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.
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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       
very much Negative vs Positive
Intensity
Like very
much
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
Disagree Disagree
Neither agree
Strongly
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
the next time you purchase a soft drink?
Definitely will buy
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)
Evaluation of
Product
Attributes
Brand
Beliefs
(Ao)
Overall
Product
Evaluation
(BI)
Intention
to
Buy
Social
Norms
n
Ao = S bi ei + SN
i =1
(B)
Behavior
Running Shoes
Attribute
Beliefs (bi)
Brand Brand Brand
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
Attribute
Beliefs (bi)
Brand Brand Brand
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
Attribute
Beliefs (bi)
Brand Brand Brand
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
Importance Performance
Competitor’s
Performance
Simultaneous
Result
Poor
Neglected Opportunity
POOR
Good
Competitive Disadvantage
GOOD
Poor
Competitive Advantage
Good
Head-to-head competition
Poor
Null Opportunity
POOR
Good
False Alarm
GOOD
Poor
False Advantage
Good
False Competition
HIGH
LOW
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?
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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
Stadium
Announcers
NY
Yankees
Location
Columbus
Clippers
Fans
Ads
Clipper
Associates
Events
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 “freeassociation 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
Burger
King
the Colonel
McDonald’s
Ronald
McDonald
fast
service
fried
chicken
Kentucky
Fried Chicken
french
fries
clean
hearty
meal
greasy
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