Consumer Behaviour Assignment 2

Student No: 21149061

Essay 1

For one or more of our clients evaluate how consumers
might form attitudes towards their product/services. Identify
any relevant attitude trends and/or specific attitudes held by
consumer in this sector and make recommendations of ways
in which negative attitudes might be changed and positive
attitudes reinforced.









INTRODUCTION:
This essay is being prepared to advise one of the clients being Asda, on how consumer
might form attitudes towards their products/services with recommendations on ways in
which both positive and negative attitudes can be reinforced.
Attitudes represent our covert or overt feelings of like or dislike toward an object, person,
issue, or behaviour through our thinking and feelings about and actions towards some
feature of our surroundings such as food, clothing, a car, a retail shop and any object.

ATTITUDE DEFINATION:
Formally (Kotler and Wong et al., 2005, p. 275) describes an attitude as a persons
relatively consistent evaluations, feelings and tendencies towards an object or idea.
Attitude hence denote beliefs and feelings linked to a person and the ensuing behaviour.
Altogether, positive or negative responses whether displayed in beliefs or feelings turn to
express a persons attitude to something (Olson and Zanna, 1993).

Emphasising this relationship of knowing, feeling and doing is the ABC model of
attitudes comprising of affects, behaviour and cognition which explains how a person
feels about an object (Affect); what they intend to do about it (Behaviour); and what they
believe about the object (Cognition).
Though various theorist such as (Fishbein 1970); (Bagozzi and Bunkrant, 1979); (Katz
and Stotland, 1959) offer various opinion as to which of these components form an
attitude, the important consideration is how these components combine to affect
consumer behaviour.

Despite this inter-relationship, a consumers behaviour, being their intention to respond
to an attitude object, does not always result in an actual purchasing behaviour.
For example, a consumer may know the health benefits provided by a product, however
their awareness may not sway how they feel about the product in terms of it being good
or bad and, equally, it may not prompt them to do anything about that knowledge i.e.
whether to buy or not to buy the product (Solomon and Bamossy et al., 2010).

For consumers, attitudes towards objects will include specific consumption or marketing
relating concepts such as product use, brand, service, possessions, price and more are
learned with different learning theories providing insights into how attitudes are initially
formed. To marketers attitudes play an important as they help to direct consumers to
products/services that they see a favourable light without going through the time
consuming process of weighing the pros and cons of a an object.

ATTITUDE FORMATION:
Whiles attitudes vary from consumer to consumer, it is said to be facilitated by direct
personal experienced and influenced by the ideas of friends, family and exposure to
advertising. In addition ones personality is seen to play a major role in attitude formation.
For instance according to Katz 1960 functional theory, attitudes exist because they are a
means to goals and they can protect peoples self- esteem.
Thus a consumer may for example develop various attitudes towards a product if they
are pleasurable/ painful or conveys a certain image about them
Also to other schools of taught, attitudes are simply object appraisals and assist in
saving on cognitive energy (Jansson-Boyd, 2010).

In addition attitudes can also be learned in a variety of ways such as through mere
exposure, associative learning (which refers to classical and instrumental conditioning)
and observational learning (Douglas, 1977).
For instance mere exposure theorises that consumers eventually tend to develop a
likening for an object if repeatedly exposed to it whiles with observational theory,
attitudes are formed under our everyday interactions with others and from the
reinforcements that their behaviour and expressions provide, people are more likely to
develop similar beliefs.

Furthermore (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010) postulates that whereas under classical
condition an attitude object is paired with an unconditional stimulus which evokes an
emotional response, instrumental conditioning enables attitudes to be formed in which
consumption of the object is reinforced by reward or punishment.
Moreover on a cognitive foundation, attitudes are deemed to form on the basis of facts,
thus the suggestion by this principle is that consumers possess certain knowledge about
the products which they will use in aiding their evaluation of products /services.

For instance, one identifiable current trend where consumers have developed various
attitudes towards is functional foods and drinks.
Revealing this trend is a research by Mintel 2013 using as shown below;
From the Mintel research, it can be seen that consumer attitudes vary regarding the
product ranging from beliefs on the benefits the product provides, brands, price and
packing. In addition the research indicates that age also seems to have an impact on
how attitudes form towards products/services.
Figure 1: Consumer attitudes towards functional food and drinks

Any
agree
Strongly
agree
Agree Neither
agree nor
disagree
Any
disagree
Disagree Strongly
disagree
% % % % % % %
Health-promoting benefits of
natural foods (eg fruit and
vegetables) are preferable to
the added benefits of
functional foods
66 22 43 31 4 3 -
Many products make
functional claims without
scientific proof
64 14 51 30 5 5 -
Most claims made on
functional products are
exaggerated/misleading
58 12 46 36 6 5 1
Functional benefits are just
an excuse for companies to
charge a higher price
58 12 46 33 10 9 1
The labelling on functional
food products is often
unclear about what the
benefits are
57 10 47 35 9 8 1
I am more prepared to buy
functional food and drink
products as I get older
37 5 32 39 25 18 7
I find the current range of
functional food and drink
flavours unexciting/ boring
32 6 26 52 16 15 1
There arent enough popular
products (eg cereals,
yoghurts) with functional
benefits
30 4 26 44 25 22 4
Functional products from
well-known brands are more
credible than products from
less known brands
28 4 24 46 26 22 4
Most functional food and
drink products are unsuitable
for children
24 5 19 58 18 16 2
Functional food and drink are
worth paying more for
22 3 19 34 43 33 10

Source: Mintel 2012

RECOMMENDATIONS:
From the outlined ways in which attitudes forms according to (Solomon and Bamossy
et al., 2010) consumers can be persuaded to change their attitudes through graphic
pictures, logical arguments and use of model spoke-persons.
Changing negative attitudes and reinforcing positive attitudes can take place in several
ways.
(Olson and Zanna, 1993) suggests that changing affective and cognitive components
through persuasive appeals such as exposing products to consumers before they read
about the products attributes and by mere exposure which presents the same brand
repeatedly could enhance a persons attitude towards a brand product more positive.
Hence through continuous repetition of advertisements for low involvement products will
result in consumers liking the product.

Marketers also by attempting to change the behavioural elements can make use of
instrumental conditioning to induce the consumer to buy the product as well as offering
incentives for the purchase or consumption to be rewarding to the consumer. This can
be done through the use of discounting appeals which may involve price reductions, free
samples, coupons and tie- in purchases as techniques for inducing trial behaviour.
Additionally, the use of humour and describing benefits from a product and the benefits
lost from not using a product, and fear appeals can further be used to change negative
and reinforce positive attitudes (Chaiken & Stangor, 1987).
Marketers also by adding new values to include favourable facts pertaining to their
products will provide enrichments which will give their products an advantage.









REFERENCES:
Chaiken, S, & Stangor, C 1987, 'Attitude and Attitude Change', Annual Review Of
Psychology, 38, 1, p. 575, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, [Accessed :29 Dec
2013].
Douglas, RB 1977, 'Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behaviour: An Introduction to Theory
and Research', Philosophy & Rhetoric, 10, 2, pp. 130-132, Communication & Mass
Media Complete, EBSCOhost, [Accessed 27 Dec 2013].
Jansson-Boyd, C. V. 2010. Consumer Psychology. [e-book] Open University Press.
Available through: University of West London, Online Resource Dawsonera [Accessed:
29 Dec 2013]
Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J. and Armstrong, G. 2005. Principles of Marketing. 4th
ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited.
Mintel. 2013. Consumer Attitudes towards functional foods and drinks. [report] Mintel.
Available through: University of West London, Online Resource [Accessed: 29 Dec
2013].
O Olson, J, & Zanna, M 1993, 'Attitudes and attitude change', Annual Review Of
Psychology, 44, 1, p. 117, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, [Accessed:27
December 2013].
Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M. 2010. Consumer Behaviour A
European Perspective. 4th ed. Pearson Education Limited.
Schiffman, L. and Kanuk, L. 2010. Consumer Behaviour. 10th ed. New Jersey: Perason
Prentice Hall.







Essay 2


Talk through the ways in which one (or more) clients could
improve customer loyalty by making use of learning theory.
Identify any opportunities or limitations regarding behavioural
learning or cognitive learning and make specific
marketing recommendations for one of our clients.
















INTRODUCTION:
Numerous schools of thought have been attempting to explain the way people learn. Out
of these many theories each has its own complications, importance and approaches. In
advising Asda, on how to improve customer loyalty through an understanding of how
people learn, this essay briefly recaps the various ways in which people as consumers
learn, the key beliefs of each theory and stating some of their limitations and making
recommendations at the end.
From the view of psychologist learning is one of the main components of human
behaviour and that all behaviour encompasses some method of learning.
We learn something every day with our involvement in a given situation ranging from low
to high. Learning also takes place causally and this unintentional acquisition of
knowledge is known as incidental learning.
With learning as an ongoing process, it covers a considerable amount of ground, ranging
from a consumers simple association between a stimuli such as a product logo (E.g.
Coca-Cola) and a response (e.g. 'refreshing soft drink') to a complex series of cognitive
activities (Solomon and Bamossy et al., 2010) .

DEFINATION OF LEARNING:
From a marketing standpoint according to (Kotler and Wong et al., 2005, p. 274)
learning describes changes in an individuals behaviour from experience and occurs
through drives, cues responses, reinforcements and stimuli.
Psychologists have studied learning using a variety of approaches, and have tried to
explain learning with a variety of different accounts.
These different approaches can be roughly organized into two broad categories,
behaviour and cognitive theory as well as observational theory.
Where behavioural theory of learning is concerned, it stresses the importance of human
beings making connections between experience and behaviour since other notions such
as a persons mood or taught are subjective (Wiburg, 2013).

This includes two perspectives: Classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
In the former, learning occurs as result of associating a stimulus with a response.
From repetition, the association between stimulus and response becomes automatic and
once this automatic process is established, learning of a new habit takes place with
rewards given for positive habits and punishment for negative behaviours.
In the latter the learning is in how we respond to what is presented to us (Gould, 2010).
From a cognitive learning perspective, learning forms a basic assumption that human
beings not only learn from modified experience but also by transforming information in
the environment into knowledge that is stored in the mind. Consumers then use this
acquired knowledge as a bases for assessing information and forming a decision on
what is good. Eventually, its goal is to develop or alter the consumers thinking and their
consequence actions (Aslin and Rothschild, 1987).

Moreover emphasising other ways in which learning takes place is observational
learning theory which according to (Solomon and Bamossy et al., 2010) is incurred when
an individual observes the outcomes of another person's actions and uses it to reinforce
their own behaviour.
(Bikhchandani et al, 1998) argue that learning by observing the past decisions of others
can help explain some puzzling phenomena about human behaviour and for example
points out that the most basic cause for convergent behaviour is that individuals in facing
similar decision problems make similar choices.
Observational learning theory therefore suggests that in many situations decisions tend
to converge quickly but tend to be eccentric and fragile.


OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS:
According to (Rothschild and Gaidis, 1981; Nord and Peter1980) whiles dominant
cognitive model theories are not appropriate for explaining low involvement consumer
behaviours, in contrast to behavioural learning theory where rewarded behaviour is more
likely to recur than non-reinforced behaviour, the latter enables promotional activities to
be used based on the idea that learning is not only achieved by the repeating of the
behavioural act (buying and using a product) but also by repeating the promotional
messages about it.
Reinforcement also serves an additional purpose in that it indicates whether the
response given is the desired response. It confirms that the response is the correct
response to that particular stimulus. Reinforcement therefore provides a form of external
feedback which is needed in a learning situation.
However this theory is not without weaknesses, some of which are; in general within a
competitive environment, marketers have little power to use positive and negative
reinforcements. In addition consumers over - familiarity with a marketing stimulus
through excessive repetition from advertising is known to result in consumers disinterest
On the other hand cognitive learning as suggested by Rothschild and Gaidis, 1981;
Nord and Peter1980 can be used in combination with both advertising and personal
selling as it aims to solidify the relationship between the customer and product by
informing them and apprising them about the product.
Through the use of advertisement tools for example using models can help consumers
to develop cognitions with regards to self -statements associated with using or buying
the product.
However the use of models presents a high risk especially in cases where the
attractiveness attached to a particular model is lost.
Also the application of the cognitive principle is very time intensive and not particularly
suitable in situations where the consumer is faced with a wide range of products with
similarities from which to make a choice.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Marketers by attempting to improve and retain customer loyalty can make use of
learning theories in several ways.
Firstly, by creating pleasing products and enhancing the attributes of their
product/services through manipulation of price, distribution and promotions will enable
them to increase repeat purchase behaviour which is key to successful marketing.
Additionally, with products/services that involve high involvement where such as new
purchase, marketers could adopt tools such as the provision of free sampling of the
product, in conjunction with coupons to give bigger and smaller discounts for initial and
later purchases.









References:
Bikhchandani, S., Hirshleifer, D. and Welch, I., 1998. Learning from the behavior of
others: Conformity, fads, and informational cascades. The Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 12(3), pp. 151-170 -ProQuest
Gould, J. 2010. Learning theory and classroom practice in the lifelong learning sector. [e-
book] Learning Matters Ltd. Available through: University of West London, Online
Resource Dawsonera [Accessed: 31 Dec 2013].
Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J. and Armstrong, G. 2005. Principles of Marketing. 4th
ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited.
Nord, W. R. and Peter, J.P(1980). A behavior modification perspective on marketing.
Journal of Marketing (Pre-1986), 44(000002), 36 - 47.
Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M. 2010. Consumer Behaviour A
European Perspective. 4th ed. Pearson Education Limited
Thomas M. Aslin and Michael L. Rothschild (1987),"An Introduction to a Cognitive-
Behavioral Perspective of Consumer Behavior", in NA - Advances in Consumer
Research Volume 14, eds. Melanie Wallendorf and Paul Anderson, Provo, UT :
Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 566. [online] Available at:
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=6772
[Accessed: 31 Dec 2013].
Wiburg, V. 2013. Cognitive learning theory. [online] Available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/Kholekha/cognitive-learning-theory-5953309 [Accessed: 31
Dec 2013].
Rothschild, M. L. and Gaidis, W. C. 1981. Behavioral Learning Theory: Its Relevance to
Marketing and Promotions. Journal Of Marketing, 45 (2).- ProQuest