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Consumer Behaviour

Assignment # 1- Attitude
Submitted to: Md. Shahnawaz Abdin Asst. Professor Dept. of Management Submitted by: Mohammad Ismail Ghazali Safina Zakir Sana Ansari MBA (Gen) III Semester

Attitudes:

"A learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object" - A lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects, advertisements, or issues - Anything toward which one has an attitude is called an object. - Attitudes are lasting because they tend to endure over time. Consumer researchers assess attitudes by asking questions or making inferences from behavior. Attitudes are not directly observable but must be inferred from what people say or what they do. A whole universe of consumer behaviors-consistency of purchases, recommendations to others, top rankings, beliefs, evaluations, and intentions are related to attitudes. Definition: An attitude can be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your environment. An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for something. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event this is often referred to as the attitude object. The attitude is, therefore, the dynamic element in human behavior, the motive for activity. Attitudes are judgments. They develop on the ABC model (affective, behavioral, and cognitive). Components of attitudes: (i) (ii) (iii) The affective component of an attitude is an emotional response that expresses an individual's degree of preference for an entity. The behavioral intention is a verbal indication or typical behavioral tendency of an individual towards someone or something. The cognitive component of an attitude is a cognitive evaluation of the entity that constitutes an individual's beliefs about the object. Most attitudes are the result of either direct experience or observational learning from the environment.

Characteristics of attitudes: 1. Attitudes have an object: By definition, attitudes must have an object. That is, they must have a focal point whether it is an abstract concept, such as ethical behavior, or tangible item, such as a car. The object can be a physical thing, such as a product, or it can be an action, such as buying a washing machine. In addition, the object can be either one item, such as a person, or a collection of items such as a social group. Attitudes have Direction, Degree and Intensity: An attitude expresses how a person feels towards an object. It expresses (i) Direction: The person is either favorable or unfavorable towards or for against the object. (ii) Degree: How much the person either likes or dislikes the object; and (iii) Intensity: The level of sureness or confidence of expression about the object, or how strongly a person feels about his or her conviction. Although degree and intensity might seem the same and are actually related, they are not synonymous. Attitudes have structure: Attitudes display organization, which means that they have internal consistency and possess interattitudinal centrality. They also tend to be stable, to have varying degrees of salience and to be generalizable. The structure of human attitudes may be viewed as a complex Tinker Toy set erected in a type of circular pattern. At the centre of this structure are the individuals important values and self-concept. Attitudes closed to the hub of this system are said to have a high degree of centrality. Other attitudes located farther out in the structure possess less centrality. Attitudes are learned: Learning precedes attitude formation and change. Attitudes are also derived from both direct and indirect experiences in life.

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Attitude Formation: Attitudes are basically learned. People are not born with specific attitudes; rather they acquire them through the process of sources of attitudes is learning. Attitudes reflect a persons previous reinforcement history. The sources of a persons attitude are a mixture of: 1. Personal experiences: People form attitudes by coming in directly contact with an attitude object. By the time a person goes for work in a specified Organization, he holds many attitudes toward the type of the job that is acceptable to him, the expected pay, working conditions and supervision. Through job experiences they develop attitudes about such factors as salary, performance reviews, job design, work group, affiliation and managerial capabilities etc. Previous work experience can account for the individual differences in attitudes such as loyalty, commitments, performance etc. Many managers in work organizations frequently notice these differences in attitudes. 2. Association: People are highly influenced by the major groups or association to which they belong. Geographic region, religion, educational background, race, sex, age, and income-class-all strongly influence attitudes. The nearer the group the stronger is the group influence on the attitudes of the individual. 3. Family: Family is the primary group that an individual belongs to. Family exerts influence on the initial core of attitudes held by an individual. Individuals develop certain attitudes from family members- parents, brothers, sisters etc. The family characteristics influence the individuals early attitude patterns. Researchers have found a high degree of relationship between parents and children in attitudes than they found between children and their peers. They also empirically observed low correlation between attitudes of the children and their teachers. 4. Peer groups and society: As people approach their adulthood, they increasingly rely on their peer groups for approval/ attitude. How others judge an individual largely determine his self-image and approval-seeking behavior. Social class and religious affiliation also play vital role in forming attitudes of an individual. The culture, language, and the structure of society, all provide an individual with the boundaries of his initial attitudes. 5. Models: Some of the attitudes are developed through imitation of models. The process is something like this: In a particular situation, we see how another person behaves. We correctly or incorrectly interpret his behavior as representing certain attitudes and beliefs. If we identify with him and respect his judgment, we tend to accept his way of perceiving and feeling about the situation. Children are often quiet observant about how their parents react to different people and situations. They learn by watching whom their parents

respect, which they treat with condescension, whom they regard as friends, and whom they dislike. Such evaluations may be acquired without the childs directly interacting with such people. 6. Institutional factors: Many institutional factors function as sources and support of our attitudes and beliefs. For examples, consider the description of a certain temple Aarati. When the people come into this temple, they bow down to pray, sit with heads bowed. Their clothes are clean and freshly washed. When the Pujari signals and is with Aarati all start singing Bhajan and clap. The entire process is devoted to ritual. From this we can get an idea as to the general character of the religious attitudes and beliefs. There is implicit attitude of reverence, an orientation toward a deity, a ritualized rather than spontaneous expression of feeling, a sharp differentiation between Pujari and devotees and so on. The different parts of the institution the architecture, furnishes, peoples clothing, and behavior have a meaning which fits in with certain beliefs and attitudes. There are many other institutions in our society schools, military organizations, and the like- which also function as sources and supports of attitudes and beliefs.

Structural Models of Attitudes: Motivated by a desire to understand the relationship between attitudes and behavior, psychologists have sought to construct models that capture the underlying dimensions of an attitude. To this end, the focus has been on specifying the composition of an attitude to better explain or predict behavior. There are several important attitude models: the tri component attitude model, the multi attribute attitude models, the trying-to-consume model, and the attitude-toward-the-ad models. Each of these models provides a somewhat different perspective on the number of component parts of an attitude and how those parts are arranged or interrelated
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Tricomponent Attitudinal Model: According to the tricomponent attitude mode, attitudes consist of three major components: a cognitive component, an affective component, and a conative component. 1. The Cognitive Component: "The knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources". The first part of the tricomponent attitude model consists of a person's cognitions, that is, the knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources. This knowledge and resulting perceptions commonly take the form of beliefs; that is, the consumer believes that the attitude object possesses various attributes and that specific behavior will lead to specific outcomes. 2. The Affective Component: "A consumer's emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand". A consumer's emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand constitute the affective component of an attitude. These emotions and feelings are frequently treated by consumer researchers as primarily evaluative in nature; that is, they capture an individual's direct or global assessment of the attitude object (i.e., the extent to which the individual rates the attitude (object as "favorable" or "unfavorable," "good" or "bad"). Affect-laden experiences also manifest themselves as emotionally charged states (e.g." happiness, sadness, shame, disgust, anger, distress, guilt, or surprise). Research indicates that such emotional states may enhance or amplify positive or negative experiences and that later recollections of such experiences may impact what comes to mind and how the individual acts. In addition to using direct or global evaluative measures of an attitude object, consumer researchers can also use a battery

of affective response scales (e.g., that measure feelings and emotions) to construct a picture of consumers' overall feelings about a product, service, or ad. 3. The Conative Component: "The likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object". Conation, the final component of the tricomponent 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. The conative component may include the actual behavior itself. In marketing and consumer research, the conative component is frequently treated as an expression of the consumer's intention to buy. Buyer intention scales are used to assess the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a product or behaving in a certain way.

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Multiattribute Attitude Model: "Attitude models that examine the composition of consumer attitudes in terms of selected product attributes or beliefs". Multiattribute attitude models portray consumers' attitudes with regard to an attitude object (e.g., a product, a service, a direct-mail Catalog, or a cause or an issue) as a function of consumers' perception and assessment of the key attributes or beliefs held with regard to the particular attitude object.

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Theory of Trying-To-Consume Model: "An attitude theory designed to account for the many cases where the action or outcome is not certain but instead reflects the consumer's attempt to consume (or purchase)". There has been an effort underway to extend attitude models so that they might better accommodate consumers' goals as expressed by their "trying" to consume. The theory of trying to consume is designed to account for the many cases in which the action or outcome is not certain but instead reflects the consumer's attempts to consume (i.e., purchase). A classic example of trying ("got") to consume is attempting to diet and lose weight. Researchers have recently extended this inquiry by examining those situations in which consumers do l1Qltry to consume - that is, fail to try to consume. In this case, consumers appear to (1) fail to see or are ignorant of their options and (2) make a conscious effort not to consume; that is, they might seek to self-sacrifice or defer gratification to some future time.

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Attitude-Toward-The-Ad Model: "A model that proposes that a consumer forms various feelings (affects) and judgments (cognitions) as the result of exposure to an advertisement, which, in turn, affect the consumer's attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand". In an effort to understand the impact of advertising or some other promotional vehicle (e.g., a catalogue) on consumer attitudes toward particular products or brands, considerable attention has been paid to developing what has been referred to as attitude toward the ad models. As the model depicts, the consumer forms various feelings (affects) and judgments (cognitions) as the result of exposure to an ad. These feelings and judgments in turn affect the consumer's attitude toward the ad and beliefs about the brand. Acquired from exposure to the ad, finally, the consumer's attitude toward the ad and beliefs about the brand influence his or her attitude-toward-the brand. A positive relationship between attitude toward the advertisement and purchase intention for each of the advertised products; that is, if consumers "like" the ad, they are more likely to purchase the product.

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