Consumer Beliefs, Feelings, Attitudes, and Intentions Week 7: CHAPTER 8 Consumer Beliefs, Feelings, Attitudes, and Intentions

Relationships between Consumer Beliefs, Feelings, Attitudes, and Intentions Feelings = An affective state (e.g., current mood state) or reaction (e.g., emotions experienced during product consumption) Beliefs = subjective judgments about the relationship between two or more things Attitudes= Global evaluative judgments Intentions =Subjective judgments by people about how they will behave in the future

A) Consumer Beliefs Example A Sampling of Consumer Beliefs If a deal seems to good to be true, it probably is. You can’t believe what most advertising says these days. Auto repair shops take advantage of women. People need less money to live on once they retire. It’s not safe to use credit cards on the Internet. Appliances today are not as durable as they were 20 years ago. Extended warranties are worth the money. You get what you pay for: lower price means lower quality. Changing the oil in your car every three thousand miles is a waste of money.

Expectations are beliefs about the future Expectations are beliefs about the future. Consumers’ willingness to spend is influenced by beliefs about their financial future. Why should consumer want to buy your brand instead of the competitor’s? The desirability of products having something unique to offer to their consumers is also known as the Unique Selling Proposition Inferential Beliefs =Consumers use information about one thing to form beliefs about something else . E.g., price-quality inferential beliefs

Consumer Confusion Sometimes consumers do not know what to believe due to many different reasons May arise due to conflicting information and knowledge Mistaking one company’s product for the product of another company Due to changes in a product’s position and image

B) Consumer Feelings Mood state refers to how people feel at a particular moment in time Studies show that consumers evaluate products more favorably when they are in a good mood

Feelings as part of the advertising experience Feelings as part of the advertising experience. Feelings activated by the advertisement have the potential to influence attitudes formed about the featured product. Feelings as part of the shopping experience. The shopping environment can evoke pleasure, arousal, or dominance in consumers Feelings as part of the consumption experience. Some consumption experiences are liked primarily for the feelings they induce

Measuring Feelings How often, if at all, do you experience the following feelings as a result of eating chocolate? Happy never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Excited never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Delighted never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Joyous never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Satisfied never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Proud never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Annoyed never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Depressed never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Guilty never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often Regretful never _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_ very often

C) Consumer Attitudes Valence: Whether the attitude is positive, negative or neutral Extremity: The intensity of liking or disliking Resistance: Degree to which the attitude is immune to change Confidence: Belief that attitude is correct Accessibility: How easily the attitude can be retrieved from memory

Attitude toward the behavior: Buying a Dell personal computer would be: Very good 1 2 3 4 5 Very bad Very rewarding 1 2 3 4 5 Very punishing Very wise 1 2 3 4 5 Very foolish Attitude toward the object: How much do you like/dislike Dell computers? Like very much 1 2 3 4 5 Dislike very much Preference: Compared to Apple personal computers, how much do you like Dell personal computers? Like IBM much 1 2 3 4 5 Like Apple much more than Apple more than IBM

The Fishbein Multiattribute Attitude Model to understand CB Ao = Σ bi ei i =1 belief attribute Model proposes that attitude toward an object is based on the summed set of beliefs about the object’s attributes weighted by the evaluation of these attributes Attributes can be any product or brand association

The Fishbein Multiattribute Attitude Model E.g. Developing the ei and bi measures ei Buying running shoes priced less than $50 is very good _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ very bad +3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3 bi How likely is it that brand A running shoes are priced less than $50? very likely _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ very unlikely

The Fishbein Model: Sample Results Beliefs Brand Brand Brand Attribute Evaluation A B C Shock absorbent +2 +2 +1 -1 Price less than $50 -1 -3 -1 +3 Durability +3 +3 +1 -1 Comfort +3 +2 +3 +1 Desired color +1 +1 +3 +3 Arch support +2 +3 +1 -2 Total Σ bi ei score +29 +20 -6

Consumer Attitudes Companies want consumers to perceive their products as: Possessing desirable attributes (when ei positive, bi should be positive) Not possessing undesirable attributes (when ei is negative, bi should be negative)

AP = Σ Wi Ii - Xi The Ideal-Point Multiattribute Attitude Model n i =1 AP = attitude toward product Wi = importance of attribute i Ii = ideal performance on attribute i Xi = belief about product’s actual performance on attribute i n = number of salient attributes The closer the ideal and actual ratings, the more favorable the attitude

The Ideal-Point Multiattribute Attitude Model Developing a scale to represent various levels of each attribute very sweet taste _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ very bitter taste 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Provide ratings of attribute importance not at all important _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ : _ extremely important 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Xi Xi The Ideal-Point Model: Sample Results Ii Beliefs Wi Import- Ideal Brand Brand Attribute ance Point A B Taste: sweet(1) - bitter (7) Carbonation: high(1) - low (7) Calories: high (1) - low (7) Fruit juices: high (1) - low (7) Price: high (1) - low (7) Total Σ Wi Ii-Xi score 6 2 2 3 3 3 2 6 4 5 4 5 4 1 2 2 5 5 4 3 16 29

Benefits of Using Multiattribute Attitude Models Diagnostic power: examine why consumers like or dislike products Simultaneous importance-performance grid with marketing implications for each cell Can provide information for segmentation (based on importance of product attributes) Useful in new product development Guidance in identifying attitude change strategies

Stimulus Importance-Performance Grid Attribute Our Competitor’s Simultaneous Importance Performance Performance Result HIGH LOW POOR GOOD Poor Good Neglected Opportunity Competitive Disadvantage Competitive Advantage Head-to-head competition Null Opportunity False Alarm False Advantage False Competition

Attitude Change Implications from Multiattribute Attitude Models Three primary ways for changing consumer attitudes: Change beliefs Change attribute importance Change ideal points

Firms hope that changing beliefs about products will result in more favorable product attitudes and influence what consumers buy If beliefs are false, they need to be brought into harmony with reality If beliefs are accurate, it may be necessary to change the product Changing an attribute’s importance is more difficult than changing a belief Increasing attribute importance is desirable when the competitor’s brand is farther from the ideal point than your product Changing Ideal Points= Altering consumers’ preferences for what the ideal product should look like

This Ad Attempts to Change Consumers’ Ideal Point

D) Consumer Intentions Useful for firms when predicting how people will act as consumers

How Firms Can Predict Behavior Rely on past behavior to predict future behavior Problems: Situations change (changes in market can cause unpredictable changes in demand) Sales trends are sometimes erratic Past behaviors not available for new products or first-time behaviors

Constraints on Predictive Power of Intentions Intentions can change Can’t control whether consumers act upon their intentions Can influence predictive accuracy Intentions’ predictive accuracy strongly depends on how they are measured Measuring intentions may be less predictive of future behavior than measuring what they expect to do (Although smokers may intend to quit smoking, they may report more moderate expectations due to past failures)

Constraints on Predictive Power of Intentions Accuracy of forecasts also depends on when intentions are measured. Accuracy depends on the to-be-predicted behavior (behaviors repeated with regularity are easier to predict) Volitional control: the degree to which a behavior can be performed at will Existence of uncontrollable factors interfere with the ability to do as intended Perceived behavioral control: the person’s belief about how easy it is to perform the behavior

Consumer Intentions: Other Uses Indicator of the possible effects of certain marketing activities Intentions may provide an informative indication of a company’s likely success in retaining customers -fin-