Lesson 3 – CHOOSING AND USING PRODUCTS
Unit 1 – Attitudes and Persuasive Communications
Overview
People use the term attitude in many contexts. A friend might ask you, “What is your attitude toward abortion?” A parent might scold, “Young man, I don’t like your attitude.” Some bars even euphemistically refer to happy hour as “an attitude adjustment period.” For our purposes, though, an attitude is a lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects, advertisements, or issues.
Learning Objectives
• It is important for consumer researchers to understand the nature and power of attitudes.
• Attitudes are more complex than they first appear.
• We form attitudes in several ways.
• A need to maintain consistency among all of our attitudinal components often motivates us to alter one or more of them.
• Attitude models identify specific components and combine them to predict a consumer’s overall attitude toward a product or brand.
• The communications model identifies several important components for marketers when they try to change consumers’ attitudes toward products and services.
• The consumer who processes a message is not the passive receiver of information marketers once believed him or her to be.
• Several factors influence the effectiveness of a message source.
• The way a marketer structures his or her message determines how persuasive it will be.
• Many modern marketers are reality engineers.
• Audience characteristics help to determine whether the nature of the source or the message itself will be relatively more effective.
Course materials
It is important for consumer researchers to understand the nature and power of attitudes.
An attitude is a predisposition to evaluate an object or product positively or negatively. We form attitudes toward products and services, and these attitudes often determine whether we will purchase or not.
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Attitudes are more complex than they first appear.
Three components make up an attitude: beliefs, affect, and behavioral intentions.
We form attitudes in several ways.
Attitude researchers traditionally assumed that we learn attitudes in a fixed sequence: First we form beliefs (cognitions) about an attitude object, then we evaluate that object (affect), and then we take some action (behavior). Depending on the consumer’s level of involvement and the circumstances, though, his attitudes can result from other hierarchies of effects as well. A key to attitude formation is the function the attitude holds for the consumer (e.g., is it utilitarian or ego defensive?).
A need to maintain consistency among all of our attitudinal components often motivates us to alter one or more of them.
One organizing principle of attitude formation is the importance of consistency among attitudinal components—that is, we alter some parts of an attitude to be in line with others. Such theoretical approaches to attitudes as cognitive dissonance theory, self-perception theory, and balance theory stress the vital role of our need for consistency.
Attitude models identify specific components and combine them to predict a consumer’s overall attitude toward a product or brand.
Multi-attribute attitude models underscore the complexity of attitudes: They specify that we identify and combine a set of beliefs and evaluations to predict an overall attitude. Researchers integrate factors such as subjective norms and the specificity of attitude scales into attitude measures to improve predictability.
The communications model identifies several important components for marketers when they try to change consumers’ attitudes toward products and services.
Persuasion refers to an attempt to change consumers’ attitudes. The communications model specifies the elements marketers need to transmit meaning. These include a source, a message, a medium, a receiver, and feedback.
The consumer who processes a message is not the passive receiver of information marketers once believed him or her to be.
The traditional view of communications regards the perceiver as a passive element in the process. New developments in interactive communications highlight the need to consider the active roles a consumer plays when he or she obtains product information and builds a relationship with a company. Advocates of permission marketing argue that it’s more
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effective to send messages to consumers who have already indicated an interest in learning about a product than trying to hit people “cold” with these solicitations.
Several factors influence the effectiveness of a message source.
Two important characteristics that determine the effectiveness of a source are its attractiveness and credibility. Although celebrities often serve this purpose, their credibility is not always as strong as marketers hope. Marketing messages that consumers perceive as buzz (those that are authentic and consumer generated) tend to be more effective than those they categorize as hype (those that are inauthentic, biased, and company generated).
The way a marketer structures his or her message determines how persuasive it will be.
Some elements of a message that help to determine its effectiveness include the following: conveyance of the message in words or pictures; employment of an emotional or a rational appeal; frequency of repetition; conclusion drawing; presentation of both sides of the argument; and inclusion of fear, humor, or sexual references. Advertising messages often incorporate elements from art or literature, such as dramas, lectures, metaphors, allegories, and resonance.
Many modern marketers are reality engineers.
Reality engineering occurs when marketers’ appropriate elements of popular culture to use in their promotional strategies. These elements include sensory and spatial aspects of everyday existence, whether in the form of products that appear in movies, scents pumped into offices and stores, billboards, theme parks, or video monitors attached to shopping carts.
Audience characteristics help to determine whether the nature of the source or the message itself will be relatively more effective.
The relative influence of the source versus the message depends on the receiver’s level of involvement with the communication. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) specifies that source effects are more likely to sway a less-involved consumer, whereas a more-involved consumer will be more likely to attend to and process components of the actual message.
Read:
Chapter 8 – Attitudes and Persuasive Communication
Consumer Behavior 12e
by: Michael R. Solomon
Activities/assessment:
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Answer the following Review Questions:
1. How can an attitude play an ego-defensive function?
2. Describe the ABC model of attitudes.
3. List the three hierarchies of attitudes, and describe the major differences among them.
4. How do levels of commitment to an attitude influence the likelihood that it will become part of the way we think about a product in the long term?
5. We sometimes enhance our attitude toward a product after we buy it. How does the theory of cognitive dissonance explain this change?
6. What is the foot-in-the-door technique? How does self-perception theory relate to this effect?
7. What are latitudes of acceptance and rejection? How does a consumer’s level of involvement with a product affect his latitude of acceptance?
8. According to balance theory, how can we tell if a triad is balanced or unbalanced? How can consumers restore balance to an unbalanced triad?
9. Describe a multi-attribute attitude model and list its key components.
10. What is a subjective norm, and how does it influence our attitudes?
11. What are three obstacles to predicting behavior even if we know a person’s attitudes?
12. Describe the Theory of Reasoned Action. Why might it not be equally valuable when we apply it to non-Western cultures?
13. Describe the elements of the traditional communications model, and tell how the updated model differs.
14. What is source credibility, and what are two factors that influence our decision as to whether a source is credible?
15. What is the difference between buzz and hype?
16. What is a halo effect, and why does it happen?
17. What is an avatar, and why might an advertiser choose to use one instead of hiring a celebrity endorser?
18. Marketers must decide whether to incorporate rational or emotional appeals in a communications strategy. Describe conditions that are more favorable to one or the other.
19. When should a marketer present a message visually versus verbally?
20. How does the Two-Factor Theory explain the effects of message repetition on attitude change? (a) When is it best to present a two-sided message versus a one-sided message?
21. Do humorous ads work? If so, under what conditions? (a) Should marketers ever try to arouse fear to persuade consumers?
22. Why do marketers use metaphors to craft persuasive messages? Give two examples of this technique.
23. What is the difference between a lecture and a drama?