Consumer behaviour

Mark Grimes

Topic 6
Summary

TOPIC OBJECTIVES

When students finish this chapter, students should understand why:

1. It is important for consumer researchers to understand the nature and

power of attitudes.
2. We form attitudes in several ways.

It is important for consumer researchers to understand the nature and power of

attitudes.

An attitude is a predisposition to evaluate an object or product positively or

negatively. We form attitudes toward products and services, and these attitudes
often determine whether we will purchase or not.

Three components make up an attitude: beliefs, affect, and behavioral

intentions.

Attitude researchers traditionally assumed that we learn attitudes in a fixed

sequence: First we form beliefs (cognitions) about an attitude object, then we
evaluate that object (affect), and then we take some action (behavior).
Depending on the consumer’s level of involvement and the circumstances,
though, his attitudes can result from other hierarchies of effects as well. A key to
attitude formation is the function the attitude holds for the consumer (e.g., is it
utilitarian or ego defensive?).

We form attitudes in several ways.

One organizing principle of attitude formation is the importance of consistency

among attitudinal components—that is, we alter some parts of an attitude to be
in line with others. Such theoretical approaches to attitudes as cognitive
dissonance theory, self-perception theory, and balance theory stress the vital
role of our need for consistency.

Multiattribute attitude models underscore the complexity of attitudes: They

specify that we identify and combine a set of beliefs and evaluations to predict
an overall attitude. Researchers integrate factors such as subjective norms and
the specificity of attitude scales into attitude measures to improve predictability.

I. The Power of Attitudes

People use the term attitude in many ways. For our purposes, an
attitude is a lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself),
objects, advertisements or issues.
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Mark Grimes

We call anything that has an attitude an attitude object (Ao).

Consumers have attitudes toward a wide range of attitude objects,

from product-specific behaviors (e.g., you use Crest toothpaste rather
than Colgate) to more general, consumption-related behaviors (e.g.,
how often you should brush your teeth).

A psychologist named Katz developed the functional theory of

attitudes to explain how attitudes facilitate social behavior. According
to this approach, attitudes exist because they serve some function for
the person. Consumers who expect that they will need to deal with
similar situations at a future time will be more likely to start to form an
attitude in anticipation.

There are different functions of attitudes:

 Utilitarian function—The utilitarian function relates to the basic

principles of reward and punishment.
 Value-expressive function—Attitudes that perform a value-
expressive function relate to the consumer’s self-concept or
central values. A person forms a product attitude in this case
because of what the product says about him or her as a person.
 Ego-defensive function—Attitudes we form to protect ourselves
either from external threats or internal feelings perform an ego-
defensive function.
 Knowledge function—We form some attitudes because we need
order, structure, or meaning. A knowledge function applies when
a person is in an ambiguous situation or when he or she confronts
a new product.

The ABC Model of Attitudes

Behavior refers to the actions s/he takes toward the object.

Cognition is what you believe to be true about the attitude object.
You can remember these three components of an attitude as the
ABC model of attitudes. The ABC model emphasizes the
interrelationships among knowing, feeling, and doing.

i. Hierarchies of Effects
Which comes first: knowing, feeling, or doing? The concept
of hierarchy of effects may be used to explain the relative
impact of the three components. Each hierarchy specifies
that a fixed sequence of steps occur en route to an attitude.
(Figure 8.1)

The High-Involvement Hierarchy: Think  Feel  Do. The

high-involvement hierarchy assumes that a person
approaches a product decision as a problem-solving
process. First, one forms beliefs about a product as they
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Mark Grimes

accumulate knowledge (beliefs) regarding relevant

attributes. Next, the individual evaluates these beliefs and
forms a feeling about the product (affect). Then they
engages in a relevant behavior,

The Low-Involvement Hierarchy: Think  Do  Feel. The low-

involvement hierarchy of effects assumes that the consumer
initially doesn’t have a strong preference for one brand over
another; instead, s/he acts on the basis of limited knowledge
and forms an evaluation only after he or she has bought the
product.

The Experiential Hierarchy: Feel  Do  Think. According to

the experiential hierarchy of effects, we act on the basis of
our emotional reactions.

In a process termed emotional contagion, messages that

happy people deliver enhance our attitude toward the
product.

How Do We Form Attitudes

We form an attitude in several different ways, depending on the

particular hierarchy of effects that operates.

ii. All Attitudes Are Not Created Equal

It’s important to distinguish among types of attitudes
because not all form in the same way.

Consumers vary in their commitment to an attitude; the

degree of commitment relates to their level of involvement
with the attitude object. Three (increasing) levels of
commitment are:
1. Compliance—At the lowest level of involvement,
compliance, we form an attitude because it helps us to
gain rewards or avoid punishment. This attitude is
superficial.
2. Identification—Identification occurs when we form an
attitude to conform to another person’s or group’s
expectations.
3. Internalization—At a high level of involvement we call
internalization, deep-seated attitudes become part of
our value system.

iii. The Consistency Principle

According to the principle of cognitive consistency, we
value harmony among our thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors, and a need to maintain uniformity among these
elements motivates us. This desire means that, if necessary,
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Mark Grimes

we change our thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to make

them consistent with other experiences.

iv. Self-Perception Theory

Self-perception theory provides an alternative explanation
of dissonance effects. The theory states that we maintain
consistency as we infer that we must have a positive attitude
toward an object if we have bought or consumed it.

Self-perception theory helps to explain the effectiveness of

a strategy salespeople call the foot-in-the-door technique:
They know that consumers are more likely to comply with a
big request if they agree to a smaller one first.

v. Balance Theory
Balance theory considers how people perceive relations
among different attitude objects, and how they alter their
attitudes so that these remain consistent (or “balanced”).

Balance theory perspective involves relations (always from

the perceiver’s subjective point of view) among three
elements, so we call the resulting attitude structures triads.
Each triad contains (1) a person and his or her perceptions
of (2) an attitude object and (3) some other person or
object.

We link elements together in one of two ways: They can

have either a unit relation, where we think that a person is
somehow connected to an attitude object (something like
a belief), or they can have a sentiment relation, where a
person expresses liking or disliking for an attitude object.

This “balancing act” is the basis of celebrity endorsements,

in which marketers hope that the star’s popularity will
transfer to the product or when a nonprofit organization
recruits a celebrity to discourage harmful behaviors.