Attitudes

An attitude is a

predisposition to act or feel a certain way towards a person or

thing.

Attitudes • have an emotional

charge + or –

• occur within a situation

• can not be measured directly – self reporting or inference

• are learned

• not temporary - more or less enduring

Situation

Attitude

Attitudes are learned

• In the absence of existing attitude we are

open to suggestion

Something (object of attitude)

Positive result Goal achievement

Formation of a + attitude

Communicator effect • highly respected source

helps formation of an attitude

• an inept attempt to teach an attitude can lead to a

negative reaction eg. anti drug ads

Attitude stability depends on

• how closely it's

linked with other

attitudes

• knowledge -

cognitive aspect

• degree of

liking/disliking -

affective aspect

Peanut butter example

• Cognitive (Knowledge) – larger jar for the money

– less oil on top

– creamier and easier to spread

• Affective (Emotional) – pretty label

– I like those teddy bear presenters

• 2 component model: sum of cognitive X affective leading to a goal

Attitudes can be formed to

preserve balance in our self image • Have to fit with other

attitudes, values, information accepted, what we do

• Changes in these may cause a readjustment of an attitude – eg. Johnny Cash for

Ripple Wine

– Billy Jean King for sports clothes

Knowledge

Opinion

Attitudes

Values

Attitude to object vs attitude to a

behaviour

• The attitude-toward-object model

– Attitude is function of evaluation of

product -specific beliefs and evaluations

• The attitude-toward-behavior model

– Is the attitude toward behaving or acting

with respect to an object, rather than the

attitude toward the object itself

• Object: Rolls Royce car

• Behaviour: purchasing a Rolls Royce

Tricomponent Attitude Model

(ABC)

– Affect (How I feel about it)plus

– Behavioural tendency (Conative), plus

– Cognitions (what I think or know) about likely consequences of behaviour

AFFECTIVE

(Feeling)

Behaviour

CONATIVE

COGNITIVE

Knowledge

Measurement

• Observation - difficult & time consuming

• Qualitative – pinpoint importnat attributes & issues

– provide direction for further research

• Self reporting scales – Likert - degree of agreement with a statement

– Semantic differential - opposite adjectives

– Rank order scale

– Constant sum scale

Attitude Profiling

• Single component – One dimensional based on feelings

– Healthy vs unhealthy breakfast

– Popular in commercial market research

– Could be a lot more specific

• Multi attribute methods – What are key ATTRIBUTES used to judge

something

– Rate the brands on these attributes

– How important is each attribute?

Multiattribute model

This college has great facilities Disagree |__|__|__|__|__|__|__| Agree strongly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly Teachers at this college are highly professional Disagree |__|__|__|__|__|__|__| Agree strongly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly Courses are recognised by employers Disagree |__|__|__|__|__|__|__| Agree strongly 1 2 4 5 6 7 strongly

College is easy to get to Disagree |__|__|__|__|__|__|__| Agree Strongly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly

Snake diagrams

Fishbein type models SUM of Score X Importance on all attributes

Attitude change strategies

• Changing the Basic Motivational Function

• Associating the Product With an Admired Group or Event

• Resolving Two Conflicting Attitudes

• Altering Components of the Multiattribute

Model

• Changing Beliefs About Competitors’ Brands

Four Basic Attitude Functions

• utilitarian – what it will do for you

• ego defensive function – helps protect customer self image

• value expressive – reflects customers general values, lifestyle or

attitude

• knowledge – cater to customer need to know

Associate with a special group, event or

cause

• eg. famous people who attended TAFE

• associate with Football, Olympics, etc.

Relating two conflicting attitudes

• eg. Do you want a status course or a job

Alter components of the multi

attribute model

• change the evaluation of attributes

• eg. you'll get a job with TAFE

• changing broad beliefs

• eg. TAFE is more than this is how we hold the drill

• adding a new attribute

• eg. social activities

• change the overall brand rating

• eg. the one personnel companies go to first

• change beliefs about competing brands