What is attitude?
attitude for marketers
there is a lot of attitude research because it can be simply and directly measured - decomposing attitude into components increases complexity
Attitude toward objects
Ao: objects can be concrete, abstract, imaginary or conceptual
factors that weaken the intention-behavior link
1. intervening time 2. different levels of specificity * the more specific we are about doing something the more likely we will do it (ex. buying a condo) 3. unforeseen events/environmental context 4. degree of voluntary control 5. instability of intentions 6. new information
Attitude
A persons overall evaluation of a concept
attitude towards one's own actions or behavior
Aact: past, present or future behavior - not always positive, can be positive negitive or neutral
attitude change strategies
add new beliefs, make unimportant existing beliefs salient, change strength of existing belief, change evaluation
Aact and SN
are weighted (the w's in the formula) to reflect their relative importance in a particular context
brand variations, levels of a prodcut can lead to different a0 or Aact
attitudes toward an object is not always the same, ex. you could like a mercedes benz but you may not like buying a mercedes benz
Aact does not equal Ao
because consequences does not equal attributes, actions do not equal objects and social factors are added
bi
belief strength = the probability of association of attribute <-> object measured 1-10 scale anchored likely/un likely
brand equity & attitude
brand equity can be interpreted as positive attitude towards that brand. Marketers can build, borrow or buy brand equity strong Ao
ei
evaluation of each belief = good/bad measured on -3 to +3 scale how strong is it related and is it a good or bad thing take the sum over the number of salient beliefs (beliefs that are activated)
Focus: Aact or Ab
having an object v. buying an object
analyze salience per segment or per situation
how important are these attributes, overall attitude
w1 and w2
how influential your opinion of buying an object or other peoples, w2 could be close to zero if you do not care about what other people think
attitude can be affective ->
immediate/automatic positive, negative or neutral no conscious processing
Aact
integrates beliefs about consequences and evaluations of beliefs with social factors (sn)
attitude can be cognitive ->
integration process produces evaluation attitude itself is stored in memory (no need to reprocess each time) can be positive, neg, or neutral *attitude is important because it is thought to be preceding behavior
Weather Ao or Aact affects behavior depends on
its accessibility or its probability of activation -is salience high? -frequently activated in the past? -strong association between A <-> concept? marketers believe attitude predicts behavior, gives you more info making you better than before, harder to create an attitude than retrieve an attitude
multi attribute attitude model
measured at the attribute level; assumes input from higher in the means-end chain "flows down"
attitude evaluation toward the product
packaging, price, advertisements, sales people, physical and social environment can all have meaningful implications toward marketers marketers must evaluate attitude at the level of specificity that it is relevant to the marketing problem or scenario
levels of concept
product class - fast food restaurants product form - burger pizza brand model - McDonelds burger king brand/model/general situation - lunch with friends, dinner with kids dinner with kids - after soccer game, birthday party *could have a different attitude, same mcdonalds, same kids, different event
Ao
seldom predicts specific behaviors at specific times because of social or environmental factors, thus it assumes -alternatives consciously considered -choose alternative with the most desirable consequence -BI behavioral intention is the consequence and is the best predictor of behavior (b) -B must be voluntary and goal directed Aact(w1) +SN(w2) = BI ~ B does not equal behavior because what people intend to do is different than what they actually do
subjective norm (sn)
sometimes called social norm, this reflects social pressure from salient others
Ao model for marketers: conduct tracking studies
we can conduct studies over intervals and we can see how changes over time -> measure the 4 p's