Seeing how attitude affects

purchase decisions

Market research and behavioral science studies have shown that consumers’

attitudes toward a product influence their overall evaluation of whether to

purchase that product. It also influences whether they relate positively or

negatively toward that product.

 Attitudes can help you gauge your acceptance into the marketplace. They tell

you how well you’re meeting the needs of your consumer and show you how

the consumer perceives your logo, endorsers, products, or marketing mes-

sages. As predictors of behavior, attitudes create the intentions of consumers.

 Consumers screen information that conflicts with their attitudes. In their

minds they change information to make it consistent with their beliefs and

attitudes. They also selectively remember bits of information that reinforce

their attitudes (and forget the rest). This is why working to change negative

attitudes about your products is important; otherwise you’ll never reach the

buying intention that you’re striving for.

Because attitudes are difficult to define, measure, and observe, you may need

to do some research to fully understand the attitudes of your consumers.

(Refer to Chapter 12 for more information on conducting market research.)

The interaction between beliefs and feelings and underlying values can make

it difficult to understand the role of attitudes and how they affect consumers.

Because they’re internal, it’s often not easy to gain a visual perspective of

how the consumer is being affected by beliefs and feelings.

Attitudes have a level of consistency, but they can and do change. Changing

them, however, isn’t always easy. Find out more in the later section

“Marketing to Create Positive Attitudes and Influence Negative One