Introduction of Attitude
Understanding consumer attitudes is essential for any business aiming to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace. Attitudes represent the lasting evaluations that consumers hold about products, services, and companies, significantly influencing their purchasing decisions. These attitudes are shaped by personal experiences, social influences, and media exposure, making them a powerful tool for businesses.
The good news is that you can actively influence these attitudes. By combining your knowledge of consumer preferences with a positive approach, you can enhance perceptions and foster stronger connections with your audience. Remember, consumers tend to filter out information that contradicts their existing beliefs, so it’s crucial to align your messaging with their values and experiences. Embrace the opportunity to shape attitudes and watch your business flourish.
In simple words, Attitude refers to the predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person or situation.
Structural models of Attitudes
- Tri – component attitude model
- Multi – attribute attitude model
- Trying – to – consume model
- Attitude – toward – the ad model
Tri – component attitude model
Attitudes consist of three major components: a cognitive component, an effective component and a co-native component.
- A cognitive component: The knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various source.
- The affective component: A consumer’s emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand constitute the affective component of an attitude.
- The co-native component: conation, the final component of the tri – component attitude model, is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object.
Multi – attribute attitude model
- The Attitude – toward – object: The attitude – toward – object model is especially suitable for measuring attitudes toward a product (or service) category or specific brands.
- The attitude – toward – behavior: The individual’s attitude toward behaving or acting with respect to an object rather than the attitude toward the object itself.
Theory of Trying – To – Consume model
The theory of trying to consume is designed to account for the many cases in which the action or outcome is not certain but instead reflects the consumer’s attempts to consume (i.e., purchase).
Attitude – Toward – The – Ad models
“A model that proposes that a consumer forms various feeling (affects) and judgments (cognitions) as the result of exposure to an advertisement, which, in turn, affect the consumer’s attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand”.
Attitude in consumer behaviour
Attitude is a relatively permanent organizing of cognitive, perceptual, emotional and motivational process with respect to some aspect of our environment. It is primarily a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object. Thus, an attitude is a way we think, feel and act toward some aspect of our environment such as a product, a brand, an advertising for it etc.
Characteristics of attitudes
- Attitude has an object – It must have a focal point. This could be a physical object, or a service or an action.
- Attitude has direction, degree & Intensity – An attitude expresses how a person feels towards an object. It expresses
- Direction – The person is either for or against an object.
- Degree – The Extent of like or dislike towards the object.
- Intensity – How strongly a person feels about his conviction.
- Attitude has Structure – Attitude display a certain amount of organization. This implies that they have internal consistency, are fairly stable have varying degree of salience and are general sable. If a person faces problem with a product, he tends in believe that all the products of that brand are prone to cause trouble.
- Attitude is learned – Learning precedes attitude formation and change; attitude is also derived from both direct and indirect experience in life.
Components of Attitude
- Cognitive Components – Attitude primarily consist of a consumer belief about an object. Most of the beliefs held by the consumers are evaluative in nature. More the number of positive about a brand and the greater the punitiveness of each positive belief more favourable the overall cognitive component of attitude is likely to be.
- Affective Component – A consumer feeling or emotional reaction to an object represent the affective component. Consumer reactions to certain object are in context of certain specific situation. A consumer affective reaction to a product may change as the situation changes.
- Behavioral Component – The behavioral component of an attitude is one’s tendency to respond in a certain manner towards an object or activity. A series of decision to purchase or not to purchase a certain brand or to recommend it or any other brand to friends reflects the behavioral component of an attitude.
Theories of Attitudes Change
- Consistency theories: The basic assumption of these theories is the need of the individual for consistency. There must be consistency between attitudes, between behaviours and among attitudes and behaviours.
- Early Learning theories: This section might more accurately be called behavioral theories of attitude change. Today, few attitude change theories feel that the early research by Hovland and others has direct impact on current procedures. However, these early researchers investigated basic issues, such as reinforcement, incentives and drive reduction constructs that are related to how motivational states influence information processing and persuasion.
- Social judgment theories: Social judgment theory focuses on how people’s prior attitudes distort their perceptions of the positions advocate in persuasive messages and how such perceptions mediate persuasion. Social judgment theory – is an attempt to apply the principles of judgment to the study of attitude change. Social judgment theory’s core propositions can be summarized as follows:
- A person’s current attitude serves as a judgment anchor for new attitude positions.
- Latitude widths determine whether a message’s position will be assimilated or contrasted for e.g., accepted or rejected.
- Ego involvement of a person broadens the latitude of rejection and narrows the latitude of non – commitment.
- Both assimilation and contrast effects increase as a positive function of a message’s position and the recipient’s attitude.
- Ego involvement increases the anchoring property of initial attitudes.
- Greater contrast produces more negative evaluations of message content, which produces lesser amounts of attitude change.
- Ambiguity enhances like likelihood of judgment distortions. Therefore, other effects are greater when recipients are exposed to persuasive messages whose content positions are ambiguous.
- Functional theories: The utilitarian function acknowledges the behaviourist principle that people are motivated to gain rewards and avoid punishment from their environment. The knowledge function of attitudes presumes a basic human need to gain a meaningful, stable and organised view of the world. Katz’s ego defensive function emphasizes the psychoanalytic principle that people use defence mechanisms such as denial, repression and projection to protect their self-concepts internal and external threats.
How do I Change Consumer Attitudes?
Companies may focus on changing consumer attitudes for a variety of reasons. Dropping sales, increased product or service complaints and new, or renewed, competition in the marketplace can all necessitate a hard look at the reasons behind trends related to consumer perceptions and attitudes. Deciphering the cause of negative perceptions requires appropriate planning and the commitment to make the necessary changes to ensure success.
- Steps 1 - Identify consumer perceptions. In order to develop an action plan for changing consumer attitudes, you need to understand current perceptions of products and services. Evaluate captured feedback, such as customer service contact statistics regarding complaints and concerns.
- Step 2 - Compile data for interpretation. Interpretations derived from statistical data can provide immediate feedback related to possible product or service defects. Evaluate survey responses for information related to consumer views and perceptions of the business's products or services. Focus on repeated or habitual problems experienced by customers.
- Step 3 - Create a plan of action. Once you have identified consumer perceptions, develop a plan to improve areas where consumer perceptions reflect a negative attitude toward the company, product or service. This can include improved employee training to handle concerns and help cultivate customer loyalty. Involve product development on needed product improvements.
- Step 4 - Share vital information with affected employees. Educate the appropriate personnel on the goals of any new campaigns and promotions. Ensure customer service representatives understand the impact of creating a positive customer environment. Changing consumer attitudes is essential to ensuring future loyalty and creating a secure job environment.
- Step 5 - Measure success. Use customer service metrics as one way to measure success. This can include keeping track of incident reports, positive feedback and complaints. Signs of a shift in consumer attitudes include reduced complaints and increased sales.
