Attitude and Brand Loyalty

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Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

DOI: 10.1177/009207037700500210 1977; 5; 249Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

Clint B. TankersleyVariables

Attitude And Brand Loyalty: A Longitudinal Study Of Multiattribute Attitude Models And Intervening

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Attitude And Brand Loyalty: A LongitudinalStudyOf

Multiattribute AttitudeModels And InterveningVariables

Clint B. Tankersley, Ph.D.

Syracuse University

INTRODUCTION

Although the concept of brand loyalty has been an area of continual research inconsumer behavior, the value of the concept in developing marketingstrategies hasbeen minimal. Reviews of this work have found that the results of past studies were

less than encouraging. Frank ( 1967),in studying the relevance of brand loyalty fordeveloping a program of segmentation, concluded that more research was neededto understand the process underlying brand-loyal behavior. Engel, et. al. ( 1973)reviewed most of the past work and concluded that most of the studies were

inconsistent, equivocal and inconclusive and added little to our knowledge ofconsumer behavior.

One reason for this has been the concentration on brand-loyal behavior and thedevelopment of operational definitions based on ex post facto measures. The mostfrequently used definitions have involved either a sequence of brand purchases(Tucker, 1964) or a proportion-of-purchases (Cunningham, 1956) criteria. Themajor weakness of this approach is the focus on the results of the choice processrather than on factors affecting the process. Without knowing what factors affectbrand loyalty it is extremely difficult to design marketingstrategiesthat will aid in

developing such loyalty.

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Brand loyaltyis now beingconsidered as a multidimensional concept with severalstudies focusingon an attitudinal component. One of the leading proponents of anattitudinal approach to brand loyalty has been Jacob Jacoby (1971).Jacoby andKyner (1973) attempted to differentiate between brand loyaltyand repeat purchasebehavior and develop a conceptual definition of brand loyalty.

The purpose of this research is to study the association between attitude andbrand-loyalty behavior. By utilizing attitude in studying brand loyalty it is hopedthat greater understandingof the concept can be obtained. Attitude is representedby two expectancy value models which have received considerable attention withinmarketing circles, Fishbeins AB and BI models. This research compares these twomodels in a longitudinal field study of purchase behavior and analyzes theirusefulness in better understanding the concept of brand loyalty.

Fishbein AB Model

Fishbeins original attitude model assumes a clear separation between theaffecting cognitive and conative elements with affect along regarded as attitude(Fishbeinand Raven, 1962). Attitude therefore involves evaluation and represents afeelingof favorableness toward something. The remainingcomponents are relatedto an individuals belief system. An individuals attitude toward an object may bepredictedby knowing the personsbeliefs about the object and his evaluation ofthose beliefs. The model can be presented algebraically as:

where: Ao = attitude toward some object &dquo;o&dquo;

B1 = strength of belief i about object &dquo;o&dquo;(probability dimension)aj = evaluative aspects of Bin = number of beliefs

The attitude score (Ao) represents the affective component. Since Ao is generatedby beliefs, the model accounts for the cognitivecomponent as well. The conative (ormotivationa!) component must be inferred from the model, presumably from the

Ao score. Operationally, this is construed to suggest at least a monotonically-consistent association between the individuals Ao score toward a brand and hisbehavioral intention toward that brand, i.e., his brand preference.



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Fishbein BI Model

Recently, Fishbein ( 1967)has developeda new model postulatingthat a personsbehavior intention is a joint function of attitudes toward performing that behaviorand of beliefs about what others ecpect him to do in that situation, weightedby hismotivation to comply with those expectations. Algebraically, this is presented as:

where: B = overt behavior

BI = behavioral intention

Aact = attitude toward the act or behaviorNBi = normative beliefs

MCi = motivation to comply with normative beliefsn = number of normative beliefs

Wo and W = empiricallydetermined weights

The model indicates that there are two major components that affect behavioralintention and thus behavior: ( 1 )a personal or attitudinal factor, and (2) a social ornormative factor. The weightings of these two components need to be empiricallydetermined in that the relative importance of each depends on the behavior andindividuals under study.

The first component can be viewed as the individuals attitude toward performingthe behavior being studied and is an adaptation of the AB model. The differencebetween the models is that the attitude under investigationis not an attitude towardan object but an attitude toward performinga behavioral act and its consequences.The second component consists of two elements. The first (NBi) is viewed as anormative belief (a belief of what others expect or say should be done in thatbehavioral situation). The second element (MCi) is the individuals motivation tocomply with these expectations. If several norms exist, it becomes necessary toknow an individuals degree of willingnessto comply with each norm.

Effects of Intervening Variables

Although some studies on the attitude/ behavior relationship have concluded theattitudes are poor predictorsof behavior (Wicker, 1969),many social psychologistshave found this conclusion untenable and suggest that situational variables effectthe strength of the relationship (Ehrlich, 1969).The effect of situational variableswhich may mediate or intervene between attitudes and behavior has also been of

interest to market researchers. Engel, et. al. (1973) in their model of consumer



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behavior present a list of variables interveningbetween preshopping intentions andpostshopping outcomes. Howard and Sheth ( 1969)in their buyingbehavior modeldiscuss several inhibitor variables that mediate between attitude and behavior and

suggest that any study of behavior include these variables. Recently,Belk ( 1974)reported that situational effects greatly influenced purchasedecisions. It is for thesereasons that the effect of possibleintervening variables on the attitude/behaviorrelationship was analyzed. Perhaps the addition of intervening variables willenhance the behavioral predictionsof attitude.

The objectivesof this study are therefore:(1) to investigate the association between attitude and brand-loyal

behavior;**

(2) to compare two attitude models associations to brand-loyal

behavior; and(3) to analyze the effects of interveningvariables on the association

between attitude and brand-loyal behavior.*Brand loyalty was defined using the proporation-of-totalpurchases definition, providing a continuum from 0 to 1.0.

METHODOLOGY

Subjects and Procedure

Due to the need for several attitude and purchase measures over time, it wasbelieved that cooperation from individual subjects would be unattainable.

Therefore, several womens organizations were contacted and asked to participatein a marketing study. Three organizations,totalling 125 members, agreed toparticipate. A monetary inducement was paid to each organization and, as anincentive for the individual, gift certificates were givento winners of a drawing ofthose completingthe study. A total of 78 subjectscompletedall aspects of the study.Subjects were heterogeneouswith respect to age, income, and education.

Data were obtained through self-administered questionnaires. Attitude andpurchase intention data were collected during the lost, 3rd, 5th, and 7th weeks, whileactual purchase and intervening variable data were collected after each shoppingtrip.

Selection of Products and Intervening Variables

Due to the need for several purchases of a product class in order to establishbrand loyalty, the major criterion on which products were selected was that they



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exhibit a high purchase frequency.In addition, since part of the study involved acomparisonof Fishbeins AB and BI models, products were selected which differedin their degree of social conspicuousness (do others notice what brand you use)?One component of the BI model represents social norms and thus it would be

expected that differences in social conspicuousnesswould effect the results of the BImodel. A pretest of four products indicated that both products tended to bepurchased on a weeklyor bi-weekly basis. They are also sociallyconspicuous in thatthey are sometimes offered to individuals outside the immediate family (facialtissues were rated as beingless conspicuous than soft drinks). Thus the productsselected are purchased frequently and differ in their degree of socialconspicuousness.

Since one objective of the study was to determine the effect of interveningvariables on the attitude/brand-loyalbehavior relationship, the selection of thesevariables is an important aspect of the research design.Within a marketing context,Howard and Sheth ( 1969)in their model of buyerbehavior, placea majoremphasison the effect of variables intervening between attitudes and behavior. They viewsuch inhibitors as being of two classes, either emanating from the buyers currentenvironment or carried over from his past. The major inhibitors include price,availability, social influence, social class, culture and financial status. Theimportance of these sets of variables depends upon the situation and individualunder study. Those variables thought to be most important for this study, and onwhich data were collected, were price, availability and financial status. While socialinfluence was also considered to be important, it is included in the BI model and isone of the major differences between the models and was already being measured.

Attitude Measures

Questionnaires were developed to obtain data for utilization with Fishbeins ABand BI models. The salient product characteristics, expected consequences of theact of purchasing, and the reference groups associated with both products understudy were obtained from a preliminary sample of 32 housewives and are presentedin Table 1. A questionnaire was designed adapting these data for use with the usualFishbein AB and B1 formats and validated with a different sample of 28 housewives.For the AB model, the belief dimension was measured byasking subjectsto rate thelikelihood of each brand having each of the salient characteristics on a six-pointlikely-unlikelydifferential. The subjects then rated each characteristic on a good-bad continuum to obtain the evaluative dimension.



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TABLE 1

Consequences of Behavior and Reference

Objects for the Fishbein Models

For the BI model, behavioral intention was measured by asking subjects theirintent to purchase the brands under study on a six-point likely-unlikely scale. Tomeasure the social influence component, respondents rated how likely it was thateach of the reference groups thought they should purchasethe brand and how likelythe respondent would do as each group expected. Normativebeliefs were thenmultipliedby motiviation to comply and summated to obtain the social influencecomponent. Attitude toward the act was measured

by elicitingthe likelihood that

the purchase of each of the brands would obtain the desired result and multiplyingthis by the evaluative consequences (good-bad) of this result. In each part of thequestionnaire a blank marked Other was available to rate brands other than thosespecificallysolicited. Regression analysis BMD02R (Dixon, 1971) was used toobtain the BI equation for each brand.

Purchase Measures

Besides attitude data, some measure of actual purchases was required. A

purchase questionnairewas designed to obtain data on actual purchases and theinterveningvariables of price and availability(financial status data were obtainedseparately). Subjects were asked to rate each brand on a six-point continuum of

relative price fromlowest to

highestpricedand

againon a continuum of relative

availability from most to least shelf space. If they purchased a brand not listed theywere to write the brand in a blank marked Other and rate it on priceand availability.



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Followingthe rating scales, subjects were asked to record which brands from thatproduct class they actually purchased. Purchase questionnaires were completedafter each shoppingtrip and dated so that a longitudinalrecord of purchases wasobtained.

Analytic Techniques

All results in this study are based on normalized data, although the raw data werealso analyzed. Normalization of the data is used to reduce inter-subject scalpingdifferences. An aggregate analysis of all subjects, on each brand, was performed

utilizingcorrelation and regressionanalysis(Dixon, 1971).Correlation analysiswasused to test for association between attitude scores and brand-loyal behavior whileregressionanalysis was used to test the ability to predict behavior from attitudemeasures.

Once the BI model had been computed for each brand, and for the product classas a whole, every subjectsaverage BI score (over the four measures) was calculated.This was done because the proportion-of-purchase measure is a longitudinalmeasure and a longitudinalattitude measure was sought as a basis for comparison.Each individuals average BI brand score was correlated with their proportion-of-purchase for that brand. Multiple correlation was used to test the effect of includingthe average interveningvariable scores with the averaged BI measure. The sameprocedure was performedwith the subjects AB score. To test the predictivepowerof attitude, regression analysis was used with the dependent variable being

proporation-of-purchase for each brand and the independent variables consistingof the average AB or BI score and the intervening variables.

RESULTS

The regressioncoefficients for the BI model are presented in Table 2. As shown inthe table, the regressionequations provided a good fit to the data with the adjustedR2 values ranging from .416 to .638. While both components were significant (p

Attitude and Brand Loyalty

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