TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR.

SUDHADHARA SAMAL

PROF. V.B.SHAH INSITUTE OF MANAGEMENT,

AMROLI, SURAT

COURSE: B.B.A
YEAR: T.Y.BBA (SEM –VI)
SUBJECT: Consumer Buying Behaviour
Faculty: Dr. Sudhadhara Samal
UNIT 3: CONSUMER ATTITUDES MODELS (20%)
3.1 What are attitudes?
3.2 Attitude formation,
3.3 Tri-component attitude model,
3.4 Multi-attribute model

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR. SUDHADHARA SAMAL

3.1 What Are Attitudes?

 Meaning of Attitude:
The simple meaning of attitude refers to feelings & beliefs of an individual or as
group of individual. The Feelings and beliefs are directed towards other people,
objects, action or ideas. Attitude tends to resulting behavior or action. All people
irrespective of their status or intelligence hold attitude.

Of considerable importance in understanding the role of attitudes in consumer behavior is an

appreciation of the structure and composition of an attitude. Four broad categories of
attitude models have received attention: the tri-component attitude model, multi-attribute
attitude models, trying-to-consume attitude model, and attitude-toward-the-ad model.

 The Attitude “Object”

1. Object refers to such things as: product, product category, brand, service, possessions, product
use, causes or issues, people advertisement price, Internet site, price, medium, or retailer. a)
Attitude “can be conceptualized as a summary evaluation of an object.”
b) In conducting attitude research, we tend to be object specific..

 Attitudes Are a Learned Predisposition

1. Attitudes are learned. a) They are formed as a result of direct experience with the product,
information acquired from others, and exposure to mass media, the Internet, and various forms of
direct marketing.
b) Although attitudes may result in behaviors, they are, however, not synonymous with behavior.

2. As learned predispositions, attitudes have a motivational quality.

 Attitudes Have Consistency

1. Attitudes are relatively consistent with the behavior they reflect.
a) Attitudes are not necessarily permanent; they do change.
b) We should consider situational influences on consumer attitudes and behavior.

 Attitudes Occur Within a Situation

1. Consumer attitudes occur within, and are affected by, the situation.

a) By “situation,” we mean events or circumstances that, at a particular time, influence the

relationship between an attitude and a behavior.
b) A specific situation can cause consumers to behave in ways seemingly inconsistent with their
attitudes.

2. Consumers can have a variety of attitudes toward a particular object, each tied to a specific
situation or application. a) This can cause consumers to behave in ways seemingly inconsistent
with their attitudes.

3. It is important when measuring attitudes that we consider the situation in which the behavior
takes place, or the relationship between attitudes and behavior could be misinterpreted.

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR. SUDHADHARA SAMAL

 Definition of Attitude:
1. “Attitude is understood as the beliefs, feelings and action or tendencies of an
individual or group of individual towards objects, ideas and people". -
Ashwathappa
2. "Attitude is a pre-disposition to respond in a Positive or negative way to
someone or something in one's environment.”- Sehernerhoorn
3. “Attitude is a mental state or readiness, organised through experience, exerting
attitude directive or dynamic influence upon the individuals’ response to all objects
and situation with which it is related.”- Allport

 Functions of Attitudes

The following are the functions of attitudes

 Adjustment Function − Attitudes helps people to adjust to different situations and
circumstances.
 Ego Defensive Function − Attitudes are formed to protect the ego. We all are
bothered about our self-esteem and image, so the product boosting our ego is the
target of such a kind of attitude.
 Value Expression Function − Attitudes usually represent the values the individual
possess. We gain values, through our upbringing and training. Our value system
encourages or discourages us to buy certain products. For example, our value system
allows or disallows us to purchase products such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, etc.
 Knowledge Function − Individuals’ continuously seeks knowledge and information.
When an individual gets information about a particular product, he creates and
modifies his attitude towards that product.

3.2 Attitude Formation:

There are so many factors which help for the formation of Attitude. They are as follow:
1. Direct Experience
2. Classical Conditioning Theory
3. Operant Conditioning Theory
4. Vicarious Learning
5. Family and Peers Group
a) Family
b) Peers group/ Work group
c) Reference group

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR. SUDHADHARA SAMAL

6. Mass Communication
7. Neighbourhoods
8. Economic Status and Occupation
1. Direct Experience: Attitude can be developed with the personally rewarding
or punishing experience with an object. If there is a rewarding experience then
he/ she build positive attitude and if he/ she has negative experience with an
object then build negative attitude.
For example, Employees form attitude about jobs on their previous experiences
within the same or different organisation. New Employee sees that every
employees of the organization has been promoted within six month of joining
date, new employee also believe that he will also being promoted in six month
only.

2. Classical Conditioning Theory: It is based on repetitive principle. One of the

basic processes underlying attitude formation can be explained on the basis of
learning principles. People develop associations between various objects and
the emotional reactions that accompany them.
With repetitive learning and people develop associations between various
objects and the emotional reactions that accompany them. This concept mainly
used in the advertising. Broadcaster telecast same advertisement in many times
during one television program or cricket match.
One research has been done by "Evan Pavlov" which helps us to understand
this classical conditioning factor. He takes three objects for his research dog,
meat and bell. And put bell as conditional stimuli. First he throws the piece of
meat against dog, and dog start salivates by seeing piece of meat. "Dog- meat-
salivates.”
Now he adds conditional stimuli "bell", every time when he wants to throws
meat he rang bell. Means now bell rang first than meat is given to the dog.
What happen now dog start salivates after only rang the bell. "Dog-bell first-
meat second-salivate.” He repeats it so many times, now dog start salivate only
by hearing voice of bell, also without seeing piece of meat. "Dog- bell-
salivates without offering meat". With this research he proves that with
repetitive learning individual build certain association with particular object
and individual behave same with same kinds of condition.
Another good example: you see a traffic controller on the traffic booth; he
salutes his superior or commissioner when his car passed away from booth. He
did this every time whenever he sees the car of commissioner. With repetitive
learning, now he salutes the car although there is no commissioner in the car.
In this example a car is a conditional stimulus. Traffic controller builds certain
association with repetitive learning.

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR. SUDHADHARA SAMAL

3. Operant Conditioning Theory: It is based on instrumental learning. Another

learning process, operant conditioning, also underlies attitude acquisition.
Attitudes that are reinforced, either verbally or non-verbally, tend to be
maintained.
"You do something, to achieve something", so that your efforts are
instrumental.
Ex. Employees are doing job to obtain money for buying food. So here job is
instrument.
Ex. Coin box-if you want to talk, then you must have to insert coins in coin
box. So, that coin is instrument.

4. Vicarious Learning: Attitude is form by observing behavior of other. Children

develop attitude with observing his/her parents. Television and other mass
media also affect to build attitude. It is through vicarious learning processes
that children pick up the prejudices of their parents.
Ex. Children whose parents say that "blind people are incompetent" may adopt
such attitudes themselves, even if they have never met a blind person.

5. Family and Peers Group:

a) Family: If parents have positive attitude towards object then children have also
build positive attitude towards this particular object. Attitude also depends on
size of the family. There are two types of family according to size like joint
family and extended family.
Ex. If Parents likes BJP, then children also like BJP.

b) Peers Group/Work Group: It Involve classmate, colleagues and people

working at the same level. People lives most of the time with them. So that it
effects on individuals' attitude. If groups have positive attitude towards
particular object then member also develop positive attitude.

c) Reference Group: It is a group in which person likes to belong. If reference

group is positive then individual build positive attitude to join this group.

6. Mass Communication: It includes mass media like television and radio,

which telecast large scale of information about object to the population or
audience. It build positive or negative attitude by provide such kinds of
information. Many customers attracts towards particular product by seeing
advertisement on the television. Many company gives information related to
guarantee, warrantee, after sales services, product features, competitive
features and quality on television to attract customer. Repetitive telecast of
advertisement affects human minds which was useful for creating favourable
attitude.

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR. SUDHADHARA SAMAL

7. Neighbourhoods: The neighbourhood we live in has a certain structure in term of its

having cultural facilities, religious grouping, and possibly ethnic differences.
Neighbours’ value, culture, cast, likes & dislikes also effect on individuals’ attitude.

8. Economic Status and Occupation: Individuals' economic and occupational position also
contributes to attitude formation. They determine individuals' attitudes towards unions
and management. It also affects individuals' belief that certain laws are "good" .or "bad".
Individuals' socio-economic background influences our present and future attitudes
towards him.
Ex: Employee of 'TATA" have positive attitude than "XYZ" company.

3.3 Models of Attitude:

The following are the models of attitude:

1. Tri-component Model − According to tri-component model, attitude consists of

the following three components/ parts: a cognitive component, an affective
component, and a conative component. The cognitive component captures a
consumer’s knowledge and perceptions (i.e., beliefs) about products and services. The
affective component focuses on a consumer’s emotions or feelings with respect to a
particular product or service. Evaluative in nature, the affective component
determines an individual’s overall assessment of the attitude object in terms of some
kind of favourableness rating. The conative component is concerned with the
likelihood that a consumer will act in a specific fashion with respect to the attitude
object. In marketing and consumer behavior, the conative component is frequently
treated as an expression of the consumer’s intention to buy.

 Cognitive Component − The first component is cognitive component. It

consists of an individual’s knowledge or perception towards few products or
services through personal experience or related information from various
sources. This knowledge, usually results in beliefs, which a consumer has,
and specific behavior.

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR. SUDHADHARA SAMAL

In other words, Cognitions are knowledge and perceptions that are acquired
by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related
information from various sources.
a) This previous knowledge and perceptions commonly take the form of
beliefs
b) The consumer believes that the attitude object possesses various attributes
and that specific behavior will lead to specific outcomes.
 Affective Component − The second part is the affective component. This
consists of a person’s feelings, sentiments, and emotions for a particular
brand or product. They treat them as the primary criteria for the purpose of
evaluation. The state of mind also plays a major role, like the sadness,
happiness, anger, or stress, which also affects the attitude of a consumer.
In other words,
1. The affective component of an attitude consists of the consumer’s
emotions or feelings. a) Researchers frequently treat these emotions and
feelings as evaluative in nature.
2. Affect-laden experiences manifest themselves as emotionally charged states
(such as happiness or sadness). a) These states may enhance positive or
negative experiences for the consumer.
b) Later recollections of such experiences may impact what comes to mind
and how the individual acts.

3. Recent research suggests that “positive and negative forms of affect operate
differently and that their direct and indirect effects on attitudes are influenced
by brand familiarity.”
4. In addition to using direct or global evaluative measure of an attitude
object, consumer researchers can also use a battery of affective response
scales to construct a picture of consumers’ overall feelings about a product,
service, or ad. .
 Conative (Behaviour) Component − The last component is conative
component, which consists of a person’s intention or likelihood towards a
particular product. It usually means the actual behavior of the person or his
intention.

In other words,
1. Conation, the final component of the tri-component attitude model, is
concerned with the likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a
specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object.
a) The conative component may include the actual behavior itself.

2. In marketing and consumer research, the conative component is frequently

treated as an expression of the consumer’s intention to buy. a) Intention-to-

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

TYBBA (SEM-VI) CBB DR. SUDHADHARA SAMAL

buy scales are used to assess the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a

product or behaving in a certain way.

2. Multi-attribute Model:
The multi-attribute attitude model state that a consumer's attitude towards an attitude object
(product/service offering, brand, elements of the marketing mix) is a function of a
consumer's perception and belief of the key attributes as well as his assessment of the
key attributes.

The Multi Attribute Model breaks down the consumer's overall attitude and behavior
into smaller components. These components could be perceived benefits, functions, product
features, etc., and are collectively known as Product Attributes.

Multi-attribute attitude models (i.e., attitude-toward-object, attitude-toward-behavior, and the

theory-of-reasoned-action models) have received much attention from consumer researchers.
As a group, these models examine consumer beliefs about specific-product attributes (e.g.,
product or brand features or benefits).

1. Multi-attribute attitude models portray consumers’ attitudes with regard to an attitude

object as a function of consumers’ perception and assessment of the key attributes or beliefs
held with regard to the particular attitude object.

2. There are many variations of the attitude model, three to consider are: attitude-toward-
object model, attitude-toward-behavior model, and the theory-of-reasoned-action model.

3. The attitude-toward-object model is especially suited for measuring attitudes toward a

product category or specific brands.

4. According to the attitude-toward-object model, the consumer’s attitude toward a product

or specific brands of a product is a function of the presence (or absence) and evaluation of
certain product-specific beliefs and/or attributes.

5. Consumers generally have a favourable attitude toward those brands they believe have an
adequate level of attributes that they evaluate as positive, and they have unfavourable
attitudes toward those brands they feel do not have an adequate level of desired attributes or
have too many negative or undesired attributes.

PROF. V. B. SHAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT