Attitudes

What are our

attitudes?
 • Myth 1 : Mutual Funds investing is a One Time exercise
• Fact : You must have a financial plan to achieve your goal systematically.

• Myth 2: Investing is a Rich Man’s Game

Mutual • Fact : You do not need to have a bank balance of lakhs to invest.

Funds Myth • Myth 3 : I am too young to start investing

• Fact : The earlier you begin to invest, the more wealth you can

Busted… accumulate

• Myth 4 : Need to be an expert to Invest in Mutual Funds

• Fact : Mutual fund companies use their experience to allocate your
money in a way that maximizes your returns – so that you don’t have to
pour over balance sheets
We have similar myths about
Dogs – specially the Indian
breeds etc..
And eating eggs everyday or
Ghee or Free Range eggs or Milk
from Happy Cows etc. etc.
ANY MORE EXAMPLES?
These examples show that Organizations
frequently alter consumer behaviour by
changing Attitudes towards products/
things/ issues etc.
What are Attitudes?
What is a machine?
• An Attitude is an Enduring organization of
• Motivational
• Emotional
• Perceptual
• & Cognitive Processes
• .. With respect to some aspect of our environment
• It’s a “learned” predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable
or unfavorable manner towards some aspect of his/her environment.
In other words..

• Attitude is the way one thinks, feels, and act towards some aspect of
her environment (retail store, television ads or a product)
Attitude, Beliefs are Internal – Behaviour is External

Behaviour

Attitudes

Values

Beliefs
Attitude Components
So.. What about
• Drinking 5 cups of Coffee a day?
• Green Tea helps Skin?
• A glass of wine end of the day is good for health
• Mediterranean Diet is the best for healthy life
• Fish make one intelligent
• Apple a day…
• Paper should replace plastic vs one must use paper less & save trees
etc. etc.
Let’s look at the Components
Briefly
Cognitive

DESCRIBES ONES BELIEFS IN E.G. – MOUNTAIN DEW IS FOR

THINGS ONE HEARS OR SEES. YOUNG ADVENTUROUS PEOPLE.
• Beliefs can be about the EMOTIONAL BENEFITS of owning or using the
product – like driving a Convertible is Exciting or Sound of Bullet in rev
is exhilarating
• Many beliefs about attributes are EVALUATIVE in nature- e.g. great
mileage, styling, reliable performance.
• Brings up a distinction between a feature and a benefit – both of
which are consumer beliefs.
• A salt may be low sodium or low sugar (a non evaluative product
feature) which means its better for health (an evaluative benefit)
We may not have gone looking – but
will buy when we see..
• Marketers must promote benefits rather than
features , especially for less knowledgeable
consumers and complex products

• Quaker Oats helps consumers interpret the

nutritional information on their package with
statements such as “the soluble fibre of oatmeal
helps in removing cholesterol”.

• Cooking Oil = Cholesterol = Bad

• How marketers are changing that attitude &
belief.
Multi-Attribute Attitude Model
• The more Positive beliefs associated with the brand, more positive
each belief is.
• And then its easier to recall the beliefs – the more positive &
favorable the cognitive component is presumed to be.
• This logic underlines the Multi Attribute Model
Affective Component

FEELINGS & EMOTIONAL REACTIONS

TOWARDS AN OBJECT. EVALUATION IS SUGAR FREE DRINKS ARE
VAGUE, GENERAL FEELING WITHOUT
INFORMATION.
ACTUALLY A BAD IDEA.
• It may be result of several evaluations of product attributes. So a final
statement like Green Tea Tastes Bad or Sugar Free Cola doesn’t taste
good or the same shows, a negative affective reaction.
• Design elements help in mitigating negative viewpoints.
• Aesthetically pleasing products helps to push reactions towards
positive territory
• Marketers measure the attributes in Like or Dislike kind of scales.
Behavioural • Tendency to RESPOND in a certain manner
Component towards an object or activity

• Saying no to Diet Coke Offered.

Component Consistency
• All three attitudes tend to be consistent
• This means any change in one attitude tends to related changes in the
other components – (think it like a connected xl sheet)
• Ultimately our jobs are to influence behaviour
• But we are unable to directly cause consumers to buy , use or
recommend our products
• But given the “right attention” marketers can indirectly influence
behaviour by providing information, music, visuals or other stimuli
that influence a belief or feeling about the product.
Attitude Change Strategies (Cognitive
Component)

• CHANGE BELIEFS : This involves shifting beliefs about the performance

of the brand on or more attributes
Whenever ,
Wherever
• SHIFT IMPORTANCE : Most consumers consider some attributes more
important than others. Marketers often try to convince consumers
about other attributes and make them stronger.
• Volvo & CEAT campaigns
• ADD BELIEFS : Another approach is to add a new belief into the
consumers belief structure.

• Apple Magsafe ad.

Change the Affective Component
• Firms are increasingly attempting to influence consumer liking of their
brands without directly influencing beliefs or behaviour
• What you see in Mi India.. Or MG Gloster
• Marketers use 3 basic influences
• Classical Conditioning
• Affect towards Ad or Website
• Mere Exposure
Classical Conditioning
• In this approach – a stimuli like a music that a customer likes is paired
with the ad.
• Parachute Advanced ad
Affect towards Ad or Website
• Using humour, celebrities or emotional appeals increases tendencies
to like the brand.
• Benedict Cumberbatch launched MG Motors in India
• Tata Sky used both humour and celebrities like Amir Khan to build
huge ad salience in India.
Mere Exposure

• Just by repeating the ad many times – and increasing recall.

• Familiarity breeds Liking
• The whole Dream 11 campaign is a great example – along with “affect
towards ad”.
Change in Behavioural Component
• Sometimes consumer may be in a situation where his behaviour may
precede the development of cognition and affect.
• E.g. I may think artificial sweeteners in coke are bad for health but
when offered at a friend’s place may drink it & like it.
• While in a garage one may see the effect of better sun film
demonstrated and may end up buying even before putting
consideration on it.
Consumer Resistance to
Persuasion
Consumers are not passive – but can
be active or vocal or plain skeptical
towards persuasion attempts

The consumer may say that California

Almonds are trying to sell more
almonds – without great benefits.

Sometimes its important to quote a

Renowned Authority to back up the
claims.
So why do we develop attitudes (what
purpose?)
• One of the most beneficial things an attitude can do for us is to make our
lives more efficient. We do not have to evaluate and process each thing
we come into contact with to know if it is good (safe) or bad (threatening;
Petty, 1995). This is called the knowledge function and allows us to
understand and make sense of the world. (eg. Insects)
• Our attitudes can serve an ego-defensive function which is to help us
cover up things that we do not like about ourselves or help us to feel
better about ourselves.
• We can categorize some of our attitudes as serving as tools that lead us to
greater rewards or help us to avoid punishments. Serves an utilitarian
function.
That’s it.