Attitudes, Intentions, and

Behavior
MKT 750
Dr. West
Agenda
• These slides are to help as you go over
Chapters 11 in the book.
• Before printing the slides view the
slideshow on the website so that you can
watch the commercials on your own.
 Consumer Attitudes
• An attitude is an enduring response to some
aspect of our environment or construct in the
mind.
– It represent what we like and dislike
– It can be characterized as how we think and feel
about an attitude object
– Attitudes contain motivational, emotional,
perceptual, and cognitive processes
– They influence our tendency to act toward an
attitude object
Attitude Components
How Attitudes Influence Actions
Attitudes

Preferences

Intentions

Social Norms

Behavior
 How Attitudes Influence Actions
• While attitudes represent a consumer’s orientation
toward an object, they influence action through
judgment and choice
– Attitudes affect our preference, which is a consumer’s
evaluation or judgment of one object in relation to another
object (e.g., I prefer Diet Coke to Diet Pepsi)
– In turn, consumer preferences affect our intention to act
and ultimately our behavior
– Social norms, or how we perceive others will respond to
our actions, can either stimulate a us to take an action that
is preference inconsistent
How Attitudes Influence Actions
• Just because consumers
prefer the taste of
Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes
doesn’t mean they will
necessarily buy them
– They may think it is a cereal
for kids and worry that other
will think they haven’t grown
up. CLICK ON PACKAGE TO VIEW
COMMERCIAL
How to Measure Attitudes
• Attitudes vary in direction, intensity, and the
degree of confidence with which they are held
• To measure consumer attitudes a scale should
be used that allows the consumer to express the
nature of their attitude appropriately…
• How do you feel toward Dell Computers?
Neutral
Point

Dislike        Like very

very much Negative vs Positive much
Intensity
Measuring Attitudes
• To understand consumer attitudes you have to dig
deeper than simply asking how much they like an
object…you should ask them to report their beliefs,
feelings and intentions

– Here is a sample of how to measure beliefs about specific attributes using

“Semantic Differential Scales”

Please tell us how you would rate Diet Coke by answering the following

Strong taste —— —— —— —— —— —— —— Mild taste

Low priced —— —— —— —— —— —— —— High priced
Caffeine free —— —— —— —— —— —— —— High in caffeine
Distinctive in —— —— —— —— —— —— —— Similar in taste to
taste most colas
Measuring Attitudes
• To understand consumer attitudes you have to dig
deeper than simply asking how much they like an
object…you should ask them to report their beliefs,
feelings and intentions

– Here is a sample of how to measure consumer feelings toward a

product using “Likert scales”

Please tell us how you feel about Diet Coke by answering the following
Strongly Neither agree Strongly
Disagree Disagree nor disagree Agree Agree
I like the taste —— —— —— —— ——
It is my favorite soft drink —— —— —— —— ——
Measuring Attitudes
• To understand consumer attitudes you have to
dig deeper than simply asking how much they
like an object…you should ask them to report
their beliefs, feelings and intentions
• Here is a sample of how to measure consumer intentions and
actions

Please answer the following questions about your soft drinking habits

The last soft drink I consumed was ____________

I usually drink ____ soft drinks per week
What is the likelihood you will buy Diet Coke Definitely will buy
the next time you purchase a soft drink? Probably will buy
Might buy
Probably will not buy
Definitely will not buy
Measuring Attitudes
• What questions would you like to ask
current and potential fans about their
attitude toward baseball in general and
the Columbus Clippers in particular?
– Remember that you should be thinking about
measuring the cognitive (beliefs), affective
(feelings), and behavioral (intention & actions)
components.
 Multi-Attribute Model:

(ei) (bi) (Ao) (BI) (B)

Evaluation of Overall Intention
Brand
Product Product to Behavior
Beliefs
Attributes Evaluation Buy

Social
Norms
n

Ao = S bi ei + SN i =1
Running Shoes
Beliefs (bi)
Brand Brand Brand
Attribute Evaluation (ei) A B C
Shock absorbent +2 +2 +1 -1
Price less than $50 -1 -3 -1 +3
Durability +3 +3 +1 -1
Comfort +3 +2 +3 +1
Desired color +1 +1 +3 +3
Arch support +2 +3 +1 -2

Total score
Running Shoes:
Ordered by Importance
Beliefs (bi)
Brand Brand Brand
Attribute Evaluation (ei) A B C
Durability +3 +3 +1 -1
Comfort +3 +2 +3 +1
Shock absorbent +2 +2 +1 -1
Arch support +2 +3 +1 -2
Desired color +1 +1 +3 +3
Price less than $50 -1 -3 -1 +3

Total score
Running Shoes:
Computing Expected Brand Rating
Beliefs (bi)
Brand Brand Brand
Attribute Evaluation (ei) A B C
Durability +3 +3 (9) +1 (3) -1 (-3)
Comfort +3 +2 (6) +3 (9) +1 (3)
Shock absorbent +2 +2 (4) +1 (2) -1 (-2)
Arch support +2 +3 (6) +1 (2) -2 (-4)
Desired color +1 +1 (1) +3 (3) +3 (3)
Price less than $50 -1 -3 (3) -1 (3) +3 (-3)

Total score +29 +22 -6

Importance-Performance Grid
Attribute Our Competitor’s Simultaneous
Importance Performance Performance Result

Poor Neglected Opportunity

POOR Good Competitive Disadvantage
HIGH
GOOD Poor Competitive Advantage
Good Head-to-head competition

Poor Null Opportunity

POOR Good False Alarm
LOW

GOOD Poor False Advantage

Good False Competition
Benefits of Multi-attribute Model
• It offers diagnostic power by examining WHY
consumers like/dislike your product
• It can be used to segment consumers based on
attribute importance
• It is useful for competitive analysis purpose
because you know where your brand is strong
and weak relative to its competitors
• It can also be used for forecasting sales, new
product development, provides insights for
changing attitudes
 Implications for Attitude Change
• The multi-attribute model offers routes for
persuasion by changing the cognitive
component of consumers attitudes:
– Change beliefs (bi) about your brand or the
competition
• Cadillac (Heritage Reborn)
– Change attribute importance (ei)
• Airbags & Safety, Antibacterial soap
– Add a new attribute
• Carbohydrates in beer?
CLICK ON PICTURE TO VIEW
COMMERCIAL
Changing Attitudes
• The next several slides contain print ads
• As you view each ad ask yourself “what is
the message”?
– How is the ad trying to shape consumer
attitudes?
– Which cognitive route to persuasion is being
used?
The rest of the story…
• What’s missing from Fishbein’s
“Multiattribute Model”?
– Attitudes = F(Beliefs, Evaluations, Social Norms)

• Where do our attitudes come from?

– Friends and family
– Personal experience
– Observation
– Media & Advertising
 How are attitudes formed?
• Attitudes are shaped through the various
“touch points” associated with the brand
– By adopting a “customer-centric” perspective
we can gain a deeper understanding of how
consumers think and feel about our brand and
why.
– Consumers are exposed to more than our
products and the ads we run
– It is important to ask them their impressions and
strive to understand where they came about
Examining Touch Points
Players

Cooper
Announcers
Stadium

NY
Location
Yankees
Columbus
Clippers

Ads Fans

Clipper
Events
Associates
Measuring Consumer Perceptions
• Oftentimes consumer attitudes are based
on associations of the brand that are
difficult to uncover even through carefully
designed questioning
– Alternative ways to get at how consumers
perceive your brand include “free-
association tasks” or “projection tasks”
Free-Association Tasks
• Ask a respondent to write down everything that comes to
mind in an ordered list when you mention the brand or
company name
– This ordered list is a reflection of how information about the
brand is stored in memory
– Those things that are mentioned first represent the strongest
associations with the brand, whereas later words are less
directly connected to the brand
– As you compare lists among different respondents you can get
an idea a better idea of how people perceive your brand, some
of the mentions may be idiosyncratic and shouldn’t be given too
much attention but if you hear the same things mentioned by
multiple people then it is important
 Associative Network for Fast Food
hungry

food

energy junk food convenience

fast food take-out

hamburger the Colonel fried

chicken
Burger McDonald’s Kentucky
King Fried Chicken
Ronald french
McDonald fries hearty
meal greasy
fast clean
service
Associative Network for Perfume
Projection Task
• Ask respondents
– If (brand or product name) were a (noun) what would
it be?
For example:
If Holiday Inn were…
– a celebrity who would it be?
– an automobile what would it be?
– an animal what would it be?
– a magazine what would it be?
– a vegetable what would it be?
Implications for Attitude Change
• We’ve already looked at ways to change
the cognitive component of attitudes…how
about the affective part?
– Classical conditioning can be used to build
favorable associations with your brand
• Examples include using familiar music or faces
(celebrity endorsers) that tend to evoke positive
feeling
– Mere exposure to the brand can breed liking
too
Implications for Attitude Change
• Many “tricks” can be used to influence the
behavioral component of
attitudes…including
– Principle of Reciprocity – by doing a favor or giving
someone a token gift they will feel indebted and want
to reciprocate.
– Scarcity – everyone want something that’s “hard to
get”
– Authority - expert endorsers
Implications for Attitude Change
• Many “tricks” can be used to influence the
behavioral component of
attitudes…including
– Commitment – by getting someone to commit to a
small thing they are much more likely to agree to a
large request
– Liking/compliments – persuade by using a likeable
message source and showing an interest in the
person
– Social validation – cite statistics showing how many
others have adopted the product
Summary
• Better serving your customers requires
understanding:
– What people currently think about your brand
– How they feel toward the brand and why
– Finally, what their intentions and what can be
done to stimulate desire and encourage
favorable actions toward the brand