Customer Behaviour

A Managerial Perspective
First Canadian Edition

Jagdish N. Sheth
Emory University

Banwari Mittal
Concordia University

Northern Kentucky University

Michel Laroche

2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

PART 2: FOUNDATIONS OF CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR

CHAPTER 6
Customer Attitudes: Cognitive and Affective

2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

Conceptual Framework
Attitude Change
Psychological Processes Learning theories Attribution processes Cognitive Consistency theories High/Low Involvement Information Processing 1. 2. 3. 4.

Attitudes
Three-Component Model Cognition Affect Conation

Attitudes
Buyer User
Multiattribute Models Functional Theory of Attitude

Payer

2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

Attitude: Definition and Characteristics

Attitudes are learned predispositions to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way

2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

Attitudes as Evaluations

Attitudes are our evaluations of:

Objects People Places Brands Products Organizations, etc.

People evaluate these in terms of their goodness, likability, or desirability

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Three Underlying Dimensions to Global Attitude

Cognition
Knowledge

Affect
Feeling

Conation
Action

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Brand Belief

Beliefs are expectations as to what something is or is not or what something will or will not do
Descriptive Evaluative Normative

Brand belief is a thought about a specific property or quality of the brand

2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

Illustrative Measures of the ThreeComponent Model of Attitude

Attitude Object
Attitude Component Cognitions or Beliefs DHL, for Shipping a Businesss Small Packages DHL is very reliable in its service. DHL is more economical than other package carrier services. DHL is able to customize its service to my shipping needs. Shopping for Airline Tickets on the Internet For my airline tickets, shopping on the internet is very convenient. You can find the cheapest fares by shopping on the internet. Internet based travel agents do not offer you a comprehensive set of airline and flight options. Shopping on the Internet is: (please circle as many as apply) Totally cool Boring Confusing A pain in the neck Enjoyable Terrible I have used Internet for my travel airline tickets recently. I often search Internet for planning my travel itinerary.

Affect or Feelings

Conations or Actions

When I ship by DHL, I feel secure. I am very happy to be suing DHL for my shipping needs. I dont care if DHL goes out of business. I use DHL for my shipping more than I use other carriers. I am often recommending DHL to other business associates. I am looking for alternative carriers.

2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

Hierarchies In Attitude

Attitude hierarchy refers to the sequence in which the three components occur
Learning Emotional Low Involvement

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Learning Hierarchy of Attitude

Cognitive LEARNING (thoughts)

Affective (feelings)

Conative (actions)

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Emotional Hierarchy of Attitude

Affect EMOTIONAL (feelings)

Conation (actions)

Cognition (thoughts)

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Low Involvement Hierarchy of Attitude

LOW INVOLVEMENT

Conation (actions)

Affect (feelings)

Cognition (thoughts)

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Degrees of Involvement and Types of Attitude Hierarchy

High Involvement

Emotional Hierarchy
Begins with intense emotions Begins with mood

Rational Hierarchy Begins with consideration of multiple features Begins with consideration of one or two features

Lowinvolvement hierarchy

Low Involvement

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Consistency Among the Three Components

Consistency can be related to two factors:

Valence
Attitude valence refers to favourable and unfavourable thoughts, feelings, and actions

Intensity (strength)
Attitude strength refers to the degree of commitment one feels toward a cognition or feeling or action
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Three Attitude Components in Mutual Interdependence

Affective (feelings)

Conative (actions)
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Cognitive (thoughts)
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Molding Customer Attitude

Three avenues of attitude molding:
Via cognitive change Via affective change Via behaviour (conative) change

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Methods of Influencing the Customers Behaviour

Incentives Structuring the physical environment Business procedures Government mandates Information structuring

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The Psychological Processes Underlying Attitude Change

Four major groups of theories:

Learning theories Attribution theory Cognitive consistency theories High- and low-involvement information processing

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Learning Theories
Learning is a pathway to attitude change The four learning theories are:

Classical conditioning Instrumental conditioning Modelling Cognitive learning

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Attribution Processes

Attribution processes are set in motion when the customer first engages in some behaviour that is incongruent with his or her initial attitude
Self-perception theory Attribution theory
Foot-in-the-door strategy Door-in-the-face strategy

Norm of reciprocity

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Cognitive Consistency Theories

Concept:
Various cognitions people hold have to be consistent with one another

Festingers cognitive dissonance theory Heiders balance theory

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Buyers Remorse According to Festingers dissonance theory this happens because two cognitions are in dissonance:
The cognition that the decision has been made The cognition that the decision may not have been the best
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Heiders Balance Theory

Cognitive Consistency

According to Heiders balance theory, when a respected opinion leader endorses an issue not initially favoured by a person:
The person would either lower the opinion leader in his or her esteem or Become more favourable toward the endorsed issue
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High- and Low-Involvement Information-Processing Modes

Central processing route

The customer attends to and scrutinizes message content actively and thoughtfully

Peripheral processing route

The consumer attends to the message only cursorily, and tends to make quick inferences by simply looking at the elements in the ad
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Multiattribute Models of Attitude

Overall attitude is based on the component beliefs about the object, weighted by the evaluation of those beliefs
The Rosenberg model The Fishbein model The extended Fishbein model
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The Rosenberg Model

Ao is the overall attitude toward the object

is the importance of value j

Ij

Vj is the instrumentality of the object in obtaining value j

is the number of values

Ao =

Ij V
j=1

j
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2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

The Fishbein Model

Ao is the overall attitude toward the object Bi is the belief that object i has a certain
consequence

Ei is the evaluation of that consequence

is the number of consequences

B Ao= i Ei i=1
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Example of Customer Attitudes: Two Internet Service Providers

EVALUATION OF ATTRIBUTE (UNLIKELY 1 2 3 4 5 LIKELY) Attribute America Online AT&T Evaluation of Consequences +3

1. Connection will be established successfully every time.

2. The connection will be established speedily.

3. The connection will be dropped in the middle of the session. 4. The price (monthly fee) will be high.

+2

-3

-1

(Very bad -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 Very good)

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Schematic of Fishbeins Extended Model

Beliefs about consequences from behaviour (Bi) Evaluations of consequences from behaviour (Ei)
m

BE
i i 1

Attitude (Aact)

Behavioural Intention (BI)

Behaviour (B)

Normative Beliefs related to different sources (NBj) Motivation to comply with subjective norms (MCj)

NB E
j j 1

Subjective Norms (SN)

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Social Norms
Along with attitude, a persons behaviour depends on social norms
Subjective norms
Others desires or expectations from us

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Fishbeins Extended Model of Behaviour

B =
f BI f Aact w1 SN w2

where
B = BI = Aact = SN = w1 and w2= Aact = overt behaviour (I.e., brand purchase) behavioural intention or purchase intention attitude toward purchase of brand subjective norm empirically determined evaluation weights

where
Bi

BE
i 1

i i

= belief that performance of a certain behaviour-brand purchase-will lead to an anticipated outcome

2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

Fishbeins Extended Model of behaviour (contd)

Ei
i SN

= evaluation of an anticipated outcome, either a positive benefit or the avoidance of a negative consequence = anticipated outcome 1, 2, m
=

NB MC
j j 1

where
SN

NBj
MCj j

= subjective norm-the motivation toward an act as determined by the influence of significant others = normative beliefs-belief that significant others (j) expect the consumer to engage in an action = motivation to comply-the extent to which the consumer is motivated to realize the expectations of significant others (j) = significant other 1,2,n
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Use of Multiattribute Models

According to the multiattribute model, we can change customer attitudes in three ways:
By changing a specific component belief, which can be done by changing the perception of the corresponding attribute level or associated consequence By changing the importance customers assign to an attribute or the evaluation of that consequence By introducing a new attribute into customers evaluation process
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The Functional Theory of Attitude

Utilitarian Ego defense Value expressive Knowledge

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Functions of Attitudes
FUNCTION Utilitarian Ego-defensive Knowledge DEFINITION Related to whether the object serves some utility Held to protect a persons ego Related to whether the object adds to a persons knowledge EXAMPLE I prefer no-crease jeans because they are easy to care for. My income may not be high, but I can buy this luxury car. I like to work with this salesperson, because he spends a lot of time learning my needs and explaining how his companys products will help our company.

Valueexpressive

Manifesting ones existing values

Every year I donate to the art institute and a local dance theater because the arts are a vital part of this community.
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Applying the Theory of Attitudes: Planned Social Change

Eight strategies of planned social change:

Informing and educating Persuasion and propaganda Social controls Delivery systems Economic incentives Economic disincentives Clinical counselling and behaviour modification Mandatory rules and regulations
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A Typology of Strategy Mix for Planned Social Change

ATTITUDE POSITIVE RELEVANT BEHAVIOUR Cell 1 ENGAGED Reinforced Strategy (Behavioural or Psychological) NEGATIVE Cell 3 Rationalization Strategy Attitude Change (Psychological)

Cell 2
NONENGAGED Inducement Strategy (Behavioural)

Cell 4
Confrontation Process Strategy (Behavioural or Psychological)
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2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited

Attitudes and the Three Customer Roles

USER Customer attitudes Threecomponentmodel Users like products they use, and dislike products they avoid. PAYER Payers have attitude towards credit. Payers have beliefs, feelings, and behaviours toward specific credit cards, and other forms of payment methods. Subjective norms influence a persons debt behaviour, and also spending norms for specific purchases. Payers differ in their concern with what happens to the money they pay. BUYER Buyers like some vendors more than others. Buyers have beliefs about the attributes of vendors, have feelings of like or dislike toward them, and patronize or ignore them, accordingly. Subjective norms influence ones choice of vendors. Government has list of approved vendors. Some buyers are highly involved, others not.

Users hold beliefs about products, have feelings toward them, and manifest approach or avoidance behaviour.

Subjective norms dictate Fishbeins customer use or nonuse of extended model many products/services.

High and low involvement

Users are very involved with some products, exhibiting fanatic consumption.

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