Attitude

Ardhendu Shekhar Singh

 Attitudes and Influencing Attitudes

An attitude is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional,

perceptual, and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of our
environment.

Expressions of inner feelings that reflect whether a person is favorably or

unfavorably predisposed to some object

in marketing, “object” can be a brand, a brand name, a service, a service

provider, a retail store, a company, an advertisement, in essence, any
marketing stimuli.

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 Attitudes and Influencing Attitudes
Attitude Components and Manifestations

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 Fishbein’s Multi-attribute Theory
Aijk =  (Bijk x Iik): where
• A = Attitude toward brand/product/etc.;
• i = attribute
• j = brand
• k = consumer
• I = Importance weighting
• B = Extent to which the brand is believed to possess the
attribute

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Attribute Score

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 Example Application of Fishbein’s Multi-
attribute Theory
Importance Royal TD CIBC
Service 2 5 2 3
Hours 4 3 5 3
Products 3 5 3 3
Parking 1 2 2 2
___ ___ ___
Total 39 35 29

Which Bank does the customer have the best attitude toward?
Which the worst attitude?
What would you do if you were responsible for CIBC?

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Contd..

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Affective

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 Attitude Components
Attitude Component Consistency

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 Attitude Components
Attitude Component Consistency

Factors that may account for inconsistencies:

1. Lack of Need
2. Lack of Ability
3. Failure to Consider Relative Attitudes
4. Attitude Ambivalence
5. Weakly Held Beliefs and Affect
6. Failure to Consider Interpersonal Influence

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 Attitude Change Strategies

 Change the Cognitive Component

 Change Beliefs

 Shift Importance

 Add Beliefs

 Change Ideal

 Change the Affective Component

 Classical Conditioning

 Mere exposure

 Change the Behavioral Component

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 Individual and Situational Characteristics that
Influence Attitude Change

ELM
Model

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 Individual and Situational Characteristics that
Influence Attitude Change

 Core Tenants of ELM: Part I

• Compared to attitudes formed under the peripheral

route, attitudes formed under the central route tend to
be
 stronger
 more resistant to counter-persuasion attempts
 more accessible from memory, and
 more predictive of behaviors

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 Individual and Situational Characteristics that
Influence Attitude Change

 Core Tenants of ELM: Part II

• Peripheral Cues (PCs) influence persuasion under LOW

INVOLVEMENT but not HIGH INVOLVEMENT

• Central Cues (CCs) influence persuasion under HIGH

INVOLVEMENT but not LOW INVOLVEMENT

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 Individual and Situational Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Change

 BUT there are caveats and exceptions relating to cue

relevance and competitive situation.

 Cue Relevance - What is a PC/CC?

• Example: An attractive model (and her hair) may be

decision irrelevant (PC) in an ad for a car, but
decision relevant (CC) in an ad for shampoo.

• In this case, the attractive model would influence

persuasion under high involvement for shampoos
but not for cars.

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 Individual and Situational Characteristics that
Influence Attitude Change

 Competitive Situation - PCs can influence persuasion under HIGH

INVOLVEMENT in competitive situations when:

• Central cues neutralize due to homogeneity across

competing brands (PC then becomes tie breaker).

• Attribute tradeoffs across central cues engenders

decision difficulty which PCs help to alleviate.

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 Individual and Situational Characteristics that
Influence Attitude Change

 Consumer Resistance to Persuasion

• Consumers are not passive to persuasion attempts

• Consumers are often skeptical (an individual

characteristic) and resist persuasion

• Consumers frequently infer an advertiser’s intent and

respond in light of that presumed selling intent.

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 Individual and Situational Characteristics that
Influence Attitude Change

 Resisting Brand Attacks:

 Discrediting

 Discounting

 Containment

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Three types of communication characteristics:
1. Source Characteristics

 Represents “who” delivers the message

2. Appeal Characteristics

 Represents “how” the message is communicated

3. Message Structure Characteristics

 Represents “how” the message is presented

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Source Characteristics

1. Source Credibility
• Persuasion is easier when the target market views the
message source as highly credible
2. Celebrity Sources
• Celebrity sources can be effective in enhancing
attention, attitude toward the ad, trustworthiness,
expertise, aspirational aspects, and meaning transfer
3. Sponsorship
• Sponsorships often work in much the same manner as
using a celebrity endorser

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Matching Endorser with Product and Target Audience

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Appeal Characteristics

1. Fear Appeals
2. Humorous Appeals
3. Comparative Ads
4. Emotional Appeals
5. Value-Expressive versus Utilitarian Appeals

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Appeal Characteristics

Value-expressive versus Utilitarian appeals

Value-expressive appeals Utilitarian appeals involve

attempt to build a personality informing the consumer of
for the product or create an one or more functional
image of the product user. benefits that are important
to the target market.

* Most effective for products * Most effective for functional

designed to enhance self- products
image or provide other
intangible benefits

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Message Structure Characteristics

1. One-Sided versus Two-Sided Messages

2. Positive versus Negative Framing

3. Nonverbal Components

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Message Structure Characteristics
Positive versus Negative Framing

Attribute Framing Goal Framing

Only a single attribute is the
focus of the frame.
For example, describing beef
as either
• 80% fat free (positive
frame)
or
• 20% fat (negative frame)
Message stresses either positive
aspect of performing an act or
negative aspects of not performing
the act.
For example, having a yearly
mammogram
• Benefits of having mammogram
emphasized (positive frame)
• Risks of not having mammogram
emphasized (negative)

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 Communication Characteristics that Influence
Attitude Formation and Change
Message Structure Characteristics

Nonverbal Components

Nonverbal components can influence attitudes through

affect, cognition, or both.

Emotional ads often rely primarily or exclusively on

nonverbal content to drive emotional responses. These
can include:
• pictures
• music

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