Consumer Behaviour

SUBJECT : CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

TOPICS : MOTIVATION

LEARNING

ATTITUDE

STANDARD : T.Y.B.M.M.

DATE : 14 / 08 / 2010.

GROUP MEMBERS:

KADHIJA BURHANPURWALA – 07

ANUJA DATE – 10

DEEPA JATANIA – 20

HEENA JATANIA – 21

ABHISHEK NAIK – 31

MONA PAHUJA – 33

SADAF RAJPUT – 41

PIYUSH WASNIK – 56

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INDEX

SR.NO. TOPICS PAGE NO.

1 Motivation 3

2 Maslow's hierarchy of needs 5

3 Freud’s Theory of Motivation 7

4 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation 8

5 Motivational Needs 9

6 Goal Setting Theory 10

7 Meaning of Consumer Learning 11

8 Elements of Consumer Learning 11

9 Behavior Learning 12

10 Classical Conditioning 13

11 Operant Conditioning 14

12 Cognitive Learning Theory 15

13 Reinforcement 16

14 What are attitudes? 17

15 Functions of attitudes 17

16 Tri-component attitude model 18

17 Multi attribute models 20

18 Post Purchase Attitude Change 22

19 Case Study 23

20 Bibliography 25

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Motivation:

Motivation is defined as “the stimulation of any emotion or desire operating upon one’ will and prompting or driving it to action”. Motivation is thus the driving force behind an individual’s action. Motivation refers to all the process that initiate the drive in a person to perceive a need and pursue a course of action to fulfill that need.

For example, an athlete with the ambition to surpass the world record in, say, javelin throw , identifies the distance that he has to cover in order to beat the world and then works and undergoes the training to achieve that distance . he persistently practices till that day in the competition when he ahs to perform. Thus , the drive to surpass the world record drove him to identify the target, it enabled him to make and sustain efforts to reach that goal and he continued his endeavors in order to achieve that target.

The Process Of Motivation

The process of motivation starts when the consumer comes across an unfulfilled need this need if not satisfied will create a state of tension within the consumer. This state drives the consumer to adopt the behavior that will help relieve the tension. This effort and behavior of people to achieve the goal that reduces such tension are influenced by their knowledge or learning and their way of thinking( i.e. cognitive processes ) . consider the example given above , where the athlete experiences the need to surpass the world record; this need causes tension with in him. Hence, the athlete identifies a goal to be achieved to eliminate the tension and makes efforts to reach it. How he sets the gola and directs his behavior to achieve it will depend on his experience and attitude

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The process of motivation.

Motives

A motive is defined as” the inner state that energizes , activates or moves and directs or channels behaviors towards goals.”

Types of motives

Some needs or motives are innate – such as the need for air, food , water , shelter, clothing(primary needs.) As they are related to our biological needs they are called biogenic or physiological needs. Those needs that we acquire through our experiences or we learn from our environment such as the need for self esteem , power , affiliation , prestige , etc. are called psychogenic needs. They are consider to be psychological needs or secondary needs. For example we all buy clothes(its one of our primary needs how ever the type of clothes we buy like designer wear , traditional pr western clothes and their price range etc depends on our physiological needs.

Utilitarian and hedonic motives

when a customer makes a purchase, based on the functional or tangible features of the product , such as quality , services and price , he is said to be objective in his judgment . a customer will evaluate all the available alternatives and finally choose the product that gives him or her maximum utility. Here , the customer is said to be making a utilitarian purchase or is being driven by rational motives.

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Learning Cognitive processes

Reduction in tension

Unfulfilled needs

Tension Drive Behavior

Fulfillment of goal or need (achievement of goal)

Conscious and Unconscious motives

When a person is aware of the motives they are called conscious motives. For instance if a person is asked to tell why he likes to play golf; he might immediately answer thet he is playing it because it is good sport and it is interesting. These are called manifest motives . but the same person may not be aware that he likes to play the golf, for reasons like sattus,or because it projects him as a young, upscale executive. Hence , the second set of motives also influences the person’s need to play golf, but they are not obvious or known to every one. In fact , as in the above example the person him self is not conscious about them , these are called unconscious or latent motives.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

1. Self-actualization

“What a man can be, he must be.” This forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need pertains to what a person's full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. This is a broad definition of the need for self-actualization, but when applied to individuals the need is specific. For

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example one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in another it may be expressed in painting, pictures, or inventions. As mentioned before, in order to reach a clear understanding of this level of need one must first not only achieve the previous needs, physiological, safety, love, and esteem, but master these needs.

2. Esteem

All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. Note, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.

3. Love and belonging

After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are social and involve feelings of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as:

Friendship Intimacy

Family

4. Safety needs

With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable orderly world in which perceived unfairness and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, reasonable disability accommodations, and the like.

Safety and Security needs include:

Personal security Financial security

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Health and well-being

Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts

5. Physiological needs

For the most part, physiological needs are obvious—they are the literal requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met (with the exception of clothing, shelter, and sexual activity), the human body simply cannot continue to function.

Physiological needs include:

Breathing Food

Homeostasis

Sex

Freud’s Theory of Motivation:

Sigmund Freud was a Jewish Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression, and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient, technically referred to as an "analyzing", and a psychoanalyst. Freud is also renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life, as well as for his therapeutic techniques, including the use of free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires. He was an early neurological researcher into cerebral palsy, and a prolific essayist, drawing on psychoanalysis to contribute to the history, interpretation and critique of culture.

While many of Freud's ideas have fallen out of favor or been modified by Neo-Freudians, and modern advances in the field of psychology have shown flaws in some of his theories, Freud's work remains influential in the human quest for self-understanding, especially in the history of clinical approaches. In academia, his ideas continue to influence the humanities and social sciences. He is considered one of the most prominent thinkers of the first half of the 20th century, in terms of originality and intellectual influence.

Id, ego, and super-ego:

Freudian psychological reality begins with the world, full of objects. Among them is a very special object, the organism. The organism is special in that it acts to survive and

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reproduce, and it is guided toward those ends by its needs -- hunger, thirst, the avoidance of pain, and sex.

A part -- a very important part -- of the organism is the nervous system, which has as one of its characteristics a sensitivity to the organism's needs. At birth, that nervous system is little more than that of any other animal, an "it" or id. The nervous system, as id, translates the organism's needs into motivational forces called, in German, Triebe, which has been translated as instincts or drives. Freud also called them wishes. The id works in keeping with the pleasure principle, which can be understood as a demand to take care of needs immediately. Just picture the hungry infant, screaming itself blue. It doesn't "know" what it wants in any adult sense; it just knows that it wants it and it wants it now. The infant, in the Freudian view, is pure, or nearly pure id. And the id is nothing if not the psychic representative of biology.

Unfortunately, although a wish for food, such as the image of a juicy steak, might be enough to satisfy the id, it isn't enough to satisfy the organism. The need only gets stronger, and the wishes just keep coming. You may have noticed that, when you haven't satisfied some need, such as the need for food, it begins to demand more and more of your attention, until there comes a point where you can't think of anything else. This is the wish or drive breaking into consciousness.

The ego, unlike the id, functions according to the reality principle, which says "take care of a need as soon as an appropriate object is found." It represents reality and, to a considerable extent, reason.

However, as the ego struggles to keep the id (and, ultimately, the organism) happy, it meets with obstacles in the world. It occasionally meets with objects that actually assist it in attaining its goals. And it keeps a record of these obstacles and aides. In particular, it keeps track of the rewards and punishments meted out by two of the most influential objects in the world of the child -- mom and dad. This record of things to avoid and strategies to take becomes the superego. It is not completed until about seven years of age. In some people, it never is completed.

There are two aspects to the superego: One is the conscience, which is an internalization of punishments and warnings. The other is called the ego ideal. It derives from rewards and positive models presented to the child. The conscience and ego ideal communicate their requirements to the ego with feelings like pride, shame, and guilt.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation:

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure. Intrinsic motivation has been studied by social and educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found that it is usually associated with high educational

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achievement and enjoyment by students. Intrinsic motivation has been explained by Fritz Heider's attribution theory, Bandura's work on self-efficacy, and Deci and Ryan's cognitive evaluation theory (see self-determination theory). Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (e.g. the amount of effort they put in),

believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck),

are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment. Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity. A crowd cheering on the individual and trophies are also extrinsic incentives.

Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to overjustification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation. In one study demonstrating this effect, children who expected to be (and were) rewarded with a ribbon and a gold star for drawing pictures spent less time playing with the drawing materials in subsequent observations than children who were assigned to an unexpected reward condition and to children who received no extrinsic reward.

Self-determination theory proposes that extrinsic motivation can be internalised by the individual if the task fits with their values and beliefs and therefore helps to fulfill their basic psychological needs. Internalised extrinsic motivation has been shown to lead to more positive outcomes, such as wellbeing, increased productivity and task satisfaction.

Motivational Needs:

McClelland's Need Theory, created by a psychologist David McClelland, is a motivational model that attempts to explain how the needs for achievement, power, and affiliation affect the actions of people from a managerial context. It is often taught in classes concerning management or organizational behavior.

Need for Achievement

People who are achievement-motivated typically prefer to master a task or situation. They prefer working on tasks of moderate difficulty, prefer work in which the results are based on their effort rather than on luck, and prefer to receive feedback on their work.

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Need for Affiliation

People who have a need for affiliation prefer to spend time creating and maintaining social relationships, being a part of groups, and desire feeling loved and accepted. People in this group do not typically make effective managers because they worry too much about how others will feel about them.

Need for Power

This motivational need stems from one's desire to influence, teach, or encourage others. People in this category enjoy work and place a high value on discipline. The downside to this motivational type is that group goals can become zero-sum in nature. For one to win, another must lose. However, this can be positively applied to help accomplish group goals and to help others in the group feel competent about their work.

McClelland proposes that those in the top management positions should have a high need for power and a low need for affiliation. He also believes that although individuals with a need for achievement can make good managers, they are not suited to being in the top management positions.

Goal Setting Theory:

Goal-setting theory is based on the notion that individuals sometimes have a drive to reach a clearly defined end state. Often, this end state is a reward in itself. A goal's efficiency is affected by three features: proximity, difficulty and specificity. An ideal goal should present a situation where the time between the initiation of behavior and the end state is close. This explains why some children are more motivated to learn how to ride a bike than mastering algebra. A goal should be moderate, not too hard or too easy to complete. In both cases, most people are not optimally motivated, as many want a challenge (which assumes some kind of insecurity of success). At the same time people want to feel that there is a substantial probability that they will succeed. Specificity concerns the description of the goal in their class. The goal should be objectively defined and intelligible for the individual. A classic example of a poorly specified goal is to get the highest possible grade. Most children have no idea how much effort they need to reach that goal.

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Meaning of Consumer Learning:

Consumer Learning is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to future related behaviour.

First the consumer starts its learning process regarding any product or services the information that he has achieved through its learning process is called has the knowledge after he is fully satisfied by the knowledge he uses the product or services which tends to the experience of using the product or services after the experience comes the feedback stage where he shares about is experience.

Elements of Consumer Learning:

1) Motivation: The concept of Motivation is important for learning theory because motivation acts as an spur to learning. If the person wants to buy some commodity then he should be self motivated to buy the commodity.

2) Cues:

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If motive serve to stimulate learning, then cues are the stimuli that gives direction to the motives. An advertisement for an exotic trip that includes bike riding may serve has a cue for the bike riders to have an vacation.

3) Responses: A response is not tied to a need in one to one fashion; that means a indivals will somethime not response according to the cues. For e.g. riding cycle for fitness will be cue but the response for it will be zero.

4) Reinforcement: Reinforcement increases the likelihood that a specific response will occur in the future as the result of particular cues or stimuli.

Behavior Learning:

Behaviorism as a theory was primarily developed by B. F. Skinner. It loosely encompasses the work of people like Edward Thorndike, Tolman, Guthrie, and Hull. What characterizes these investigators are their underlying assumptions about the process of learning. In essence, three basic assumptions are held to be true. First, learning is manifested by a change in behavior. Second, the environment shapes behavior. And third, the principles of contiguity (how close in time two events must be for a bond to be formed) and reinforcement (any means of increasing the likelihood that an event will be repeated) are central to explaining the learning process. For behaviorism, learning is the acquisition of new behavior through conditioning.

There are two types of possible conditioning:

1) Classical conditioning, where the behavior becomes a reflex response to stimulus as in the case of Pavlov's Dogs. Pavlov was interested in studying reflexes, when he saw that the dogs drooled without the proper stimulus. Although no food was in sight, their saliva still dribbled. It turned out that the dogs were reacting to lab coats. Every time the dogs were served food, the person who served the food was wearing a lab coat. Therefore, the dogs reacted as if food was on its way whenever they saw a lab coat.In a series of experiments, Pavlov then tried to figure out how these phenomena were linked. For example, he struck a bell when the dogs were fed. If the bell was sounded in close association with their meal, the dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell with food. After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, they responded by drooling.

2) Operant conditioning where there is reinforcement of the behavior by a reward or a punishment. The theory of operant conditioning was developed by B.F. Skinner and is known as Radical Behaviorism. The word ‘operant’ refers to the way in which behavior

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‘operates on the environment’. Briefly, a behavior may result either in reinforcement, which increases the likelihood of the behavior recurring, or punishment, which decreases the likelihood of the behavior recurring. It is important to note that, a punishment is not considered to be applicable if it does not result in the reduction of the behavior, and so the terms punishment and reinforcement are determined as a result of the actions. Within this framework, behaviorists are particularly interested in measurable changes in behavior.

Classical Conditioning:

Classical conditioning is a form of associative learning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov (1927). The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from the organism under investigation. Pavlov referred to this as a conditioned stimulus (CS). Conversely, presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. Pavlov called these the unconditioned stimulus (US) and unconditioned response (UR), respectively. If the CS and the US are repeatedly paired, eventually the two stimuli become associated and the organism begins to produce a behavioral response to the CS. Pavlov called this the conditioned response (CR).

The original and most famous example of classical conditioning involved the salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. During his research on the physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that, rather than simply salivating in the presence of meat powder (an innate response to food that he called the unconditioned response), the dogs began to salivate in the presence of the lab technician who normally fed them. Pavlov called these psychic secretions. From this observation he predicted that, if a particular stimulus in the dog’s surroundings were present when the dog was presented with meat powder, then this stimulus would become associated with food and cause salivation on its own. In his initial experiment, Pavlov used a bell to call the dogs to their food and, after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the bell.

Theory of Classical Conditioning:

There are two competing theories of how classical conditioning works. The first, stimulus-response theory, suggests that an association to the unconditioned stimulus is made with the conditioned stimulus within the brain, but without involving conscious thought. The second theory stimulus-stimulus theory involves cognitive activity, in which the conditioned stimulus is associated to the concept of the unconditioned stimulus, a subtle but important distinction. Stimulus-response theory, referred to as S-R theory, is a theoretical model of behavioral psychology that suggests humans and other animals can learn to associate a new stimulus — the conditioned stimulus (CS) — with a pre-existing stimulus — the unconditioned stimulus (US), and can think, feel or respond to the CS as if it were actually the US.

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The opposing theory, put forward by cognitive behaviorists, is stimulus-stimulus theory (S-S theory). Stimulus-stimulus theory, referred to as S-S theory, is a theoretical model of classical conditioning that suggests a cognitive component is required to understand classical conditioning and that stimulus-response theory is an inadequate model. It proposes that a cognitive component is at play. S-R theory suggests that an animal can learn to associate a conditioned stimulus (CS) such as a bell, with the impending arrival of food termed the unconditioned stimulus, resulting in an observable behavior such as salivation.

Operant Conditioning:

Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.

Operant conditioning was coined by behaviorist B.F. Skinner, which is why you may occasionally hear it referred to as Skinnerian conditioning. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and motivations could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior.

Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences" (1953). In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit each and every day.

Examples of Operant Conditioning:

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions.

In these examples, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in behavior, but operant conditioning can also be used to decrease a behavior. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable behaviors. For example, a child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class. This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors.

Operant Conditioning Theory:

This theory was originally established to explain learning in discriminated avoidance learning. It assumes two processes to take place.

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a) Classical conditioning of fear. During the first trials of the training, the organism experiences both CS and aversive US (escape-trials). The theory assumed that during those trials classical conditioning takes place by pairing the CS with the US. Because of the aversive nature of the US the CS is supposed to elicit a conditioned emotional reaction (CER) - fear. In classical conditioning, presenting a CS conditioned with an aversive US disrupts the organism's ongoing behavior.

b) Reinforcement of the operant response by fear-reduction. Because during the first process, the CS signaling the aversive US has itself become aversive by eliciting fear in the organism, reducing this unpleasant emotional reaction serves to motivate the operant response. The organism learns to make the response during the US, thus terminating the aversive internal reaction elicited by the CS. An important aspect of this theory is that the term "Avoidance" does not really describe what the organism is doing. It does not "avoid" the aversive US in the sense of anticipating it. Rather the organism escapes an aversive internal state, caused by the CS.

Cognitive Learning Theory:

Cognitive theory is a learning theory of psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding the thought processes. The assumption is that humans are logical beings that make the choices that make the most sense to them. “Information processing” is a commonly used description of the mental process, comparing the human mind to a computer.

Pure cognitive theory largely rejects behaviorism on the basis that behaviorism reduces complex human behavior to simple cause and effect. However, the trend in past decades has been towards merging the two into a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral theory. This allows therapists to use techniques from both schools of thought to help clients achieve their goals.

Social cognitive theory is a subset of cognitive theory. Primarily focused on the ways in which we learn to model the behavior of others, social cognitive theory can be seen in advertising campaigns and peer pressure situations. It is also useful in the treatment of psychological disorders including phobias.

he earliest challenge to the behaviorists came in a publication in 1929 by Bode, a gestalt psychologist. He criticized behaviorists for being too dependent on overt behavior to explain learning. Gestalt psychologists proposed looking at the patterns rather than isolated events. Gestalt views of learning have been incorporated into what have come to be labeled cognitive theories. Two key assumptions underlie this cognitive approach: (1) that the memory system is an active organized processor of information and (2) that prior knowledge plays an important role in learning. Cognitive theories look beyond behavior to explain brain-based learning. Cognitivists consider how human memory works to promote learning. For example, the physiological processes of sorting and encoding

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information and events into short term memory and long term memory are important to educators working under the cognitive theory. The major difference between gestaltists and behaviorists is the locus of control over the learning activity: the individual learner is more key to gestaltists than the environment that behaviorists emphasize.

Once memory theories like the Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model and Baddeley's working memory model were established as a theoretical framework in cognitive psychology, new cognitive frameworks of learning began to emerge during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Today, researchers are concentrating on topics like cognitive load and information processing theory. These theories of learning play a role in influencing instructional design. Aspects of cognitivism can be found in learning how to learn, social role acquisition, intelligence, learning, and memory as related to age.

Reinforcement:

Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behavior analysis for the delivery of a stimulus, (immediately or shortly) after a response, that results in an increase in the future rate or probability of that response. The response strength is assessed by measuring frequency, duration, latency, accuracy, and/or persistence of the response after reinforcement stops. Experimental behavior analysts measured the of rate of behaviors as a primary demonstration of learning and performance with non-humans. For example, rate is measured as the number of times a pigeon pecks a key in a 10 minute session.

Types of Reinforcement:

Positive reinforcement is an increase in the future frequency of a behavior due to the addition of a consequence immediately following a response. Giving (or adding) food to a dog contingent on its sitting is an example of positive reinforcement (if this results in an increase in the future behavior of the dog sitting).

Negative reinforcement is an increase in the future frequency of a behavior when the consequence is the removal of an aversive stimulus. Turning off (or removing) an annoying song when a child asks their parent is an example of negative reinforcement (if this results in an increase in asking behavior of the child in the future). Another example is if a mouse presses a button to avoid shock. Do not confuse this concept with punishment. There are two variations of negative reinforcement:

o Avoidance conditioning occurs when a behavior prevents an aversive stimulus from starting or being applied.

o Escape conditioning occurs when behavior removes an aversive stimulus that has already started.

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What are attitudes?

In a consumer behavior context, an attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way with respect to a given object. Each part of this definition describes an important property of an attitude and is critical to understanding the role of attitudes in consumer behavior.

Functions of attitudes:

Attitudes can be classified in terms of four functions: the utilitarian function, the ego-defensive function, the value-expressive function, and the knowledge function.

1. The utilitarian function

We hold certain brand attitudes partly because of a brand’s utility. When a product has been useful or helped us in the past, our attitude toward it ends to be favorable. One wat of changing attitudes in favour of a product is by showing people that it can serve a utilitarian purpose that they may not have considered for example, the ad for Lysol points out that this product kills harmful germs.

2. The ego-defensive function

Most people want to protect their self images from inner feelings of doubt- they want to replace their uncertainty with a sense of security and personal confidence. Ads for cosmetics and fashion clothing, by acknowledging this need, increase both their relevance to the consumer and the likelihood of a favorable attitude change by offering reassurance the consumer’s self-concept.

3. The value-expressive function

Attitudes are an expression or reflection of the consumer’s general values, lifestyle, and outlook. If a consumer segment generally holds a positive attitude toward owning the latest designer jeans, then their attitudes toward new brands of designer jeans are likely to reflect that orientation. Similarly, if a segment of consumers has a positive attitude toward being “high tech”, then their attitudes toward thin wall-mountable HDTV sets are

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likely to reflect this viewpoint. Thus, by knowing target consumers’ attitudes, marketers can better anticipate their values, lifestyles, or outlook and can reflect these characteristics in their advertising and direct-marketing efforts.

4. The knowledge function

Individuals generally have a strong need to know and understand the people and things they encounter. The consumer’s “need to know”, a cognitive need, is important to marketers concerned with product positioning. Indeed, many product and brand positioning are attempts to satisfy the need to know and to improve the consumer’s attitudes toward the brand by emphasizing its advantages over competitive brands.

Tri-component attitude model:

According to the tri-component attitude model, attitudes consist of three major components: a cognitive component, an effective component, and a conative component.

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1. The cognitive component:

The first part of the tri-component 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 constitute the affective component of an attitude. These emotions and feelings are frequently treated by consumer research rs as primarily evaluative in nature; that is, they capture an individual’s direct or global assessment of the attitude object (i.e., the extent the extent to which the individual rates the attitude object as “favorable” or “unfavorable”, “good” or

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“bad” ). To illustrate, the table shows a series of evaluative (affective) scale items that might be used to assess consumers’ attitudes towards old spice aftershave.

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 mat impact what comes to mind and how the individual acts.

Refreshing [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Non refreshing

Positive [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Negative

Pleasant [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Unpleasant

Appealing to others

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Unappealing to others

3. The conative component:

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. According to some interpretations, 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. The table provides several examples of common intention–to-buy scales. Interestingly, consumers who are asked to respond to an intention-to-buy question appear to be more likely to actually make a brand purchase for positively evaluated brands (e.g., “I will buy it”), as contrasted to consumers who are not asked to respond to an intention question. This suggests that a positive brand commitment in the form of a positive answer to an attitude intention question impacts in a positive way on the actual brand purchase.

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Multi attribute models:

Multi attribute 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. Although there are many variations of this type of attitude model, we have selected the following three models to briefly consider here: the attitude-toward-object model, the attitude-toward-behavior model, and the theory-of-reasoned-action model.

1. The attitude-toward-object model:

The attitude-toward-object model is especially suitable for measuring attitudes toward a product (or service) category or specific brands. According to this 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. In other words, consumers generally have favorable attitudes toward those brands that they believe have an adequate level of attributes that they evaluate as positive, and they have unfavorable attitudes toward those brands they feel do not have an adequate level of desired attributes or have too many negative or undesired attributes.

Conducting consumer attitude research with children, especially gauging their attitudes towards products and brands, is an ongoing challenge. What is needed are new and effective measurement approaches that allow children to express their attitudes toward brands. To this end, researchers have labored to develop an especially simple and short attitude measurement instrument for questioning children between 8 and 12 years of age.

2. The attitude-toward-behavior model:

The attitude-toward-behavior model is designed to capture the individual’s attitude toward behaving or acting with respect to an object rather than the attitude toward the object itself. The appeal of the attitude-toward-behavior model is that it seems to correspond somewhat more closely to actual behavior than does the attitude-toward-object model. For instance, knowing Sam’s attitude about the act of purchasing a Rolex wrist-watch (i.e., his attitude toward the behavior) reveals more about the potential act of purchasing than does simply knowing his attitude toward expensive watches or specifically Rolex watches(i.e., the attitude toward the object). This seems logical, for a consumer might have a positive attitude toward an expensive Rolex wristwatch but a negative attitude as to his prospects for purchasing such an expensive wristwatch.

3. Theory of reasoned-action model:

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The theory of reasoned- action model represents a comprehensive integration of attitude components into a structure that is designed to lead to both better explanation and better predictions of behavior. Like the basic tricomponent attitude model, the theory of reasoned-action model incorporates a cognitive component; however, these are arranged in a pattern different from that of the tricomponent model.

In accordance with this expanded model, to understand intention we also need to measure the subjective norms that influence an individual’s intention to act. A subjective norm can be measured directly by assessing a consumer’s feelings as to what relevant others ( family, friends, roommates, coworkers) would think of the action being contemplated; that is, would they look favorably or unfavorably of the anticipated action? For example, if an undergraduate student was considering cutting her hair shorter and dying it red and stopped to asked herself what her parents or boyfriend would think of such behavior (i.e., approve or disapprove), such a reflection would constitute her subjective norm.

Consumer researchers can get behind the subjective norm to the underlying factors that are likely to produce it. They accomplish this by assessing the normative beliefs that the individual attributes to relevant others, as well as the individual’s motivation to comply with each of the relevant others.

Post Purchase Attitude Change:

It is common for customers to experience concerns after making a purchase decision. This arises from a concept that is known as “cognitive dissonance”. The customer, having bought a product, may feel that an alternative would have been preferable. In these circumstances that customer will not repurchase immediately, but is likely to switch brands next time.

To manage the post-purchase stage, it is the job of the marketing team to persuade the potential customer that the product will satisfy his or her needs. Then after having made a purchase, the customer should be encouraged that he or she has made the right decision.it is not effected by advertisement.

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Case Study:

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Consumer motivation

The essence of the marketing concept is understanding consumer needs and developing products that meet these needs effectively. And yet, every scores of new product are withdrawn from the market soon after their introduction; many other products also “fail” when their sales fall short of providing the revenues needed both to cover their development costs and to generate profits clearly, understanding consumer needs is a complex issue.

Most of the new products introduce, including failed products, fall within the product categories sold in supermarkets- such as food, beverages, household maintana nce, personal care, baby care and other categories. In an effort to pinpoint causes of product failures in these areas, an organization named new product works maintains a vast collection of foods, beverages, household, and personal care products that were introduced and subsequently withdrawn from the marketplace.

The objective of new product works is to provide marketplace-based advice to companies developing new products. The organization’s product collection also provides insights into how misunderstanding consumer needs can lead to the development and introduction of costly but unsuccessful products.

Consumer Attitude

THE NOT-SO-EXTREME SPORT

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It wasn’t that long ago that skateboarding was considered to be an extreme sport-some have even called it the “ultimate outflow road sport.” To quote a line from Sony’s new film that deals with southern California skateboarders in the mid-1970s. “Everywhere we go, man, people hate us.” In its early days, skateboarding was banned by many communities and embraced by participants for its “go-to-tell attitude.”

But times have changed, and skateboarding, once a sport for bad boys, is the new Little League. In fact, today it’s about as counterculture as yoga. Parents have embraced the sport for their children, and there are now rules about safety. Some parents have even taken up skateboarding as a way to bond with their children. Skateboarding has recently been characterized as being “more fun and better organized than Little League,” and there are now about 2,000 skateboarding parks located throughout the United States, with about 1,000 more in the development stage. Even some churches are backing the sport by building skate parks, and yes, June 21 has been established as National Skateboard Day.

Today’s skateboarders are typically polite and friendly, and are willing to skateboard where helmets are required rather than on the street (which can result in a fine). For some teens, “it’s a fashion thing,” even if they don’t skateboard. Last year, $4.4 billion was spent on “soft goods” related to skateboarding, such as T-shirts, shorts, and sunglasses, while actual skateboarding equipment, such as boards and helmets, had sales of $809 million.

REBATES WITH ATTITUDE

To attract potential consumers into automobile showrooms, GM, Chrysler, and Ford have each used buyers rebates and other promotions estimated to be about $4,000 per vehicle. In contrast, rebates and promotions from European auto brands are averaging about $2,300, and Asian brands are offering about $1,700 per vehicle. Compared to a year ago, this represents an increase of 8.9% for domestic and Asian brands, and a decrease of 15% for European brands.

A component of the current promotions employed by the three major domestic car companies is a one-price approach. GM stated the ball rolling with their “GM Employee Discount for Everyone” promotion, and Ford followed with its “Ford Family Plan,” and Chrysler followed with its “Employee Pricing Plus.” Rather than haggling with the car dealer over price, the consumer is expected to walk into the dealership and accept the price that employees of the car manufacturer would pay if they were purchasing the vehicle.

Bibliography :

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www.google.com

www.casestudy.com

Leon Schiffman :

Chapter 5 - Motivation

Chapter 6 - Attitude

Chapter 7 - Learning

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