CHAPTER 10

Consumer beliefs, feelings, attitudes and intentions

Attitudes
Global evaluative judgments

Intentions
Subjective judgments by people about how they will behave in the future

Beliefs
Subjective judgments about the relationship between two or more things

Feelings
An affective state (e.g. current mood state) or reaction (e.g. emotions experienced during product consumption)

Relationships between consumer beliefs, feelings, attitudes and intentions

Consumer beliefs
A sampling of consumer beliefs
If a deal seems to good to be true, it probably is. You cant believe what most advertising says these days. Auto repair shops take advantage of women. People need less money to live on once they retire. Its not safe to use credit cards on the Internet. Appliances today are not as durable as they were 20 years ago. Extended warranties are worth the money. You get what you pay for: lower price means lower quality. Changing the oil in your car every three thousand miles is a waste of money.

Consumer beliefs
Expectations Brand distinctiveness Inferential beliefs Consumer confusion

Consumer expectations
Expectations are beliefs about the future Consumers willingness to spend is influenced by beliefs about their financial future

Brand distinctiveness
Why should a consumer want to buy your brand instead of the competitors? The desirability of products having something unique to offer to their consumers is also known as the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Inferential beliefs
Consumers use information about one thing to form beliefs about something else Beliefs are often inferred when product information is incomplete Also undertaken when consumers interpret certain product attributes as signals of product quality, e.g. price-quality inferential beliefs

Consumer confusion
Sometimes consumers do not know what to believe due to many different reasons
May arise due to conflicting information and knowledge Mistaking one companys product for the product of another company Due to changes in a products position and image

Consumers respond to confusion by:

Undertaking further information search Basing their decision on things that are perfectly clear, e.g. price Deferring product purchase indefinitely

Types of consumer feelings

Upbeat
Active Adventurous Alive Attractive Confident Creative Elated Energetic Good Happy Pleased

Negative
Angry Annoyed Bad Bored Critical Defiant Disgusted Fed-up Insulted Irritated Regretful

Warm
Affectionate Calm Concerned Contemplative Emotional Hopeful Kind Peaceful Pensive Touched Warm-hearted

Consumer feelings
Feelings as part of the advertising experience Feelings as part of the shopping experience Feelings as part of the consumption experience

Consumer feelings
Feelings as part of the advertising experience
Feelings activated by the advertisement have the potential to influence attitudes formed about the featured product The program in which advertising appears can induce feelings and affect post-message attitudes

Consumer feelings
Feelings as part of the shopping experience
The retail environment elicits different feelings in consumers ultimately affecting their attitudes and behaviours in the store The shopping environment can evoke pleasure, arousal, or dominance in consumers

Feelings as part of the consumption experience

Some consumption experiences are liked primarily for the feelings they induce Feelings during consumption will influence post-consumption evaluations Consumers are more satisfied when product consumption leads to positive feelings while avoiding negative ones

Consumer attitudes
Properties of attitudes:
Valence: Whether the attitude is positive, negative or neutral Extremity: The intensity of liking or disliking Resistance: Degree to which the attitude is immune to change Confidence: Belief that attitude is correct Accessibility: How easily the attitude can be retrieved from memory

Types of attitudes
Attitude towards the object (Ao) represents the evaluation of the attitude object Attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) represents the global evaluation of an advertisement Attitude towards the behaviour (Ab) represents the evaluation of performing a particular behaviour involving the attitude object Preferences represent attitudes toward one object in relation to another

Attitude toward the behaviour:

Buying a Dell personal computer would be: Very good 1 2 3 4 5 Very bad Very rewarding 1 2 3 4 5 Very punishing Very wise 1 2 3 4 5 Very foolish

Attitude toward the object:

How much do you like/dislike Dell computers? Like very much 1 2 3 4 5 Dislike very much

Preference:
Compared to Apple personal computers, how much do you like Dell personal computers? Like IBM much 1 2 3 4 5 Like Apple much more than Apple more than IBM

The Fishbein Multiattribute Attitude Model

n

Ao =
i =1

bi ei

Ao = attitude toward the object bi = strength of the belief that object has attribute i ei = evaluation of attribute i n = number of salient or important attributes

The Fishbein Multiattribute Attitude Model

Model proposes that attitude toward an object is based on the summed set of beliefs about the objects attributes weighted by the evaluation of these attributes Attributes can be any product or brand association

Consumer attitudes
Companies want consumers to perceive their products as:
possessing desirable attributes (when ei positive, bi should be positive) not possessing undesirable attributes (when ei is negative, bi should be negative)

The Ideal-Point Multiattribute Attitude Model

n

AP =

i =1

Wi Ii - Xi

AP = attitude toward product Wi = importance of attribute i Ii = ideal performance on attribute i Xi = belief about products actual performance on attribute i n = number of salient attributes

The Ideal-Point Multiattribute Attitude Model

Consumers indicate where they believe a product is located on scales representing the various levels of salient attributes Also report where ideal product would fall on these scales The closer the ideal and actual ratings, the more favorable the attitude

Benefits of using multiattribute attitude models

Diagnostic power: examine why consumers like or dislike products Simultaneous importance-performance grid with marketing implications for each cell Can provide information for segmentation (based on importance of product attributes) Useful in new product development Guidance in identifying attitude change strategies

Stimulus Importance-Performance Grid

Attribute Our Competitors Importance Performance Performance Simultaneous Result

Poor

Neglected Opportunity Competitive Disadvantage Competitive Advantage Head-to-head competition Null Opportunity False Alarm False Advantage False Competition

POOR HIGH GOOD

Good Poor Good Poor Good Poor Good

POOR LOW GOOD

Attitude change implications from multiattribute attitude models

Three primary ways for changing consumer attitudes:

Change beliefs Change attribute importance Change ideal points

Changing consumer attitudes: Changing beliefs

Firms hope that changing beliefs about products will result in more favorable product attitudes and influence what consumers buy If beliefs are false, they need to be brought into harmony with reality If beliefs are accurate, it may be necessary to change the product Comparative advertising can hurt beliefs about a competitive brand

Changing consumer attitudes: Changing attribute importance

Changing an attributes importance is more difficult than changing a belief How is a brand perceived relative to ideal performance? Increasing attribute importance is desirable when the competitors brand is farther from the ideal point than your product Firms may add a new attribute

Changing consumer attitudes: Changing ideal points

Altering consumers preferences for what the ideal product should look like

Estimating the attitudinal impact of alternative changes

How expensive are the product modifications required to change attitude? Are they possible to accomplish? How resistant to change are consumers? What is the potential attitudinal payoff each change might deliver?

Consumer intentions
Useful for firms when predicting how people will act as consumers
How much existing product should be produced to meet demand? How much demand will there be for a new product?

Firms interested in many types of consumer intentions

Types of intentions
Spending intentions Purchase intentions Repurchase intentions Shopping intentions Search intentions Consumption intentions

Types of intentions
Spending intentions reflect how much money consumers think they will spend
Will you spend at least $1,000 on Christmas gifts this year? No chance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I definitely will

Purchase intentions represent what consumers think they will buy

Will you buy a Mercedes-Benz automobile during the next 12 months? No chance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I definitely will

Types of intentions
Repurchase intentions indicate whether consumers anticipate buying the same product or brand again
The next time you purchase coffee, will you buy the same brand? No chance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I definitely will

Shopping intentions capture where consumers plan on making their product purchases
Will you shop at Wal*Mart during the next 30 days? No chance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I definitely will

Types of intentions
Search intentions indicate consumers intentions to engage in external search
The next time you need to be hospitalised, will you speak to your doctor before choosing a hospital? No chance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I definitely will

Consumption intentions represent consumers intentions to engage in a particular consumption activity

Will you watch the next Super Bowl? No chance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I definitely will

How firms can predict behaviour

Rely on past behaviour to predict future behaviour Problems:
Situations change (changes in market can cause unpredictable changes in demand) Sales trends are sometimes erratic Past behaviours not available for new products or firsttime behaviours

Rely on consumers reported intentions People often do what they intend

Constraints on predictive power of intentions

Intentions can change
Intend to do something and dont Intend not to do something and do

Cant control whether consumers act upon their intentions Can influence predictive accuracy Intentions predictive accuracy strongly depends on how they are measured The more closely intention measures correspond to the to-be-predicted behaviour, the greater the predictive accuracy

Constraints on predictive power of intentions

Measuring intentions may be less predictive of future behaviour than measuring what they expect to do behavioural expectations: represent perceived likelihood of performing a behaviour. (Although
smokers may intend to quit smoking, they may report more moderate expectations due to past failures)

Accuracy of forecasts also depends on when intentions are measured How far into the future is being predicted? Accuracy depends on the to-be-predicted behaviour (behaviours repeated with regularity are easier to predict)

Constraints on predictive power of intentions

Volitional control: the degree to which a behaviour can be performed at will Existence of uncontrollable factors interfere with the ability to do as intended Perceived behavioural control: the persons belief about how easy it is to perform the behaviour

Consumer intentions: Other uses

Indicator of the possible effects of certain marketing activities Intentions may provide an informative indication of a companys likely success in retaining customers