Chapter 7: Attitudes and Persuasion

A lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects, advertisements, or issues

Attitude

Anything toward which one has an attitude

Attitude Object (AO)

Explains how attitudes facilitate social behavior

Functional Theory of Attitudes

Attitudes that relate to the basic principles of reward and punishment

Utilitarian Function

Attitudes that relate to the consumer's central values or self-concept

Value-Expressive Function

Attitudes we form to protect ourselves either from external threats or internal feelings

Ego-Defensive Function

Attitudes we form because we need order, structure, or meaning

Knowledge Function

How a consumer feels about an attitude object

Affect

A consumer's intentions to take action about an attitude object

Behavior

What a consumer believes to be true about the attitude object

Cognition

Emphasizes the interrelationships among knowing, feeling, and doing

ABC Model of Attitudes

Explains the relative impact of the three components of attitude

Hierarchy of Effects

Assumes that a person approaches a product decision as a problem-solving process (Think -> Feel -> Do)

Standard Learning Hierarchy

Assumes that the consumer initially doesn't have a strong preference for one brand over another; she acts on the basis of limited knowledge and forms an evaluation only after she has bought the product (Do -> Feel -> Think)

Low-Involvement Hierarchy of Effects

We act on the basis of our emotional reactions (Feel -> Think -> Do)

Experiential Hierarchy of Effects

Messages that happy people deliver enhance our attitude toward the product

Emotional Contagion

At the lowest level of involvement, we form an attitude because it helps us to gain rewards or avoid punishment

Compliance

Occurs when we form an attitude to conform to another person's or group's expectations

Identification

At a high level of involvement, deep-seated attitudes become part of our value system

Internalization

We value harmony among our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and a need to maintain uniformity among these elements motivates us

Principle of Cognitive Consistency

States that when a person is confronted with inconsistencies among attitudes or behaviors, he will take some action to resolve this "dissonance"

Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Provides an alternative explanation of dissonance effects, assuming we observe our own behavior to determine just what our attitudes are

Self-Perception Theory

A strategy where a consumer is more likely to comply with a big request if he agrees to a smaller one

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Assumes that people assimilate new information about attitude objects in light of what they already know or feel

Social Judgment Theory

People differ in terms of the information they will find acceptable or unacceptable

Latitudes of Acceptance and Rejection

People perceive messages within their latitude of acceptance as more consistent with their position than those messages actually are

Assimilation Effect

People see messages that fall in their latitude of rejection as even more unacceptable than they actually are

Contrast Effect

Considers how a person perceives relations among different attitude objects, and how he alters his attitudes so that these remain consistent

Balance Theory

Attitude structures containing a person, an attitude object, and some other person or object

Triads

We think that a person is somehow connected to an attitude object (like a belief)

Unit Relation

A person expresses liking or disliking for an attitude object

Sentiment Relation

Marketing researchers use these models to understand attitudes by identifying specific beliefs and combining them

Multiattribute Attitude Models

The most influential multiattribute model

Fishbein Model

An updated version of the Fishbein model that includes factors such as subjective norms and the attitude toward the act of buying

Theory of Reasoned Action

Accounts for the effects of what we believe other people think we should do

Subjective Norm (SN)

The consequences of a purchase

Attitude Toward the Act of Buying (Aact)

A model that emphasizes multiple pathways to attitude formation

Multiple Pathway Anchoring and Adjustment (MPAA) Model

States that we should replace the criterion of behavior in the reasoned action model with trying to reach a goal

Theory of Trying

An active attempt to change attitudes

Persuasion

Acknowledges that a marketer will be much more successful when he communicates with consumers who have already agreed to listen to him

Permission Marketing

Finely tuning messages to suit very small groups of receivers

Narrowcasting

Where marketers promote their goods and services via wireless devices

M-Commerce

Refers to the set of technologies that enable users to create content and share it with a large number of others

Social Media

Users post messages to the Web in diary form

Blogs

Posting video diaries on sites such as YouTube

Video Blogging (Vlogging)

Creating your own radio show that people can listen to either on their computers or iPods

Podcasting

Immersive 3-D digital environments

Virtual Worlds

Postings limited to 140 characters

Twitter

Small programs that users can download onto their desktops, or embed in their blogs or profile pages, that import some form of live content

Widgets

Communication media ranging from Web sites, blogs, and email to recorded phone calls and even graffiti messages

Transmedia Formats

Includes communications media that range from Web sites, blogs, and email to recorded phone calls and even graffiti messages

Transmedia Storytelling

Where thousands of people participate in a fictional story or competition to solve a mystery

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs)

Where communication originates

Source

Refers to a communicator's expertise, objectivity, or trustworthiness

Source Credibility

Refers to the social value recipients attribute to a communicator

Source Attractiveness

When a company executive or other biased source poses as someone else as he touts his organization in social media

Sock Puppeting

An undesirable person who uses a competitor's product in an ad

Undesirable Person

Differences in attitude change between positive sources and less positive sources become erased over time

Sleeper Effect

A source's knowledge about a topic is not accurate

Knowledge Bias

A source has the required knowledge but we question his willingness to convey it accurately

Reporting Bias

A phenomenon that occurs when people react to other, similar stimuli in much the same way they responded to the original stimulus

Halo Effect

An ideal type of spokesperson

Spokescharacter

An increasingly popular alternative to a flesh-and-blood endorser

Avatar

Messages that merely present one or more positive attributes about the product or reasons to buy it

Supportive Arguments

A message that presents both positive and negative information

Two-Sided Message

Arguments that first raise a negative issue and then dismiss it

Refutational Arguments

A strategy in which a message compares two or more recognizable brands and weighs them in terms of one or more specific attributes

Comparative Advertising

Appeals that emphasize the negative consequences that can occur unless the consumer changes a behavior or an attitude

Fear Appeals

Advertising creatives rely on these to communicate meanings

Literary Devices

A story about an abstract trait or concept that advertisers tell in the context of a person, animal, vegetable, or object

Allegory

Places two dissimilar objects into a close relationship such that "A is B"

Metaphor

Compares two objects, "A is like B"

Simile

A form of presentation that combines a play on words with a relevant picture

Resonance

A form of literary device used in advertising that employs an element that has a double meaning

Pun

A message structure where the source speaks directly to the audience

Lecture

A message structure similar to a play or movie, drawing the viewer into the action

Drama

Encourages the recipient to associate the experience of product usage with some subjective sensation

Transformational Advertising

Assumes that under conditions of high involvement, we take the central route to persuasion, and under conditions of low involvement, we take a peripheral route

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

A route to persuasion taken when we find the information in a persuasive message relevant or interesting and pay careful attention to it

Central Route to Persuasion

A route to persuasion taken when we're not really motivated to think about the marketer's arguments and use other cues to decide how to react

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

Sources of information extraneous to the actual message

Peripheral Cues