Attitude a marketing strategy for marketers
Oluwajimi Taiwo
Minnesota State University Moorhead
Fall semester Term paper

Attitude is everything. A good example of attitude is an iceberg in the artic. In real life you see 10% of the iceberg which is visible above sea level and the remainder of the iceberg 90% is below sea level. From the example 10% is how we behave as a result of attitude we have below the sea level. The 90% which comprises of attitude mostly also include beliefs, values, motives and culture. Attitude is more important than facts. Attitude how does it affect people? It affects people by changing their mood. According to Charles Swindell, people are now convinced that life is ten percent of what happens to people and ninety percent of how people react to it. What people mean by this, is that most of what happens to people is because of the way they react. The other part of life is what happens because of the reaction. Another simple way of putting it, is that attitudes controls what happens. A popularize definition of attitude is: “an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual, and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of the individual’s world (Wrenn et al., 2014). Attitude has become one of the most valuable topic or subject marketers and academicians focus their attention because of the power influence it has in the field of marketing. Attitude is the central part of human individuality. Many examples can be found for people ready to die for their attitude. On the dark side, even today people kill, persecute and inflict suffering because of misguided attitudes as nationalism, racism, or religion fanaticism (Bhoner and Wanke). There are many avenue where attitude affects people. One medium is through advertisement. Attitude affects people via advertising in many ways. For example, I am looking to buy a new athletic shoe and I haven't found the right one. An advertisement comes on TV and Michael Jordan portrays wearing a Nike shoe. Michael Jordan is my Favorite athlete and I have a positive outlook of Michael Jordan. As a result of my attitude towards Michael Jordan and his performance in the NBA I decide to buy the shoe. The positive attitude I have about Michael has influenced me to make a buying decision. This example explains how marketers are able to change or influence consumers buying behavior. It has been conceptualized that attitude have three major component: (1) the cognitive, or knowledge, component, (2) the affective, emotional, component, and (3) the conative, or behavioral-tendency, component. The affective component, which entails the individual’s feelings or emotional reactions towards an object. For example, Ruth says I am scared of spider is an illustration of the affective component of attitude. The behavioral component, which encompasses the tendency to act in certain ways towards the object. For example, Ruth will always avoid spiders and if she sees one she will scream is an illustration of the behavioral-tendency component of attitude. The cognitive component, which contains the individual’s perceptions and knowledge about an object. For example, Ruth believes spiders are dangerous is an illustration of the cognitive component of attitude. These components has been coined to be called multi-attribute models and they have continued to be theoretical work done on them by academicians and marketers to fully understand how they work. Marketers have a strong interest in influencing consumer behavior that is why they have continued to research and try to predict someone’s behavior by knowing their attitude. As a result, several theories and models have been established to describe several attitude characteristics that are primarily concerned with how attitudes function and change. In this paper I will describe four theories to explain attitude which has help marketers understand and influence consumer behavior. The Congruity theory predicts that if there are two contradicting people, sets of information, or concepts on which a judgment must be made by a single observer, the observer will experience pressure to change his or her judgment on one of the sides. However, if the two sets of information are similar or congruent, then there will be no problem, and the observer will not experience pressure of any form. The congruity principle has the kudos of attempting to specify precisely the direction of change; either to O or to S. S makes some assertions about O and the pressure is to change only the existing attitudes for or against S or O. The extent of influence of S on P’s attitude depends, to a very great extent, upon how much P likes or dislikes S and O, the product category (whether convenience, shopping, or specialty) and the enormity of the message (Osgood, C., & Tannenbaum, pg. 47). The balance theory has several models but Fritz Heider has a pioneering command in the theory. According to Heider, people perceive their environment in terms of triads, that is, in terms of triangular relationships with people, things, and ideas. Each element of triad can have either positive or negative relationships with the other two (Wrenn et al pg. 155). To keep things simple balance theory Balance theory states that when tensions arise between or inside people, they attempt to reduce these tensions through self-persuasion or trying to persuade others. If a change is not possible, the state of imbalance will produce tension (Heider .F, pg., 107). For example, Jimmy likes to watch football on television, and Ruth does not like to watch football. Yet Jimmy likes Adam, and values their relationship therefore this system is now in imbalance. If Ruth would change her attitude about football, this system would be in balance. The reinforcement theory is a key strategy used by marketers to change consumer’s attitude towards an object or product. The theory states attitude changes result from an opinion change produced through reinforcement in areas such as attention, comprehension and acceptance. This is done by either advertisement or other medium of the marketing mix. Reinforcement theory does not define what constitutes a reinforcement. For example, a marketer is conducting a week long campaign for "blood drive organization". The marketer conducts a pre-campaign phone survey providing positive reinforcement for pro-blood donation answers for two groups and no reinforcement for the other two groups. All groups have an opposing position to blood donation. One group from each, reinforcement and no reinforcement, are in the target area of the campaign. According to Reinforcement Theory, the people in the areas that received the reinforcement and the campaign will have the greatest change in attitude toward blood donation. The next should be the group that received the reinforcement without the campaign closely followed by those who received the campaign but not the reinforcement. The group with the least amount of attitude change would be those who reached no reinforcement and did not receive the campaign. Reinforcement theory falls along the scientific side of the spectrum. It presents persuasion as a process with right and wrong steps (Hovland el.al 1967). Lastly, cognitive dissonance theory refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance). This dissonance creates a tension and tension reduction is automatically sought by changing our evaluations by some degree. Cognitive Dissonance is when you have two good choices and you make your decision then you find yourself unsure or in doubt about the choice you made. You might have to downplay the other choice in order to reassure yourself. While attitudes can have a powerful effect on behavior, they are not set in stone. The same influences that lead to attitude formation can also create attitude change. Attitude and behavior are woven into the fabric of daily life. Research has shown that individuals register an immediate and automatic reaction of "good" or "bad" towards everything they encounter in less than a second, even before they are aware of having formed an attitude. Advertising, political campaigns, and other persuasive media messages are all built on the premise that behavior follows attitude, and attitude can be influenced with the right message delivered in the right way. That is why marketers use persuasive messages to change attitude. And when trying to achieve this goal, consideration must be given to the various characteristics of the audience who will receive these communication. It is also important to know that the degree of success in changing consumers’ attitudes depends on how strongly existing attitudes are held. Most attitude that are predominant to consumers’ are hard to change, while weak attitudes are much easier to manipulate. Marketers use two key strategies to change attitude low-involvement strategies and high-involvement strategies to attempt to influence consumers’ attitude towards a product. In a situation where consumer doesn’t have a clear brand recognition and there are no well-established attitude for the product in question we categorize this type of buying situation as low-involvement. One indispensable way marketers can change a consumer’s low-involvement buying situation is through using peripheral cues to encourage favorable reactions towards advertisements used to promote the brands. Some of the cues used in advertisement includes the following pictures, colors, celebrity, creative placement, and music in broadcast ads. High-involvement strategy on the other hand are where entrenched attitudes are already formed and a well-constructed brand recognition is formed. That is why when marketers are trying to attempt to implement this strategies they must be clear on whether they are attempting to change consumer attitude about the brand, or whether it is to change attitudes about behaving toward the brand. Markets achieve success in high-involvement situation when existing beliefs is change or new ones are introduced and it is done by modifying the existing beliefs or adding or deleting attributes of a product as a consequence to change the well-defined attitude. Attitude is an interesting topic of discussion and I can relate it as a way of life just like culture. Attitude can make you a positive person with a good mood and also a negative person as a result of bad moods. But the important thing is that attitude can be changed using any of the theories propounded by the various theorist. For marketers to achieve result they must be able to identify what audience they are attempting to change their attitude and which level of involvement they are. Lastly, persuasive message can be a great tool of change for any particular target market when the right cues can be used appropriately well.

Bibliography
Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Heider, F. (1946). Attitudes and cognitive organization. Journal of Psychology, 21, 107-112.

Osgood, C., & Tannenbaum, P. (1955). The principle of congruity in the prediction of attitude change. Psychology Review, 62, 42-55.

Hovland, Janis & Kelly. (1967)Reinforcement Theory. In Elliot, R.M., Lindzey, G.,MacCorquodale, K., (Eds), Theories of Attitude Change, 12-63.

Gerd Bohner, Michaela Wanke. (2002) Attitude and Attitude Chance. Psychology press, page 4.

http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/4329.html

Bruce Wrenn, David Loudon and Della Bitta. 5th edition. (2014) Consumer Behavior putting theory into practice, page 154-160