 4e © 2007 Pearson Education Australia

Chapter Objectives

n  To define attitudes

n  To examine various models of attitudes

n  To understand how attitudes are formed

n  To outline the strategies of attitude change

n  To review attribution theory

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What are attitudes?

Attitudes are defined as:

“A learned predisposition to behave

in a consistently favourable or
unfavourable way with respect to a
given object.”

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 About attitudes
The attitude Attitudes are
‘object’ learned
‘Object’ refers to marketing Attitudes are formed from direct
concepts, such as products, experience, word-of-mouth
brands, people, ads, or information and exposure to
retailers promotions

Attitudes have Attitudes occur

consistency within a situation
Attitudes are relatively Specific situations may cause
consistent with the consumers to behave
behaviour they reflect inconsistently with their attitudes
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Figure 7.2: A simple representation

of the tricomponent attitude model

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Model components

•  Consists of the consumer’s knowledge

The cognitive and perceptions that take the form of
component beliefs

•  Consists of the consumer’s emotions

The affective or feelings about a particular product
component or brand

•  Consists of consumer’s likelihood that

The conative they will undertake a specific action or
component behave in a particular way

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 Multi-attribute attitude models
Attitude-toward-object Attitude-toward-
model behaviour model
•  Suitable for measuring •  Designed to capture how
attitudes towards a the attitude affects
particular product or behaviour, rather than the
brand (an object) attitude itself

Theory of planned
Theory-of-reasoned behaviour
action model •  Highlights that consumers’
•  This model integrates behaviour is also affected
attitude components into a by their perceived
structure similar to the behavioural control, that is
tricomponent attitude model their skills or resources to
achieve the outcome
Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk: Consumer Behaviour 4e © 2007 Pearson Education Australia
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Figure 7.8: A simplified version

of the theory of reasoned action

Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk: Consumer Behaviour 4e © 2007 Pearson Education Australia
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Figure 7.9: A simplified version of

the theory of planned behaviour

Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk: Consumer Behaviour 4e © 2007 Pearson Education Australia
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• Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk: Consumer Behaviour 4e © 2007 Pearson Education Australia
 Figure 7.10: A conception of the
relationships between elements in an
attitude-towards-the-ad model

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Attitude formation

How attitudes
are learned

The impact of Sources of

personality on influence on
attitude attitude
formation formation

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How attitudes are learned

n  As attitudes are formed, there is a shift from no

attitude to some attitude towards a particular object
n  This shift in attitude is a result of learning
n  Established brand names are often perceived
favourably, as the result the stimulus
generalisation (classical conditioning)
n  Sometimes attitudes follow the trial purchase of the
product (instrumental conditioning)
n  Other times, consumers are likely to form attitudes
based upon information from their own knowledge
and beliefs (cognitive)
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 Sources of influence on
attitude formation

Influence of
family and
friends

Personal
Internet
Formation experience
of
attitudes

Mass Promotional
media activities

Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk: Consumer Behaviour 4e © 2007 Pearson Education Australia
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Personality and
attitude formation
n  Personality plays a critical role in attitude
formation
n  Those with a high need for cognition – are
likely to form positive attitudes to promotions
that are rich in product-related information
n  Those with a low need of cognition – have a
more positive attitude towards promotions that
feature attractive models or well-known
celebrities
n  Different personalities will have either a
positive or negative attitude towards new
products and changes
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Strategies of attitude change

n  Past behaviour is a good predictor of future

behaviour – which is good if you are the market
leader and have significant brand loyalty
n  Many other firms will seek to change attitudes
in order to win more business
n  Key attitude change strategies are:
-  Changing the basic motivational function
-  Associating the product with an admired group
-  Resolving two conflicting attitudes
-  Altering components of the multi-attribute model
-  Changing beliefs about competitor brands

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 Changing the basic
motivational function

n  The strategy here is to make particular needs

prominent – this is known as the functional approach
n  Attitudes can be classified into four functions:

Utilitarian function Ego defensive function

•  Relates to the brands utility, or •  Providing a sense of
its value or helpfulness security and personal
confidence

Value expressive function Knowledge function

•  A reflection of the consumer’s •  Relates to the consumer’s
general values, lifestyle and ‘need to know’ and
outlook understand
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Resolving two
conflicting attitudes

n  Attitude-change strategies sometimes resolve

potential conflicts between two attitudes

n  In particular, trying to convince consumer’s

that their negative attitude (towards a product)
is not really in conflict with another attitude

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Altering the components of

the multi-attribute model
Changing the •  Attempting to persuade consumers to
shift their favourable attitude to
relative evaluation another version of the product that has
of attributes distinct features and benefits
•  Changing the beliefs about the brand
Changing brand itself – that is, the brand is better on
beliefs some important product attribute
•  This is the most common form of
advertising appeal

Adding an attribute •  Adding an attribute that is really new

or has not been promoted previously

Changing the •  Using some form of global statement

overall brand ( a broad claim) that sets the brand
rating apart from its competitors
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 Changing believes about
competitors’ brands

n  Uses comparative advertising

n  Either on a explicit direct comparison ad

-  Such as Apple Mac versus IBM

n  Or using an implied comparison

-  Such as ‘the burgers are better at Hungry Jack’s’

n  This can be quite effective, although it may

also give visibility to the competing brand

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The elaboration
likelihood (ELM)

The central route is relevant

to attitude change when the
consumers motivation is high
and they seek out available
information

The peripheral route is

relevant when the
consumers motivation is
low (that is, a low
involvement purchase)

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Cognitive dissonance theory

n  Cognitive dissonance occurs when consumer holds
conflicting thoughts about a belief or an attitude
n  When this occurs after purchase it is called post-
purchase dissonance – this is considered quite
normal
n  Basically a consumer has an uneasy feeling about a
recent major purchase
n  Marketers try to reduce post purchase dissonance –
as this may affect future decisions
n  Tactics used include reinforcement advertising,
warranties, after sales service, information on
improved product use, and so on
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 Attribution theory

n  Attribution theory attempts to explain how

people assign causality to events

n  They may attribute credit or blame to

themselves or to others, such as:
-  The salesperson talked me into it
-  I shouldn’t have decided to switch brands

Schiffman, Bednall, O’Cass, Paladino, Ward & Kanuk: Consumer Behaviour 4e © 2007 Pearson Education Australia
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Perspectives on
attribution theory

Self-perception Foot-in-the-door
technique
Suggests that attitudes
develop as consumers Where consumers will initially
make judgements about comply with a minor request
their own behaviour and then later comply with a
larger request

Attributions Attributions
towards others towards things
Involves evaluating the Evaluating how well a
motives and intentions product meets
of others expectations and why
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Criteria for testing

our attributions
•  The consumer attributes an action if it
Distinctiveness only occurs when the product or
person is present

Consistency over •  The consumer’s inference or reaction

time is nearly always the same

•  The reaction is the reasonably

Consistency over consistent, even when the situation
modality varies

Consensus •  The action is perceived in the same

way by other consumers

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 Summary

n  The definition of attitudes

n  The various models of attitudes

n  How attitudes are formed

n  The strategies of attitude change

n  Attribution theory

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