Question

Attitude

1. What are different functions of attitudes (utilitarian, knowledge etc.)? How should advertisers design ads based on knowledge of attitudinal functions?

2. What is the principle of cognitive consistency? How do consumers reduce dissonance?

3. What is the balance theory? What is a balanced/imbalanced triad?   

4. What is the Finshbein’s model? What are the marketing implications of the Fishbein’s model?

5. What is the theory of reasoned action? How to calculate behavior intentions?

6. What is the social judgment theory? What are assimilation and contrast effects? When is attitude change most likely according to the social judgment theory?

7. What is Elaboration Likelihood Model? What are the central route and peripheral route of persuasion?

8.What is product placement? What are the advantages and problems of using product placement?

Memory and Retrieval

9. What is the organization of LTM? What is trace strength? What is spreading of activation? What is priming?

10. What are the two types of retrieval mistakes? What causes retrieval failure?

11. What is recognition, what is recall? What are the differences between them?

12. What determines retrieval? How retrieval can be enhanced?

Problem Recognition and Information Search

13. What is consumer decision making? What are the steps involved?

14. What is problem recognition? What is the ideal state? What is the actual state? What are the possible sources of ideal state?

15. What is internal information search? What kind of information is retrieved from internal search?

16. What are some factors increasing the possibility of consumers recalling a particular brand during internal search and including that brand in the consideration set? What are different kinds of consideration sets?

17. What is attribute recall? What determines whether a particular attribute will be recalled? What is the difference between accessibility and diagnosticity?

18. Is internal information search always accurate? What are some of the biases of information search?

Judgment and Decision Making Based on High Consumer Effort.

19. What are different models of decision processes? What is the difference between compensatory and noncompensatory models? What is the difference between brand processing and attribute processing?

20. Understand multiattribute model, additive difference model, conjunctive model, disjunctive model, lexicographic model and elimination-by-aspects model.

21. What are different types of memory? What are their characteristics? What are the differences between them?

Answer 1

1. Attitude is a preconceived assessment of objects, persons, groups, beliefs, etc. which determines how an individual thinks and behaves in relation to that object, person or group. An understanding of the causes behind formation of Attitudes has become an increasing concern in Social Psychology. According to David Katz, attitudes can be analysed in terms of the functions they perform. These functions help to address the usefulness of attitudes in everyday life. These functions include:

1. Utilitarian function: Attitudes provides us with general approaches which ensure rewards and or avoidance of punishment. Thus, a negative attitude about criminal offence can help to avoid legal punishment.
2. Knowledge based: attitudes help people organize and interpret new information and make their world appear more stable. Thus positive attitude such as : ‘America is a safe place that ensures civil liberty. I am an American. Therefore I live in a safe country as a free person’
3. Ego-defensive function: this function borrows from the idea of defense mechanisms in the psychoanalytic theory and it pertains to how attitudes can help people protect their self-esteem under circumstances of frustration of their motives and threats. In the Robbers Cave Study, Sherif et al (1961) found that the two groups of adolescents tend to develop Negative attitudes about rival groups in conditions of competition over limited resources as a way to increase their own subjective well-being and in-group Identification.
4. Value-expressive function: attitudes are used to express central values or beliefs in a culture. They help to establish our self-concept and our sense of identity and also help us gain social approval. Thus, attitude about political issues such as gender equality, anti-war policies are examples of the value expressive function of attitudes.

Advertisers have become keen in understanding the functions performed by attitudes in order to use this information to influence the potential consumer’s attitude towards their products in a favourable direction. Thus for instance, advertisers of food commodities often use the utilitarian function of attitudes to designs their campaigns about a new milk item being ‘healthy’ and ‘nutritious’ so that consumers will develop a positive attitude about the new milk item as a rewarding and beneficial purchase. Similarly, some ad campaigns in the social media incite the value expressive function of attitudes and design special public pages to show how donating for a cause of cancer patients is a noble gesture.

Most of the government based campaigns during the Second World War were initiated to provide the families of America with important information and knowledge pertaining to housing solutions, dealing with food shortages, educational funding, etc. these were designed with the aim to increase the awareness of the average American citizens and influence a change in attitude towards more war conducive society.

Thus, whether it was the past of the wartime television, army posters, or the present social media and digital advertising, ad agencies are claiming a greater and greater stake in dissemination of attitude related informations so as to shape the behaviour of the people.