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Unit 8: Attitude Formation and Change

4. Individual’s personality characteristics: Some individuals have a greater tendency of Notes
experiencing anxiety than others. If the individual happens to be of nervous type, it is
more likely that she/he would experience dissonance.
Marketers can relieve consumer dissonance by adopting several strategies. Kenneth B Runyon
has suggested five strategies to reduce dissonance and favourably influence consumer attitudes
towards the product.
1. Provide additional product information and suggestions for product care and maintenance
through brochures or advertising.
2. Provide warranties and guarantees to reduce post-purchase doubt.
3. Ensure good service and immediate follow-up on complaints to provide post-purchase
support.

4. Advertise reliable product quality and performance to reassure recent purchasers of product
satisfaction.
5. Follow up after the purchase with direct contacts to make sure the customer understands
how to use the product and to ensure satisfaction.
8.3.2 Attribution Theory

According to attribution theory (D J Bem), consumers seek to determine causes (attributions) for
events, often after the fact. The theory suggests that consumer attitude formation and change is
the result of consumers’ looking at their own behaviour and making judgements about it. For
example, if a consumer regularly uses Colgate toothpaste, looking at own behaviour she/he
may conclude that she/he likes the toothpaste (she/he has a positive attitude towards the
brand). Consumers are also likely to take all the credit themselves for any success (internal
attribution) and attribute failures to others or external causes (external attribution).

To influence attitudes favourably, marketers should give consumers positive reasons for their
purchases after the act. This requires that marketers offer high-quality products and allow
consumers to perceive themselves as the reason for choosing the right brand (“I am capable of
selecting the right product.”) For example, a consumer purchases a brand of toothpaste at a
discount of 30 per cent. Subsequently she/he attributes the purchase to large discount. This is
unlikely to favourably influence consumer’s attitude towards the brand of toothpaste (the
consumer tells herself/himself, “I bought this brand because it was cheap.”). Marketers must
communicate important non-price reasons to repeat purchase the same brand.

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