Reading I NEED HELP ON MY HOMEWORK 2

126

The Gap began in 1969 with a single

store in San Francisco selling jeans

and records. Fueled by heavy adver-

tising, The Gap grew rapidly in the 1970s to

200 stores. In the process, The Gap became

the epitome of “cool” by offering basic items

such as T-shirts and jeans t hat looked like

designer clothing, but without the arrogance.

Although the company experienced a few

bumps along the way, growth continued

through the 1980s and most of the

1990s.

By 2000 there were 1,800

stores in Europe, North

America, and Japan, includ-

ing new stores such as Gap-

Kids and acquisitions such as

Banana Republic. Ads com-

municated that Gap clothes fit

with an individual’s sense of

style. The message was clear: Gap

clothes could be combined with anything

from Armani sport coats to Grateful Dead

headbands. Ads for The Gap and GapKids

were “cool,” and those symbolic meanings

transferred to the clothes. Helped by clever

advertising and the quality and style of the

clothes, The Gap gained acceptance by tots,

teenagers, young adults, and graying baby

boomers.

But successful products, brands, and

companies often draw criticism, which can

change consumers’ attitudes and behaviors.

The 1990s witnessed a backlash of ridicule

and resentment toward The Gap, especially

among teens and Generation Xers. TV shows

like Ellen and Saturday Night Live lam-

pooned The Gap’s fashion and image. By the

mid-90s, surveys found that The Gap name

was losing its “cool” among young people. So

in the latter part of the decade, the company

countered with fashions and ad campaigns

especially directed toward younger buyers in

the hope that The Gap could regain some of

its lost “coolness.”

But in the late 1990s, that youth-based

strategy led to another problem: Adults

weren’t buying at The Gap anymore. Gap

stores were increasingly filled with multi-

pocketed cargo pants and other items that

were more appropriate for teens than older

consumers. CEO Millard Drexler admitted,

Attitudes and Intentions

The Gap

6 ch

ap te

r

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 127

“We got too young. We don’t want to depend

only on teenagers.” In response, The Gap

began to sell more business-casual clothing,

like gabardine pants, woven shirts, and

classic v-neck shirts, and it offered those

clothes in larger sizes to accommodate older

adults’ expanding waistlines. Gap, Inc., saw

the possibility in the market for “grownups”

and opened a new chain, Forth & Towne, in

2005.

The concept behind Forth & Towne was

that middle-aged women aren’t attracted to

the youthful styles of Abercrombie and Fitch

but want more style than the clothing that

Talbot offers. These baby boomers actually

grew up in the era when The Gap was

formed, but most of these women find The

Gap’s current styles too youthful. They buy

only the basic wardrobe staples at The Gap.

Women baby boomers, however, cannot

easily be defined by consumer profiles.

What a suburban soccer mom may view as

stylish, a working woman may find drab.

Forth & Towne realized this and cleverly

designed its stores to suit such diverse

tastes. First of all, middle-aged women

want shopping to be easy, so Forth &

Towne presents all four of its brands in

each store. Career women can find mod-

ern business casual styles, called “Alle-

gory,” at the front of the store. Easy to mix

and match separates, called “Vocabulary,”

are in a corner. “Gap Edition” offers more

casual, traditional sportswear styles. The

chic “Prize” label caters to those women

who are up on the latest fashion trend. The

“four stores in one” did not limit customers

in what they could choose. Unfortunately,

Gap, Inc., reluctantly shuttered Forth &

Towne in 2007 to focus on its Old Navy

and Gap stores.

The Gap has taken a new direction with

its Gap brand, to “get back to basics,” reinsti-

tuting the classic styles that made The Gap

successful. It also planned, for the first time

in a very long time, not to use celebrities to

model its clothing in television ads. The new

TV advertising campaigns featured the cloth-

ing instead. However, The Gap still used ce-

lebrities for print advertisements. The

retailer also changed its store windows every

month to emphasize the styles that The Gap

has to offer. Do you think these changes will

revitalize The Gap’s brands and regain some

of its “cool” in the eyes of teens and college

students?

Sources: Calmetta Coleman, “Gap Plans to Lure Back Mom and Dad with an Emphasis on Busi- ness Casual,” The Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2000, p. B2; Alice Z. Cuneo, “Gap Brightens Color Palette in Ads Aimed at Mainstream,” Advertising Age, March 20, 2000, pp. 3, 82; Michael Barbaro, “Gap to Return to TV Ads, Emphasizing Back to Basics,” The New York Times, June 7, 2006, p. C.4; Eric Wilson, “Gap’s New Chain Store Aims at the Fashionably Mature Woman,” The New York Times, August 24, 2005; p. C1; The Gap’s corporate Web site, www.gapinc.com .

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128 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

This example illustrates the concept of consumers’ attitudes, one of the most important concepts in the study of consumer behavior. Each year marketing managers like those at The Gap spend millions of dollars researching con- sumers’ attitudes toward products and brands, and then spend many more

millions trying to influence those attitudes through advertisements, sales promotions, and other types of persuasion. By influencing consumers’ attitudes, marketers hope to influence their purchase behaviors. In this chapter, we examine two types of atti- tudes: attitudes toward objects and attitudes toward behaviors. We begin by defining the concept of attitude and discussing how people’s salient beliefs lead to attitudes. Then we consider the information integration process by which attitudes toward objects are formed. Next, we discuss the information integration process that forms attitudes toward actions and influences people’s intentions to perform behaviors. Finally, we examine the imperfect relationship between behavioral intentions and actual behaviors. Throughout, we identify implications of these concepts and pro- cesses for developing marketing strategies.

What Is an Attitude? Attitude has been a key concept in psychology for more than a century, and at least 100 definitions and 500 measures of attitude have been proposed. 1 Although the dominant approach to attitudes has changed over the years (see Consumer Insight 6.1), nearly all definitions of attitude have one thing in common: They refer to people’s evaluations. 2 We define attitude as a person’s overall evaluation of a concept. 3 As you learned in Chapter 3 , evaluations are affective responses, usually at relatively low levels of intensity and arousal (refer to Exhibit 3.2 on page 40). These evaluations can be created by both the affective and the cognitive systems. 4 The affective system automatically produces affective responses—including emotions, feelings, moods, and evaluations or attitudes—as immediate, direct responses to certain stimuli. These favorable or unfavorable affective responses are generated without conscious, cognitive processing of information about the product. Then, through classical conditioning pro- cesses, these evaluations may become associated with a product or brand, thus creating an attitude. 5 We discuss this affective, noncognitive learning in Chapter 9 . In this chapter, however, we treat attitudes as affective evaluations created by the cognitive system. The cognitive processing model of consumer decision making (refer to Exhibit 3.5 on page 49) shows that an overall evaluation is formed when consumers integrate (combine) knowledge, meanings, or beliefs about the attitude concept. The goal of this integration process is to analyze the personal relevance of the concept and determine whether it is favorable or unfavorable: “What does this concept have to do with me? Is this a good or bad thing for me? Do I like or dislike this concept?” We assume consumers form an attitude toward each concept they interpret in terms of its personal relevance. As shown in Exhibit 3.5 , the evaluations produced by the attitude formation process may be stored in memory. Once an attitude has been formed and stored in memory, consumers do not have to engage in another integration process to construct another attitude when they need to evaluate the concept again. Instead, the existing attitude can be activated from memory and used as a basis for interpreting new information. Taste tests are a good example of how activated attitudes can influence consumers’ judg- ments. Taste tests usually are conducted blind (tasters are not told what brands they are tasting) to avoid activating brand attitudes that would bias their taste judgments. Finally, an activated attitude can be integrated with other knowledge in decision making (we discuss how attitudes are used in decision processes in the next chapter). 6

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 129

Whether a given attitude will affect interpretation or integration processes depends on its accessibility in memory or its probability of activation. 7 Many factors can in- fluence the accessibility of attitudes, including salience or importance (more self- relevant attitudes are more easily activated), frequency of prior activation (attitudes that are activated more often are more accessible), and the strength of the association between a concept and its attitude (puppies tend to activate positive attitudes; zebras usually do not activate an attitude). 8 Marketers sometimes use cues to “prime” (par- tially activate) an attitude that is relevant to their strategies; consider the cute babies in ads for Michelin tires. 9 Attitudes can be measured simply and directly by asking consumers to evaluate the concept of interest. For instance, marketing researchers might ask consumers to indi- cate their attitudes toward McDonald’s french fries on three evaluative scales:

McDonald’s French Fries Extremely Unfavorable !3 !2 !1 0 "1 "2 "3 Extremely Favorable Dislike Very Much !3 !2 !1 0 "1 "2 "3 Like Very Much Very Bad !3 !2 !1 0 "1 "2 "3 Very Good

Consumers’ overall attitudes toward McDonald’s french fries ( A O ) are indicated by the average of their ratings across the three evaluative scales. Attitudes can vary from

of attitude. In this scheme, attitude was seen as consist- ing of three related components: cognition (knowledge about the object), affect (positive or negative evaluations of the object), and conation (intended or actual behavior toward the object). Later, Fishbein, like Thurstone, argued that it is most useful to consider attitude as a simple, unidimensional concept—the amount of affect a person feels for an object. Today most researchers agree that the simple con- cept of an attitude proposed by Thurstone and Fishbein is the most useful. That is, attitude represents a person’s favorable or unfavorable feelings toward the object in question. Beliefs (cognition) and intentions to behave (conation) are seen as related to attitude but are sepa- rate cognitive concepts, not part of attitude itself. This is the perspective we take in this book.

Attitude has been called “the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American

social psychology.” And it is one of the most important concepts marketers use to understand consumers. Over the years, researchers have tried a variety of approaches to studying attitudes in an attempt to provide a more complete understanding of behavior. One of the earliest definitions of attitude was introduced by Thurstone in 1931. He viewed attitude as a fairly simple concept—the amount of affect a person has for or against an object. A few years later, Allport proposed a much broader definition: “Attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness to respond, organized through experience, and exerting a directive and/or dynamic influence on behavior.” Triandis and others combined three response types (thoughts, feelings, and actions) into the tripartite model

A Brief History of the Study of Attitude

Consumer Insight 6.1

Sources: Adapted from Martin Fishbein, “An Overview of the Attitude Construct,” in A Look Back, A Look Ahead, ed. G.B. Hafer Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1980, pp. 1–19. Reprinted by permission of the American Marketing Association. Richard J. Lutz, “The Role of Attitude Theory in Marketing,” in Perspectives in Consumer Behavior, 3rd ed., ed. H. H. Kassarjian and T. S. Robertson (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1981), pp. 234–235. © 1981. Reprinted with permission from Dr. Richard J. Lutz.

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130 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

negative (ratings of !3, !2, !1) through neutral (a rating of 0) to positive (ratings of "1, "2, or "3). Attitudes are not necessarily intense or extreme. On the contrary, many consumers have essentially neutral evaluations (neither favorable nor unfavor- able) toward relatively unimportant, noninvolving concepts. A neutral evaluation is still an attitude, however, although probably a weakly held one.

Attitudes toward What? Consumers’ attitudes are always toward some concept. We are interested in two broad types of concepts: objects and behaviors. Consumers can have attitudes toward vari- ous physical and social objects ( A O indicates attitude toward the object), including products, brands, models, stores, and people (salesperson at the electronics store), as well as aspects of marketing strategy (a rebate from General Motors; an ad for Wrig- ley’s chewing gum). Consumers also can have attitudes toward intangible objects such as concepts and ideas (capitalism, a fair price for gasoline). A late 1990s survey of Americans’ attitudes toward pollution and the environment found that compared to five years earlier, 76 percent were more concerned, 19 percent were less concerned, and 6 percent were unchanged. Consumers also can have attitudes toward their own behaviors or actions ( A act indicates attitude toward the act, action, or behavior), including their past actions (Why did I buy that sweater?) and future behaviors (I’m going to the mall tomorrow afternoon).

Levels of Attitude Concepts . Consumers can have quite distinct attitudes toward variations of the same general concept. Exhibit 6.1 shows several attitude concepts that vary in their levels of specificity, even though all concepts are in the same prod- uct domain. For instance, Rich has a moderately positive attitude toward fast-food restaurants in general, but he has a highly favorable attitude toward one product form (hamburger restaurants). However, his attitude toward McDonald’s, a specific brand of hamburger restaurant, is only slightly favorable (he likes Burger King better). Finally, his attitude toward a particular “model”—the McDonald’s on the corner of Grant and Main—is somewhat negative (he had an unpleasant meal there). Note that some attitude concepts are defined in terms of a particular behavioral and situational context (eating dinner with his children at the Grant Street McDonald’s after a soccer game), whereas other concepts are more generic (McDonald’s restau- rants in general). Consumers could have different attitudes toward these concepts, and these attitudes might not be consistent with one another. Rich, for instance, has an unfavorable attitude toward eating lunch with his friends at the Grant Street McDonald’s (he’d rather go to a full-service restaurant); however, he has a somewhat favorable attitude toward eating dinner there with his kids (it’s easy and fast). Note that although the same McDonald’s “object” is present in each of these con- cepts, Rich’s attitude toward that McDonald’s is different in the two situations. 10 Because consumers are likely to have different attitudes toward different attitude concepts, marketers must be sure to measure the attitude concept at the level of speci- ficity most relevant to the marketing problem of interest.

Marketing Implications Marketers are highly interested in market share, a measure of purchasing behavior indicating the proportion of total sales in a product category (or product form) received by a brand. But marketers also need to attend to consumers’ brand attitudes.

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 131

Brand Equity . Brand attitude is a key aspect of brand equity. Brand equity con- cerns the value of the brand to the marketer and to the consumer. 11 From the market- er’s perspective, brand equity implies greater profits, more cash flow, and greater market share. For instance, Marriott estimated that adding its name to Fairfield Inn increased occupancy rates by 15 percent (a tangible indicator of the value of the Mar- riott brand). In England, Hitachi and G.E. once co-owned a factory that made identi- cal televisions for both companies. 12 The only differences were the brand name on the set and a $75 higher price for the Hitachi, reflecting the equity or value of the Hitachi brand.

Exhibit 6.1

Levels of Specificity of an Attitude Concept

Eating lunch wih friends at Grant Street McDonald’s

Eating dinner with kids at Grant Street McDonald’s

Eating dinner with kids at Grant Street McDonald’s

after a soccer game

Eating dinner with kids at Grant Street McDonald’s

for a birthday party

Grant Street McDonald’s

McDonald’s at Chester Mall

Pizza restaurants

Hamburger restaurants

McDonald’s Burger King

Fast-food restaurants

ExamplesLevels of attitude concept

Product class

Product form

Brand

Model

Brand/model general situation

Brand/model specific situation

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132 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

From a consumer perspective, brand equity involves a strong, positive brand attitude (favorable evaluation of the brand) based on favorable meanings and beliefs that are accessible in memory (easily activated). 13 These three factors create a strong, favorable consumer–brand relationship, one of the most important assets a company can own and the basis for brand equity. Consumer Insight 6.2 presents more about the concept of brand equity. Basically marketers can acquire brand equity in three ways: They can build it, bor- row it, or buy it. 14 Companies can build brand equity by ensuring that the brand actu- ally delivers positive consequences and by consistently advertising these important consequences. Consider the considerable brand equity built up over time by Camp- bell’s soup, Green Giant vegetables, Mercedes-Benz automobiles, and Amazon.com. Anheuser-Busch created the Eagle brand of snack foods (including honey-roasted peanuts) and invested heavily in creating positive consumer attitudes (and brand equity) through advertising and sales promotions. Companies can borrow brand equity by extending a positive brand name to other products. For example, the Coca-Cola line now includes Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke, Caffeine-Free Coke, Cherry and Diet Cherry Coke, Coke BlaK, Coke Zero, and others. Tide no longer refers to only one type of detergent; the brand name has been extended to other products, and presumably some of Tide’s original equity has been passed along, too. Consumer researchers are busy trying to determine if and how brand equity is transferred by brand-name extensions. 15 Some research shows that the success of a brand extension depends on the key meanings consumers associate with a brand name and whether those meanings are consistent or appropriate for the other product. 16

This ad tries to create a more favorable attitude toward

General Motors by describing its hydrogen-vehicle program

designed to clean up the environment

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 133

Sources: Patricia Nakache, “Secrets of the New Brand Builders,” Fortune, June 22, 1998, pp. 167–170. © 1998 Time, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission; Nanette Byrnes, “Brands in a Bind,” BusinessWeek, August 28, 2000, pp. 234–238; Alina Wheeler, Designing Brand Identity , Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2006.

Microsoft announcement was taking place. According to Sun, more than 250 people attended to learn more about the company’s Java Beans technology. Sun thus stole some of Microsoft’s thunder while promoting its own product at the same time. Brand-building tactic 3: Work the Web. Amazon has successfully spread its name all over the Web. Shortly after it opened its Internet “storefront” in 1995, Amazon received a request from a customer to create links from book recommendations on her Web site to Amazon. Not only did Amazon agree, but it also worked diligently to set up similar so-called “Associate” agree- ments with other Web sites. In exchange for posting an Amazon link on your site, you would receive from 5 to 15 percent of any revenue generated. By 1998, Amazon boasted more than 40,000 Associates. Brand-building tactic 4: Make it funny. A number of Internet firms have capitalized on the irreverent spirit of the Web. Sun was one of the pioneers, publishing a comic book for software developers at the 1996 Internet World trade show. The comic book featured the bizarre- looking Java mascot, Duke, who pledged to “keep the Internet safe for everyone.” Sun used humor to try to dif- ferentiate itself from Microsoft and its comparatively straitlaced image. Priceline.com produced a series of funny TV and radio ads featuring actor William Shatner “singing” about the virtues of saving money on Priceline. Yahoo! positioned itself as a fun, hip, slightly off-the-wall site, thanks to clever advertising and the memorable tag line “Do you Yahoo!?” For these technology firms, the next challenge is to maintain the successful brand image they have built. Can they keep their brands relevant in the minds of con- sumers for decades, as Disney, Coca-Cola, and some other more traditional companies have done? For these older giants, the challenge is to figure out new, innova- tive methods of building brand equity as the rules of the game change more rapidly than ever before.

Corporations like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble have spent years successfully developing

and protecting their brands. However, in the 1990s a new breed of high-tech firm redefined the art of brand build- ing. According to a 2000 survey by British consultant Interbrand, four of the five most valuable brands in the world are from the technology sector: Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and Nokia. The only old-line firm in the group is Coca-Cola. Furthermore, Internet firms like Yahoo! and Amazon.com are among the fastest-growing brands. These companies have accomplished overnight what used to take decades. How have they done it? Hint: It’s more than just advertising.* Brand-building tactic 1: Give away the farm. Giving away free samples is not a new or particularly innovative strategy, but some high-tech firms have taken the concept of the freebie to a new level. America Online has taken great pains to make sure its diskettes and CD-ROMs are almost everywhere—in cereal boxes, alongside in-flight meals, on music CDs, even on the plastic bags that cover your morning newspaper. AOL believed it was difficult to simply explain to con- sumers the benefits of its services. Rather, it felt the best way to win over potential new customers was to let them try AOL free for a limited time and learn firsthand how it worked. Brand-building tactic 2: Conduct public relations like a war. Sun Microsystems’ effort to promote its Java software platform is an example of brilliant guerrilla mar- keting in action. For example, Java Beans is a Sun tech- nology that allows for the development of reusable pieces of code. At one point, Sun learned that rival Microsoft planned a press conference to announce the introduction of a competing technology. The day before Microsoft’s official rollout, Sun mailed bags of coffee beans to reporters. The bags contained a note asking, “Why is Microsoft so jittery?” and inviting reporters to a Java Beans seminar at a hotel next door to where the

Building Brands

Consumer Insight 6.2

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134 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

Finally, a company can buy brand equity by purchasing brands that already have equity. For instance, the mergers and leveraged buyouts of the 1980s were partially motivated by the desire to buy brands with strong equity. Thus, when Grand Metro- politan bought Pillsbury and Philip Morris bought Kraft, they acquired the equity of all the acquired brands.

Attitude Tracking Studies . Because many marketing strategies are intended to influ- ence consumers’ attitudes toward a brand, marketers can use measures of consumers’ attitudes to indicate the success of those strategies. For instance, many companies regu- larly conduct large-scale attitude surveys, called tracking studies, to monitor consumers’ brand attitudes over time. When these studies identify changes in consumer attitudes, marketers can adjust their marketing strategies, as The Gap did in the opening example. One company that failed to track consumers’ increasingly unfavorable attitudes was Howard Johnson’s, one of the original restaurant chains in the United States. During the highway building boom in the 1950s and 1960s, HoJo’s was known as a clean place with nice washrooms, predictable and wholesome food, and ice cream the kids would like. Consumers’ attitudes were positive, and Howard Johnson’s pros- pered. But over the next 20 years, HoJo’s did not monitor customers’ attitudes well, nor did it respond effectively to the strategies of competitors that were passing it by. For instance, Howard Johnson’s used informal gauges of consumer attitudes, such as comment cards left on restaurant tables. Competitors such as Marriott, Denny’s, and McDonald’s ran sophisticated market tests that told them what customers liked and didn’t like. Finally, after a long decline, Marriott bought out the once-powerful chain of Howard Johnson’s restaurants. 17

Attitudes toward Objects

In this section, we examine the information integration process by which consumers form attitudes toward objects ( A O ), including products or brands. As shown in Exhibit 3.5 , during the integration process, consumers combine some of their knowledge, meanings, and beliefs about a product or brand to form an overall evaluation. These considered beliefs may be formed by interpretation processes or activated from memory.

Salient Beliefs Through their varied experiences, consumers acquire many beliefs about products, brands, and other objects in their environment. Exhibit 6.2 presents some of the beliefs one consumer has about Crest toothpaste. These beliefs constitute an associative net- work of linked meanings stored in memory. Because people’s cognitive capacity is lim- ited, only a few of these beliefs can be activated and consciously considered at once. The activated beliefs (highlighted in Exhibit 6.2 ) are called salient beliefs . Only the salient beliefs about an object (those that are activated at a particular time and in a specific context) create a person’s attitude toward that object. 18 Thus, one key to understanding consumers’ attitudes is to identify and understand the underlying set of salient beliefs. In principle, consumers can have salient beliefs about any type and level of mean- ing associated with a product. For instance, consumers who possess complete means– end chains of product knowledge could activate beliefs about the product’s attributes, its functional consequences, or the values achieved through using it. In addition, beliefs about other types of product-related meanings, such as country of origin, could be activated. 19 Salient beliefs could include tactile, olfactory, and visual images, as well as cognitive representations of the emotions and moods associated with using the

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 135

Exhibit 6.2

Relationship between Salient Beliefs about an Object and Attitude toward the Object

Comes in a gelHas fluoride

Is used by my parents

Is made by Procter & Gamble

Comes in tubes Has a tartar-

control formula

Crest

Comes in a pump

Has mint flavor

Tastes good

Is approved by the American Dental

Association

Prevents cavities

Gets teeth clean Is more expensive than store brands

Has a red, white, and blue package

No mess

Freshens breath

All beliefs about Crest

• Crest has fluoride • Crest is approved by the

American Dental Association

• Crest has mint flavor • Crest comes in a gel • Crest is made by Procter

& Gamble • Crest has a red, white,

and blue package • Crest prevents cavities • Crest freshens breath • Crest gets teeth clean • Crest comes in tubes • Crest comes in a pump

container • Crest is more expensive

than store brands • Crest is used by my

parents • Crest has a

tartar-control formula

Salient beliefs about Crest

• Crest has fluoride • Crest has mint flavor • Crest comes in a gel • Crest comes in a pump

container • Crest has a

tartar-control formula

Attitude toward Crest

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136 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

product. If activated, any of these beliefs could influ- ence a consumer’s attitude toward a product.

Many factors influence which beliefs about an object will be activated in a situation and thus become salient determinants of A O . They include prominent stimuli in the immediate environment (point-of- purchase displays, advertisements, package informa- tion), recent events, consumers’ moods and emotional states, and consumers’ values and goals activated in the situation. 20 For instance, noticing a price reduc- tion sign for hiking boots may make price beliefs salient and therefore influential on A O .

Marketers may find that consumers’ salient beliefs vary over time or situations for some products. That is, different sets of salient beliefs about a product may be activated in different situations or at different times. 21 For instance, a consumer who has just returned from the dentist is more likely to activate beliefs about tooth decay and cavities when thinking about which brand of toothpaste to buy. Variations in the set of salient beliefs over time and situations can produce changes in consumer attitudes depending on the situation, context, time, consumer’s mood, and so forth. Con- sumers have more stable attitudes toward objects that have a stable set of salient beliefs. Normally, though, the amount of variation in salient beliefs and attitudes is not great for most objects.

The Multiattribute Attitude Model A great deal of marketing research has focused on developing models for predicting the attitudes produced by this integration process. These are called multiattribute atti- tude models because they focus on consumers’ beliefs about multiple product or brand attributes. 22 Of these, Martin Fishbein’s model has been most influential in marketing. The key proposition in Fishbein’s theory is that the evaluations of salient beliefs cause overall attitude. Simply stated, people tend to like objects that are associated with “good” characteristics and dislike objects they believe have “bad” attributes. In Fishbein’s multiattribute model, overall attitude toward an object is a function of two factors: the strengths of the salient beliefs associated with the object and the evalua- tions of those beliefs. 23 Formally, the model proposes that:

This ad is intended to create new salient beliefs about prod-

uct attributes and benefits

A b eO i i i

n

= = ∑ 1

where A O # attitude toward the object b i # strength of the belief that the object has attribute i e i # evaluation of attribute i n # number of salient beliefs about the object

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 137

Exhibit 6.3

An Example of the Multiattribute Attitude Model

7UP

AO = 27

All natural ingredients

e2 = +1

No caffeine

e1 = +3

Lemon-lime flavor

e3 = –1

b1 = 10

b2 = 5

b3 = 8

Diet Pepsi

AO = 6

Caffeine

e2 = –3

No calories

e1 = +2

Cola flavor

e3 = 1

b1 = 7

b2 = 6

b3 = 10

Attitude 7UP = $ bi ei 3

i=1 AO = (10)(3) + (5)(1) + (8)(–1) AO = 30 + 5 – 8 AO = 27

Attitude DP = $ bi ei 3

i=1 AO = (7)(2) + (6)(–3) + (10)(1) AO = 14 – 18 + 10 AO = 6

This multiattribute attitude model accounts for the integration process by which product knowledge (the evaluations and strengths of salient beliefs) is combined to form an overall evaluation or attitude. The model, however, does not claim that con- sumers actually add up the products of belief strength and evaluation when forming attitudes toward objects. Rather, this and similar models attempt to predict the atti- tude produced by the integration process; they are not meant to describe the actual cognitive operations by which knowledge is integrated. In this book, we consider the multiattribute model to be a useful tool for investigating attitude formation and pre- dicting attitudes.

Model Components. The two major elements of Fishbein’s multiattribute model are the strengths and evaluations of the salient beliefs. Exhibit 6.3 illustrates how these components are combined to form attitudes toward two brands of soft drinks. This consumer has salient beliefs about three attributes for each brand. These beliefs vary in content, strength, and evaluation. The Fishbein model pre- dicts that this consumer has a more favorable attitude toward 7UP than toward Diet Pepsi.

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138 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

Belief strength ( b i ) is the perceived probability of association between an object and its relevant attributes. Belief strength is measured by having consumers rate this probability of association for each of their salient beliefs, as shown here:

“How likely is it that 7UP has no caffeine?” Extremely Unlikely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extremely Likely

“How likely is it that 7UP is made from all natural ingredients?” Extremely Unlikely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extremely Likely

Consumers who are quite certain that 7UP has no caffeine would indicate a very strong belief strength, perhaps 9 or 10. Consumers who have only a moderately strong belief that 7UP is made from only natural ingredients might rate their belief strength as 6 or 7. The strength of consumers’ product or brand beliefs is affected by their past expe- riences with the object. Beliefs about product attributes or consequences tend to be stronger when based on actual use of the product. Beliefs that were formed indirectly from mass advertising or conversations with a salesperson tend to be weaker. For instance, consumers are more likely to form a strong belief that “7UP tastes good” if they actually drink a 7UP and experience its taste directly than if they read a product claim in an advertisement. Because they are stronger (and more likely to be acti- vated), beliefs based on direct experience tend to have a greater impact on A O . 24 Marketers therefore try to induce potential customers to actually use their products. They may distribute free samples; sell small, less expensive trial sizes; offer cents-off coupons; or have a no-obligation trial policy. Fishbein argued that the typical number of salient beliefs about an attitude object is not likely to exceed seven to nine. 25 Given consumers’ limited capacities for inter- preting and integrating information, we might expect even fewer salient beliefs for many objects. In fact, when consumers have limited knowledge about low-involvement products, their brand attitudes might be based on very few salient beliefs, perhaps only one or two. In contrast, their attitudes toward more self-relevant products or brands are likely to be based on several salient beliefs. Associated with each salient belief is a belief evaluation ( e i ) that reflects how favorably the consumer perceives that attribute. Marketers measure the e i compo- nent by having consumers indicate their evaluation of (favorability toward) each salient belief, as follows:

“7UP has no caffeine.” Very Bad ! 3 ! 2 ! 1 0 "1 "2 "3 Very Good

“7UP has all natural ingredients.” Very Bad !3 !2 !1 0 " 1 " 2 " 3 Very Good

As shown in Exhibit 6.3 , the evaluations of salient beliefs influence the overall A O in proportion to the strength of each belief ( b i ). Thus, strong beliefs about positive attributes have greater effects on A O than do weak beliefs about equally positive attributes. Likewise, a negative e i reduces the favorability of A O in proportion to its b i “weight.” As you learned in Chapter 4 , consumers link beliefs to form means–end chains of product knowledge. Exhibit 6.4 presents means–end chains for three attributes of 7UP. Note that the evaluation of each product attribute is ultimately derived from the evaluation of the end consequence in its means–end chain. As shown in Exhibit 6.4 ,

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 139

the evaluation of the end “flows down” the means–end chain to determine the evalu- ations of the less abstract consequences and attributes. 26 For instance, a person who positively evaluates the end “relaxation,” an instrumental value, would tend to posi- tively evaluate the functional consequence “I’m not jittery.” In turn, the product attribute “no caffeine,” which is perceived to lead to not being jittery and relaxation, would have a positive evaluation. These attribute evaluations would then combine to influence the overall attitude, A O , toward 7UP. Consumers’ evaluations of salient attributes are not necessarily fixed over time or constant across different situations. 27 For instance, consumers may change their minds about how good or bad an attribute is as they learn more about its higher-order consequences. Situational factors can also change the e i components. In a different situation, some consumers may want to be stimulated (when getting up in the morn- ing or working late at night to finish a project). If so, the now negative evaluation of the end value “relaxation” would flow down the means–end chain and create a nega- tive evaluation of the “no caffeine” attribute, which in turn would contribute to a less positive overall attitude toward 7UP (for that situation). In this situation, the con- sumer might have a more positive attitude toward Diet Pepsi, which does contain caffeine. This is yet another example of how the physical and social environment can influence consumers’ affect and cognitions.

Exhibit 6.4

The Means–End Chain Basis for Attribute Evaluations

Attributes Consequences Values

7UP

AO

All natural ingredients

ei

No caffeine

ei

Lemon-lime flavor

ei

Better for me

ei

I’m not jittery

ei

Tastes good

ei

Good health

ei

Relaxation

ei

Pleasure

ei

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140 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

Marketing Implications Marketers have been using multiattribute models to explore consumer behavior since the late 1960s. These models became popular because they have an intuitive appeal to researchers and managers and are relatively easy to use in research. 28 Not all of these models accurately reflect the basic Fishbein model, but most are adaptations of it. We will discuss a few of the many applications of these models next.

Understanding Your Customers. The multiattribute model is useful for iden- tifying which attributes are the most important (or most salient) to consumers. For instance; airline passengers love to complain about the lousy food served on planes. 29 Yet a survey found that only 40 percent of passengers rated good food and beverage service as important, whereas other attributes were mentioned as important much more frequently. These included convenient schedules (more than 90 percent), fast check-in (about 80 percent), comfortable seats (about 80 percent), and good on-time performance (about 85 percent). Perhaps airlines use such data to justify not improving the quality of the food they serve. The relative importance of different attributes is likely to vary across market segments. For instance, three segments of the airline market—light travelers (1 or 2 trips per year), moderate travelers (3 to 9 trips per year), and frequent travelers (10 or more trips per year)—evaluated some attributes differently. Light travelers had greater concerns about safety and efficient baggage handling, whereas frequent travelers were more concerned with convenient schedules and frequent-flier programs.

Diagnosis of Marketing Strategies. Although multiattribute models were developed to predict overall attitudes, marketers often use them to diagnose mar- keting strategies. By examining the salient beliefs that underlie attitudes toward various brands, marketers can learn how their strategies are performing and make adjustments to improve their effectiveness. For instance, in the value-conscious 1990s, marketers found that many consumers were more concerned with the quality and value of products relative to their prices. 30 Finding a bargain, spend- ing one’s money wisely, and not overpaying for quality became fashionable once again. Many companies adjusted their strategies in light of these beliefs. Consider the motto of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer: “Always Low Prices, Always.” Southwest Airlines combined low fares with friendly but bare-bones service to enhance consumers’ value beliefs and overall attitudes. Taco Bell and many other firms reduced operating costs enough to feature items on the menu around $1 to create stronger beliefs about the exceptional value the fast-food restaurant provided.

Understanding Situational Influences. Marketers can also use the multiattrib- ute attitude model to examine the influence of situations. The relative salience of beliefs about certain product attributes may be greatly influenced by the situations in which the product is used. Situations vary in many ways, including time of day, con- sumer mood, environmental setting, weather, and hundreds of other variables. These situational characteristics affect which beliefs are activated from memory, and influ- ence attitudes toward the brands that might be purchased for use in those situations.

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 141

For instance, one study of snack products found that beliefs about economy and taste were most important for three common snacking occasions: everyday desserts, watch- ing TV in the evening, and kids’ lunches. 31 However, when buying snacks for a children’s party, beliefs about nutrition and convenience were most important. Such variations in salient beliefs can lead to different brand attitudes in these various situations.

Attitude-Change Strategies The multiattribute model is a useful guide for devising strategies to change consum- ers’ attitudes. Basically a marketer has four possible attitude-change strategies: (1) add a new salient belief about the attitude object—ideally, one with a positive e i , (2) increase the strength of an existing positive belief, (3) improve the evaluation of a strongly held belief, or (4) make an existing favorable belief more salient. Adding a new salient belief to the existing beliefs that consumers have about a product or brand is probably the most common attitude-change strategy. 32 Consumer Insight 6.3 describes such a strategy in an antismoking campaign. Sometimes this strategy requires a physical change in the product. For instance, crunchy is an attri- bute now added to many food products. 33 Consider Honey Crunch Corn Flakes from Kellogg, French Toast Crunch from General Mills, and Cranberry Almond Crunch from Post. Candy is getting crunchier too—Reese’s Crunchy Cookie Cups from Her- shey and Nestlé’s White Crunch. Even smooth Yoplait Yogurt (by General Mills) has a Crunchy Lite line containing nuts. People in general have positive attitudes toward “crunchy” and “crispy,” which seem to be linked to feelings of freshness, fun, and stress relief. As one customer put it, “I don’t know if it is the sound or what, but crunchy foods are satisfying.” Marketers can also try to change attitudes by changing the strength of already salient beliefs. 34 They can attempt to increase the strength of beliefs about positive attributes and consequences, or they can decrease the strength of beliefs about nega- tive attributes and consequences. For years Papa John’s pizza ( www.papajohns.com ) has outperformed the fast-food industry. Yet Papa John’s costs a bit more than Little Caesar’s, arrives no faster than Dominos, does not sell salads or sandwiches, and does not offer sit-down service. 35 Instead, Papa John’s focuses on taste, as indicated by its corporate slogan, “Better ingredients, better pizza.” It makes its own dough with purified water and its own sauce from fresh tomatoes, and uses only premium moz- zarella cheese. Papa John’s works hard to create strong consumer beliefs that its pizza tastes better, and apparently many consumers do believe. Many publications in mar- kets around the country have rated Papa John’s as the best-tasting pizza. Marketers can also try to change consumers’ attitudes by changing the evaluative aspect of an existing, strongly held belief about a salient attribute. This requires con- structing a new means–end chain by linking a more positive, higher-ordered conse- quence to that attribute. Cereal manufacturers such as Kellogg once tried to enhance consumers’ attitudes by linking the food attribute of fiber to cancer prevention. Consider how evaluations of beliefs about food attributes have changed (in the United States, at least) as their means–end meanings have evolved. 36 Attributes such as butterfat and egg yolks once were evaluated highly because they gave foods a rich, satisfying taste. But in the 1990s they became negative attributes, whereas attributes such as low fats, once seen as rather undesirable, became more highly valued. For instance, Sealtest tried to link nonfat characteristics of “Sealtest Free” ice cream to important values such as health and fitness. Likewise, Kraft tried to link the key

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142 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

attributes of its fat-free line of salad dressings and mayonnaise (egg whites, skim milk, cellulose gel, and various gums) to important health consequences and values (lower risk of heart disease and longer life). The final strategy for changing consumers’ attitudes is to make an existing favor- able belief more salient, usually by convincing consumers that the attribute is more self-relevant than it seemed. This strategy is similar to the previous one in that it attempts to link the attribute to valued consequences and values. Creating such means–end chains increases the salience of consumers’ beliefs about the attributes as

Sources: Frank Santiago, “Body Bags Pile Up for Anti-Smoking Ads Aimed at Teens,” USA Today, July 28, 2000, p. 3A; Chris Reidy, “Arnold Set to Fire Up Next Phase of Teen Antismoking Ads,” Boston Globe, June 23, 2000, p. C3; Bob Moseley, “Can Magazines Handle TheTruth.com?” Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August 2000, p. 17; Jenny Holland, “Speaking ‘Truth’ to Teens, Documentary Style,” BrandWeek, May 22, 2006,

During a summer-long promotional campaign in 2000, The Truth representatives gave away 150,000 baseball caps and T-shirts. The ads are funded in part by money paid by tobacco companies as part of a 1998 agreement between the tobacco industry and 46 states. One stipu- lation of the agreement was that the ads should not “vilify” the tobacco companies. The definition of vilify was left open to interpretation. Does an ad that shows the Philip Morris headquarters in New York surrounded by body bags qualify as vilification? The tobacco indus- try has had little to say on the issue, although a Philip Morris spokesperson claims, “We’re disappointed with some of the ads and the tone of the website. We don’t think they accurately depict our company, our employ- ees, and the way we do business.” However, Mitch Zeller, executive vice president of the American Legacy Foundation, contends an in-your-face approach is the best way to reach teens: “Teenagers have a sense of immortality. They think the dangers don’t apply to them. The body bags are designed to break through that kind of mindset.” Although some find The Truth ad campaigns are vili- fying the tobacco industry, the Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention found that 21.9 percent of high school students reported smoking in 2005, down from 36.4 percent in 1997. The American Legacy Foundation, which funds The Truth, started running ads in 2000. Are antismoking campaigns the reason for this?

In recent years, many attempts have been made to convince teens of the dangers of smoking. One of

the highest-profile efforts has been The Truth cam- paign from the American Legacy Association. You can see The Truth’s approach firsthand at its Web site, www.TheTruth.com. The Truth targets teens aged 12–17, because most adult smokers have their first cigarette experience before the age of 18. The Truth’s ad campaigns are marketed to the “edgier” teens—those who are more willing to take risks and take up smoking. The ads themselves have a more raw, independent feel in an attempt to resonate with these teens. The Truth’s edgy and brutally direct ads have created controversy and attracted national attention. For example, a TV spot featured an angry tobacco company executive ushering a young woman out of an office build- ing while she loudly chastises him for his company’s misleading marketing tactics. A magazine ad pictured a hand with bandaged fingers and asked readers to “Rip out the next cigarette ad you see because tobacco killed about 430,000 people last year and paper cuts didn’t kill anybody” (interestingly, that ad ran in Spin magazine, which also accepts advertising dollars from tobacco companies). The Truth also has taken its campaign to the streets, filling part of an empty lot in Washington, DC, with 1,200 body bags, representing the number of people who die each day from tobacco-related illnesses. The Truth itself has become a cool “brand” among teens.

Changing Teenagers’ Attitudes toward Smoking

Consumer Insight 6.3

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 143

well as the evaluations ( e i ) of those beliefs. For example, the marketing strategies of sun care lotion manufacturers such as Hawaiian Tropic emphasized the perceived risks of not using their lotions, which had a sunscreen attribute. 37 By linking the sun- screen attribute to important ends such as avoiding skin cancer and premature wrin- kling, they sought to make the sunscreen attribute more salient (more self-relevant) for consumers. Such means–end chains should make sunscreen beliefs more likely to be activated and considered during decision making.

Exhibit 6.5

Relationships among Beliefs, Attitude, and Behaviors Regarding a Specific Object

Beliefs about Pizza Hut

• Has pan pizzas • Has super supreme pizzas • Has a salad bar • Serves beer • Is more expensive than

Domino’s • Has convenient location • Has free parking • Stores have red roofs • Has pleasant employees • Has nice atmosphere

Behaviors toward Pizza Hut

• Go to Pizza Hut on Friday night

• Order a large pan pizza • Complain to manager • Ignore Pizza Hut ad on TV • Use a Pizza Hut coupon

for a free soft drink • Recommend Pizza Hut

to boss • Read Pizza Hut menu

Attitude toward

Pizza Hut AO

Feedback

Attitudes toward Behavior

Consumers’ attitudes have been studied intensively, but marketers tend to be more concerned about consumers’ overt behavior, especially their purchase behavior. Thus, it is not surprising that a great deal of research has tried to establish the relationship between attitudes and behavior. 38 Based on the idea of consistency, you might expect attitudes toward an object ( A O ) to be strongly related to behaviors toward the object. For instance, most market researchers believe, and operate under the assumption, that the more favorable a person’s attitude toward a given product (or brand), the more likely the person is to buy or use that product (or brand). 39 Thus, a marketing researcher might measure consumers’ attitudes toward Pizza Hut and use the results to predict whether each person will purchase a pizza at Pizza Hut within the next month. If this approach seems reasonable, you may be surprised to learn that consumers’ attitudes toward an object often are not good predictors of their specific behaviors regarding that object. In fact, with a few notable exceptions, most research has found rather weak relationships between A O and specific single behaviors. 40 Exhibit 6.5 illustrates one problem with relating A O to individual behaviors. The exhibit presents the relationships among a consumer’s beliefs, attitude, and behaviors

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144 Section Two Affect and Cognition and Marketing Strategy

concerning a particular object: Pizza Hut. First, note that Judy, our consumer, has a single overall attitude toward Pizza Hut (in her case, a favorable A O ), which is based on her salient beliefs about Pizza Hut. For instance, she might go to Pizza Hut on Friday night and order a pizza, ignore a Pizza Hut ad on television, use a Pizza Hut coupon for a free soft drink, or recommend Pizza Hut to her boss. However, none of these specific behaviors is necessarily consistent with or even strongly related to her overall A O , although some of them might be.

This ad uses a butterfly as metaphor for a person’s

metamorphosis to a state of self-esteem

FPO

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Chapter Six Attitudes and Intentions 145

This does not mean consumers’ attitudes are irrelevant to their behaviors. As shown in Exhibit 6.5 , Judy’s overall attitude ( A O ) is related to the overall evaluative pattern of her behaviors (all of her behaviors regarding Pizza Hut taken together). However, it is not possible to predict with accuracy any specific behavior based on knowing a person’s overall attitude toward the object of the behavior. Although this proposition may seem strange, there are many examples of its valid- ity. Consider that many consumers probably have positive attitudes toward Porsche cars, Rolex watches, and vacation homes, but most do not buy these products. Because favorable attitudes toward these products can be expressed in many different behav- iors, it is difficult to predict which specific behavior will be performed. Consider three consumers who have generally favorable attitudes toward Porsches but do not own one. One consumer reads ads and test reports about Porsches. The second consumer goes to showrooms to look at Porsches. The third consumer just daydreams about owning a Porsche. In sum, having a generally favorable (or unfavorable) attitude toward a product does not mean the consumer will perform every possible favorable (or unfavorable) behavior regarding that product. Marketers need a model that iden- tifies the attitudinal factors that influence specific behaviors. Such a model is pro- vided by Fishbein’s theory of reasoned action.

The Theory of Reasoned Action Fishbein recognized that people’s attitudes toward an object may not be strongly or systematically related to their specific behaviors. 41 Rather, the immediate determi- nant of whether consumers will engage in a particular behavior is their intention to engage in that behavior. Fishbein modified and extended his multiattribute attitude model to relate consumers’ beliefs and attitudes to their behavioral intentions. The entire model is presented in Exhibit 6.6 . The model is called a theory of reasoned action because it assumes that con- sumers consciously consider the consequences of the alternative behaviors under consideration and choose the one that leads to the most desirable consequences. 42 The outcome of this reasoned choice process is an intention to engage in the selected behavior. This behavioral intention is the single best predictor of actual behavior. In sum, the theory of reasoned action proposes that any reasonably complex, voluntary behavior (such as buying a pair of shoes) is determined by the person’s intention to perform that behavior. The theory of reasoned action is not relevant for extremely simple or involuntary behaviors such as automatic eye blinking, turning your head at the sound of the telephone, or sneezing. Formally, the theory of reasoned action can be presented as follows:

B BI A SNact~ ( ) ( )= +ω ω1 2

where B # a specific behavior BI # consumer’s intention to engage in that behavior A act # consumer’s attitude toward engaging in that behavior SN # subjective norm regarding whether other people want the con-

sumer to engage in that behavior w 1 and w 2 # weights that reflect the relative influence of the A act and SN com-

ponents on BI

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