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BUYER BEHAVIOR
(MGT 462) Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management Module IV, Spring 2001 Professor Gibbs

Attitudes and Intentions

Last Session
Casette: Products in the Movies
Product placements to influence affect and cognition

Early stages of information processing

Interpretation processes
Subjectivity (recall the pitch paradox)

Exposure to information
Sometimes accidental (recall printaculars)

Attention
Subliminal and nonconscious perception

Comprehension
Guiding consumers inferences (e.g., by appointment to HRH)
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This Session
Casette Later stages of information processing
Integration processes
Information sources must be combined to form. . .

Attitudes Intentions (Decision making next session)

Casette

Coca-Cola

The Attitude Construct

Persons overall evaluation of object, concept or act Various attitude concepts
AO AACT AAD

Levels of specificity
Product class Brand Brand in particular situation

Attitude Formation
Affective learning of attitudes
Direct, not necessarily via beliefs Automatic, nonconscious

Cognitive learning of attitudes

Piecemeal processing
Limited capacity system Activators: goals, recent events, etc. Context sensitivity of attitudes

Category-based processing

The Worm-Meat Study

(Tybout, Calder & Sternthal)

Marketing problem Information processing analysis Lab experiment

Ss watched 3 McDonalds commercials imbedded in 1 hr. of TV (told were studying violence of program)
At end of viewing, confederate stated rumor Ss asked to evaluate eating at McDonalds, and later asked to evaluate the truth of the worm-meat rumor

Treatments
None Refutation Retrieval strategy Storage strategy
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Results

Multiattribute Attitude Models

Fishbein model
Overall evaluation (attitude) made up of evaluations of salient beliefs

Two factors
Strengths (bi) and evaluations (ei) of salient beliefs

Weighted linear combination of attribute evaluations

AO = sum of (bi) (ei) (paramorphic model)

Measurement
Elicit salient beliefs (focus groups, forced choice from lists, free association) Elicit evaluative ratings
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 Marketing Applications
Decompositional approach reveals reason for brand attitude
Focus strategies on specific beliefs, evaluations Suggests belief activators

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Attitude Change
Multiattribute approaches
1) Add/delete a salient belief 2) Increase/decrease strength of existing belief 3) Increase/decrease evaluation of strongly held belief

Persuasion
= Attempt to induce attitude change in others Message factors
E.g., one-sided vs. two-sided appeals

Communicator factors
E.g., credibility/expertise

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The Theory of Reasoned Action

Assumes conscious consideration of consequences of acting
Form intention (plan) on the basis of the desirability of the consequences
Personal desirability of consequences Social desirability of consequences

B <--- BI = W1 (AACT) + W2 (SN)

AACT = sum of (bi) (ei) SN = sum of (NBj) (MCj)

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 Focuses on a specific behavior Intention versus behavior

How predictive are measured intentions?
60% of those intending to buy car did within 1 yr. 17% of those intending not to buy car did within 1 yr.

Measurement issues
Level of specificity Temporal distance Measurement-induced intentions Voluntary control

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 Explicit role for social norms

Conformity tendencies Situation specificity

Like EU theory (with some twists)

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Supplementary Reading
Rumors (relevant to this session) and subliminal perception (relevant to the previous session)
Bazaar Gossip: How a Rumor Spread About Subliminal Sex in Disneys Aladdin (The Wall Street Journal)

Attitudes about the commoditized consumption tastes represented by the Pottery Barn aesthetic
Sofas and Sensibility (Newsweek)
This stuff is everything that is wrong with the world (Friends character, Phoebe)

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