An attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favorable and unfavorable way with respect to a given object. Attitudes are not directly observable but must be inferred from what people say or what they do. Attitudes are influenced by beliefs, past experience, learning from different sources, mass media and sometimes by a particular situation.In conducting a consumer research we have to identify a specific object, here in our research which is different brands of microwave oven.
Properties of attitude:
The Attitude “Object”
The word object include specific consumption or marketing related concepts, such as product, product category ,service, possessions, product use, causes or issues, people, advertisement, internet site, price, medium or retailer. In conducting attitude research, we tend to be object specific. For example: if we are interested in learning consumer attitudes towards three major brands of micro wave oven, our object will include—LG, Panasonic, and National.
Attitudes Are a Learned Predisposition:
Attitude relevant to purchase behavior are formed as a result of direct experience with the product or exposure to mass media advertising. As learned predisposition attitudes have a motivational quality, that is, they might propel a consumer towards a particular behavior or repel the consumer away from a particular behavior. As a part of their learned predisposition women’s experience towards micro oven is shaped by TV advertisements, newspaper ads and other promotional campaign by the marketers. From the data collection we have found that about 40% of women gave most importance to TV and 28% of the women mainly learned about the brand from newspaper.
Attitudes Have Consistency:
Attitudes are relatively consistent with the behavior they reflect. However, despite this consistency attitudes are not necessarily permanent, they can change. We anticipate that consumer’s action will be consistent with their attitude, when consumers are free to act as they wish. We must consider possible situational influences on consumer attitudes and behavior. If consumer is brand loyal and if they are satisfied with a specific brand then they will have positive attitudes towards those brands. Those positive attitudes again reinforce them to buy that brand. If the consumers who prefer a particular brand of microwave also buy that brand because of its positive attributes, it means that their behavior is consistent with their attitude. But from the data collection we have found out that most of the consumers who use microwave oven are not that much brand loyal. So though they have bought a particular brand of microwave but about 51% people are not sure weather they will buy the same brand again. Thus we have seen that there is no consistency in their attitude.
Attitudes Occur Within a Situation:
A specific situation can cause consumers to behave in ways that are seemingly inconsistent with their attitudes. For example: if the price of a specific brand is increases or availability of that brand product decreases or if the quality or brand image damages, then consumer usually switch from one brand to another. Moreover, individual can have a variety of attitudes towards a particular behavior. It is important to understand how consumer attitudes vary from situation to situation. When measuring attitudes, we need to consider the situation in which the behavior takes place.
