State of mind reflecting a negative or positive personal view about an object or concept; a state of indifference indicates a mid-point between these opposites. One of the most frequently invoked behavioural science concepts in marketing. While its relationship to behaviour is not entirely clear, the frequent association between attitude and likely future action has resulted in extensive use of attitude surveys in the area of new-product development and in the design and execution of many promotional campaigns. Similarly, public opinion (belief or attitudes) is playing an increasing role in shaping and modifying corporate policy in areas such as consumer protection. It follows that a basic understanding of the current state of knowledge of attitude theory is vital to the student of marketing. Just as there is no single agreed definition of marketing, so there is a multiplicity of definitions of ‘attitude’. In broad terms most of these definitions fall into one of two categories which reflect two basic models in current use, which may be defined as the cognitive-affective-conative (CAC) and expectancy-value (EV) models. The cognitive-affective-conative model has been traced back to Plato’s elements of the human soul — reasonable, spirited, appetitive which in more modern terms may be defined as the realms of thought, emotions and motives, or knowing, feeling and acting. Marketers have developed a number of variants of their own of the CAC model. In all the marketing versions, starting with Strong’s AIDA (1924) and progressing through Lavidge and Steiner (1961), Rogers (1962) to Engel, Kollat and Blackwell (1968), it is assumed that one proceeds from awareness (cognitive) to preference (affective) to action (conative) – An assumption of the direction of cause and effect for which there is little empirical support. In fact it is widely recognised that frequently one or more stages occur simultaneously, eg. awareness and evaluation, while impulse purchases suggest that the cognitive and affective may occur together and that the conative may, or may not, follow. Despite these deficiencies the CAC model enjoys wide support, and the effectiveness of marketing strategy is often measured in terms of its ability to move consumers up the hierarchy of effects, ie. from unawareness to awareness, from desire to action – in other words, attitude is seen as a predisposition to act. The expectancy-value model views attitude as comprising two components – beliefs and values – which are broadly equivalent to the cognitive and affective dimensions of the CAC model. It follows that the EV model is lacking a behavioural or action element and so is much more limited in its application.
The EV model is particularly associated with the work of Martin Fishbein, who built upon the work of Rosenberg, which in turn was developed from Fritz Heider’s consistency model. In essence Fishbein argues that an attitude comprises two components – beliefs about the attributes of an object and the values ascribed to these beliefs. In order to maintain consistency (or balance, or congruity, as it is sometimes called) consumers need to act in accordance with their beliefs and the values associated with them.
Thus, while EV models do not seek to establish a link between attitude and behaviour the association between expressed beliefs and action is strong where action occurs, in which, beliefs experienced about different brands has been found to be good predictors of actual brand preference, where the person expressing a belief about a brand actually consumes an item from that product category. however, there is a difference between holding a neutral or positive belief about a product and a willingness to buy it. This latter caveat is particularly important and explains why the EV model is theoretically more acceptable than the CAC model, which extends the link between an attitude as a predisposition to act into behaviour without specifying the catalyst which makes action necessary. From a practical point of view this missing link is of crucial importance in converting the results of attitude surveys into realistic sales forecasts. See Behaviour.
