Consumer Attitude and Beliefs Essay

1. Explain a person’s attitude towards visiting Disneyland in Hong Kong in terms of the tri-component model. The tri-component attitude model is made up of three major components: (i) The Cognitive Component – a consumer’s attitude is initially based upon their own knowledge and perception through direct experience with the attitude object and related information from other sources. Prior Visit: if an individual has looked at brochures or searched up Hong Kong Disneyland online, then their attitude towards it should be positive, relating to their also positive perception received through information from sources After Visit: after visiting HK Disneyland, the individual would have had direct experience with the attitude object, thus their attitude would be based upon their experience there. (ii) The Affective Component – the emotions and or feelings a consumer associates with a particular brand or product. Prior Visit: assuming that the individual is a fan of rides and an adrenaline rush, the affective component would mostly likely involve the feeling of excitement of visiting Disneyland After Visit: if the individual’s visit to HK Disneyland was positive, they would probably have feelings of happiness and maybe even an emotion of sadness that they have to leave (iii) The Conative Component – the likelihood or tendency of a consumer to undertake a specific action or behave in a certain manner with regard to the attitude object. Prior Visit: since this component is based on an individual’s tendency to act (and not the actual acting), it would depend on each individual’s unique behaviour towards something; e.g. one may have the tendency to get too excited and not be able to concentrate on work properly. After Visit: an individual may hav e the tendency to boast to their friends about how fabulous their visit to HK Disneyland was. 2. Explain how the product manager of a breakfast cereal might change consumer attitudes toward the company’s brand by: a) Changing beliefs about the brand The product manager could change consumer beliefs about the brand by using the cognitive component of the tri-component attitude model, where a consumer’s knowledge and perceptions are acquired via direct experience with the attitude object plus information from other sources. (E.g. adding a  health attribute to the product so that consumers perceive the cereal brand as healthy, changing their beliefs about the brand.) b) Changing beliefs about competing brands The product manager of a breakfast cereal is obviously not able to change the packaging or advertising of a competitor’s brand, thus their marketing strategy to change a customer’s attitude toward competing brands must be accomplished via packaging and advertising strategies of their own breakfast cereal brand. This may be accomplished by assuring that consumers are aware that the breakfast cereal is unique from its competitors and has something to offer that other brands do not. Advertising to customers that this cereal has extra to offer or that other brands have been simply imitating this brand would cause customers to believe that competing brands have simply been deceiving. c) Changing the relative evaluation of attitudes Changing the relative evaluation of attitudes would involve the product manager coming up with a strategy that positively affects and engages a larger number of consumers. This would include appealing customers by making the breakfast cereal stand out amongst other competitors, such as highlighting a significant attributive strength that other breakfast cereals do not offer. The product manager would want to use powerful positive statements to achieve this. d) Adding an attribute Consumer attitudes toward the breakfast cereal could be enhanced by adding a health attribute to the cereal. For example, consumers are most likely to believe there has been product improvement if the product manager decides to add positively perceived ingredients such as protein, fibre, minerals, etc. 3. What sources influenced your attitudes about studying buyer behaviour before class started? Has your initial attitude changed since the unit started? If so, how? The sources that influenced my attitude towards studying buyer behaviour prior starting the unit was mostly based on the unit description from the unit guide and how friends had described the unit  to be like. My current attitude towards the unit has not changed much, except for the fact that the group assignment was actually not as boring as expected but rather quite interesting. 4. Should the marketer of a popular computer graphics program prefer consumers to make internal or external attributions about the success that people have using the program? The marketer of a popular graphics program would most likely prefer consumers to make external attributions about the success that people have using the program. External attributes focus on the properties or features that are externally visible such as reliability and maintainability, hence this type of successful information would appeal more to consumers compare to internal attributions that are not visible. 5. Find an ad for a free service trial (e.g. carwash, free brake check or a free software trial). What attributions would consumers make about the advertiser? What self-attributions would a consumer make if he or she accepted the trial offer? A consumer may make the attribution that the advertiser of Spotify is personally a fan and recommends it. A free trial advertisement sends across a message somewhere along the lines of: â€Å"It’s great. You don’t believe me? Try it for yourself then.† From a consumer’s point of view, it makes the advertiser positive that an individual will not regret testing it out and want to actually purchase it again for an actual monetary amount. Possible self-attributions that a consumer may make if they accept the trial offer would be that they are now in the â€Å"social loop†, or praise themselves for accepting the trial offer and receiving free music on their phone and laptop for 30 days without having to pay. If they enjoyed the trial then an individual would make positive self-attributes and vice-versa. 6. Find examples of advertising that uses fear and humour and discuss why you think they are effective or not effective. Example of Advertisement Using Fear: This advertisement that uses fear in order to raise awareness and prevent people from smoking is effective in my opinion. A non-smoker who saw this would most likely be too scared to ever pick up cigarettes even to test it out knowing the possible consequences can be this bad, let alone death from lung cancer. An actual smoker would hopefully look at this and realise what they are doing to their own bodies and also take into account that this may be them at some point in time. It may not be strong enough to get an addict to completely quit smoking, but hopefully at least cut down. Example of Advertisement Using Humour: Personally I think the use of humour in this advertisement is the perfect way to capture the attention of consumers and potential consumers. Not only would LEGO fans be lured into the advertisement, but even those who have no clue about LEGO or are simply not interested are likely to take notice of the advertisement purely because it is humorous. It also indirectly targets Star Wars fans, allowing the advert to appeal to a whole range of individuals.