Consumer Attitude Formation and Change

Brand Loyalty & Switching Cognitive Dissonance &

Attribution Theory

Session 714th September 2010

What we have completed

• Consumer Behavior Introduction• Consumer Motivation• Market segmentation• Consumer perception• Personality and Consumer

Behavior

Classical Conditioning• Earlier it theoried that all organism

are relatively passive entities that could be taught certain behavior by repetition / conditioning e.g salivation of the dog

• However now it means that conditioning may have an ever lasting effect on the organism e.g visit to the market means headache

Learning is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience that they apply to future related behavior

• Learning encompasses• Range of learning from simple almost

reflexive response to most complex concepts

• Motivation acts as a spur to learning• Degree of involvement

• Cues are the stimuli that gives direction to the motives• Cues serve to direct consumer drives

when they are consistent with consumer expectations

• Response – how individuals react to a drive or cue – how they behave – constitutes their response

Product Line, Form, Category, extensions

• Product Line Extensions• The marketer adds related products

to an already established brand, knowing that the new product is going to be accepted and adopted when it is associated with known and a trusted brand name

• Product Form Extension• Marketers also offer specialization

products like Crest toothpaste to Crest white strips

• Listerine mouthwash to Listerine paks• Ivory bath soap to liquid soap to

shower gels

• Product Category extensions• That target new market segment

• The success of product extensions depends on a number of factors• If the image of the parent brand and

the new item is logically linked to the brand – more likely to have a positive response

• The number of different products affiliated with a brand strengthens the brand name as long as the company maintains a quality image across all brand extensions

Family branding• The practice of marketing on whole

line of company products under the same brand name is another strategy that capitalizes on the consumers ability to generalize favorable brand associations from one product to another• Cambell soup company• Proctor and Gamble [P & G]• Kraft Foods

Licensing • Allowing a well known brand to be

affixed to products of another manufacturer – is the marketing strategy that operates on the principle of stimulus generalization

• The names of designers manufacturers celebrities corporations and even cartoon characters are attached for a fee to a variety of products enbling the licencees to attain instant recognition and implied quality

• Positioning• Product differentiation

Instrumental Conditioning• Instrumental Conditioning requires a

link between a stimulus and a response

• The stimulus that results in the most satisfactory response is the one that is learned

• Learning occur through a trial and error method with habits formed as a result of rewards received from certain responses or behaviors e.g child gets gifts when he/she scores

Skinner distinguished two types of reinforments

• Positive reinforcement – consists of events that strengthens the likelihood of a specific response e.g Shampoo with positive effect makes one buy

• Negative reinforcement – is an unpleasant or negative response that also serves to encourage a specific behavior e.g cream for wrinkled skin

• Forgetting and Extinction• When learned response is no longer

reinforced e.g person forgets good experience due to length of time

Strategic application of instrumental conditioning• Customer satisfaction reinforcement –

• The objective of all marketing efforts is to maximize customer satisfaction

• Relationship marketing –• Developing a closed personalised relation

with the customer

Reinforcement schedules Marketers have identified three types of reinforcements •Total or continuous reinforcement e.g Dominos Pizza promotion•Systematic fixed ratio reinforcement e.g Bigbazaar every wednesday•Random variable ratio reinforcement e.g slot machines / Gambling

• Shaping – Reinforcement performed before the desired consumer behavior actually takes place e.g increasing footfalls in a retail store

• Massed versus Distributed learning –

• Distributed Learning schedule be spread over a distributed period of time

• Massed Learning schedule be “bunched up” all at once

• Modeling or Observational Learning• Also called “vicarious learning” • Consumers often observe how others

behave in response to certain situations (stimuli) and the ensuing results (reinforcements) that occur and they imitate (model) the positively reinforced behavior when faced with similar situations

• Modeling is the process through which individuals learn behavior by observing the behavior of others and the consequences of such behavior e.g son imitates father

• Learning based on mental activity is called Cognitive Learning

• Information Processing

Definition

• An attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favourable or unfavorable way with respect to a given object

Learned Predisposition

• It is a general agreement that attitudes are learned

• Attitudes are not synonymous to behavior

• It propels a consumer to a particular behavior

• Repels a consumer away from a particular behavior

Observations on Attitude

• Attitude are relatively consistent with the behavior they reflect

• However despite their consistency attitudes are not necessarily permanent – they do change

Object

• Object in our consumer oriented definition relates to specific consumption OR Market related concepts like• Product, Product Category, Brand• Service, Possession, product Use• Causes of issues• People, Environment, Advertisement• Price, Marketing Chain,

Attitude Formation

• How Attitudes are learned• Sources of Influence on Attitude

Formation• Impact of Personality on

Attitudes

Attitudes occur within a situation – Properties of Attributes• Favourability - • Intensity of Attitudes • Degree of Confidence in attitude

• Effect of strength of Attitude & Behavior

• Attitudes susceptibility to change• Stability

Sources of Influence on Attitude Formation

• The Formation of Attitude is strongly influenced by• Personal Direct Experience• Personal Indirect Experience• Influence of PEERS• Direct Marketing• Mass Media

Functions of Attitudes

• Utilitarian function – utility based ad e.g Allen

• Value – Expressive function – motorcycle - strong man

• Ego – Defensive function – mouthwash / pimple / dandruff

• Knowledge function – Laptops HDD Speed etc

Impact of Personality on Attitudes

• High Need for Cognition [craving for information ]

• Low need for cognition

Structural Models of Attitude

• Tri-component Attitude Model• The Multi-attribute attitude Model• The trying to consume model• The attitude towards the ad model

Tri-component Attitude Model

• The Cognitive Component [Thoughts]• The knowledge and perceptions that are

acquired by the combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources

• The Affective Component [Feelings]• Consumers emotion and feelings about a

particular product

• The Conative Component [Actions]• The likelihood or tendency that of a specific

action or behave in a particular way

The Multi-attribute attitude Model

• The Attitude – Towards – Object –

Model

• Consumer attitude is a function of

presence or absence of certain beliefs

and evaluation of some attributes e.g

Broad band connection attributes – which

one to consider

• The – Towards – Behavior – Model

• Attitude towards the behavior

rather than the attitude towards

the object BMW vs Expensive Cars

• Theory – of – Reasoned – Action –

Model • Comprehensive integration of attitude into a structure that is designed to lead to better explanation and better prediction

of behavior. Refrigerator long term.

The Trying – To – Consume Model

• Designed to account for the many

cases in which the outcome is not

certain but instead reflects the

consumers attempts to consume

• Loose weight

The Attitude – Towards – The – Ad Model• The model depicts the consumers

various feelings and judgment as a

result of exposure to the AD.

Nature of Personality

• The Three Personality Theories• Psychoanalytic Theory OR Freud’s

Theory• Socio psychological Theory• Trait Theory

Socio psychological theory

• Complaint Move towards others they desire to loved wanted and appreciated

• Aggressive move against other, they desire to excel and win over others

• Detached move away from others

How can you predict Buyer Behavior

• Consumer innovativeness and their susceptibility to interpersonal relationship

• Cognitive Personality factors

• Brand Personality• Personal Values i.e Self Concept

and Self Images• Life style concept• AIO Activities Interests Opinions

Strategies to change Attitude• Changing the consumers basic

motivational function• Associating the product with an

admired Group or event• Resolving two conflicting attitudes• Altering components of Multi

attribute Model• Changing consumers beliefs about

competitors Brand

Changing the consumers basic motivational function• Functional Approach

• Utilitarian Function - Utility• Ego – Defensive Function – security &

Personal confidence• Value – Expressive Function – general

values, Lifestyle and Outlook• Knowledge Function – “need to know”• Combining Several Functions

Associating the product with an admired Group or event• Tatas known for their Employee

Welfare Policy

Resolving two conflicting attitudes

• Consumers are made to show their negative attitude towards a product are negated• GHARI detergent powder

ATTRIBUTE Models

• What are attribute models ?

Altering components of Multi attribute Model

• Changing the relative evaluation of attributes e.g comparative performance of Brands

• Changing Brand beliefs • Adding to attributes• Changing the overall brand rating

Changing consumers beliefs about competitors Brand• Change consumer beliefs on other

brands• All out versus Good Knight

How do we test our attributions• Distinctiveness – action occurs when the

product is present and does not occur when it is absent

• Consistency over time – the reaction would be same or almost the same

• Consistency over modality – The inference is the same even when the situation in which it occurs varies

• Consensus – the action is perceived in the same way by all consumers