TÜKETİCİ DAVRANIŞLARI

The problem that comes to the forefront in defining the concept of attitude is that it overlaps with concepts such as ‘belief’, ‘opinion’, ‘value’, ‘habit’, ‘character/personal trait’, ‘motive’ and ‘ideology’ (McKenzie, 2010: 19). This situation is mostly caused by the fact that the attitude is an ‘evaluation’ in its essence (Petty, Wegener and Fabrigar, 1997: 611).

The strength of a person’s attitude is one of the factors that affect this consistency. Consistency is indicative of the strength of attitude (Craig, et al., 2000). Attitude Consistency is defined as overlapping the potential output of an individual in the face of a hypothetical situation that the individual will experience when the situation in question happens (Pearl, 2010). Strong attitudes are more stable in different situations and even over a wide period of time. Therefore, it can be consistently recalled from memory. Weak attitudes, on the other hand, are less accessible and can be affected by situations quickly and constantly change (Bohner & Dickel, 2011).

According to the consistency principle, if certain attitude elements are derived from the same general ideological trends, they must be related to each other (Judd & Milburn, 1980).

To sum up, consumers’ attitudes to object of attitudes i.e. products, brands, stores, restaurants etc.can be complex. They vary according to (Blythe, 2001:54):

valence – whether the attitude is positive, negative or neutral;

extremity – the strength and the power of the attitude;

resistance – the degree to which the attitude can be changed by outside influences;

persistence – the degree to which the attitude erodes over time; and

confidence – the level at which the consumer believes the attitude is correct.

We can list the main factors that are effective in preventing attitude (liking a brand) from turning into behavior (buying the brand) as follows (Ünal, 2008; Bilgili, 2016);

• Low level of involvement of a consumer towards a product/brand in question causes a mismatch between consumer’s attitude and behavior.

• If a consumer does not have an experience of using the product, his/her attitude will be weak, and this influences behavior negatively.

• Attitudes do not turn into behavior when the characteristic of a brand is not linked to the values of a consumer.

• Although the increase in the price and the difficulty of transportation may not change the attitude of a consumer, it may reflect negatively on the behavior of the consumer.

The terms “attitude” and “intention” are not always compatible, i.e. even if a consumer has a positive attitude towards a product or brand, he may not buy it, and such a case happens often. Think about your liking and buying behavior. One of the reasons for this is that the person buys a brand he easily finds and does not want to make additional efforts for another brand.

After purchasing a product or service, consumers adopt different attitudes based on their liking or disliking. Utilitarian function is related to the basic principles of reward or punishment (Solomon et al., 2006a). For example, a person’s attitude towards a cleaning agent can be shaped by either removing dirt easily (maximizing reward) or preventing consumers from spending too much time to remove dirt (minimizing punishment) (Gregory, et al., 2002).

Adding a new belief: This strategy is applied by marketers if there is a problem in the quality perception of the product or if the price of a product is higher than that of the competitors. A new feature added to the existing product or a decrease in price will be effective in changing attitudes. For example, emphasizing the “doublesided softness” feature of Solo toilet paper is an effort to add a new belief (Koç, 2019).

Consistency: When consumers create an attitude towards any product or service, they may carefully act in a way that does not contradict themselves. Therefore, it would be beneficial to be careful not to contradict the individual and social values of the consumers in the messages aimed at forming an attitude.

Consumers differ in their commitment to an attitude. The degree of commitment is related to the levels of involvement in the attitude object. 

Identification: A process of identification occurs when attitudes are formed in order for the consumer to be similar to another person or group. Advertising that depicts the social consequences of choosing some products over others is relying on the tendency of consumers to imitate the behaviour of desirable models.

Social judgment theory was developed by Sheriff and Hoveland (1961). This theory attempts to explain how current attitudes produce distortions of attitude-related objects and how these decisions mediate attitude change. Thus, a person’s initial attitude towards a subject serves as an anchor for judging stimuli related to an attitude. The person’s initial attitude on an issue provides a point of reference from which to evaluate other views.

I, II, III, V

I, II, III,V

Attitudes are easy to change

Resistance

Confidence

Beliefs about any product constitute the cognitive element

I, II, III,V

Affect, behavior, belief

Targeting normative and accepted beliefs

Social judgment theory