The Definition of Attitude: Attitude as a Tool for Building Marketing Strategy

Functions of Attitudes

Attitude refers to the feeling or an opinion about someone or say something that normally causes a way of behavior in an individual. Attitudes is one of the characters that human beings portray on a daily basis towards life. A good attitude in something results in good performance while the vice versa leads to hatred or poor performance. My love for Apple Inc. brands is incomparable. Whenever one enquires of me of any good phone, tablet earphones, tablets, laptops, notebooks or iPad or say any other phone accessories, my mind quickly runs into the Apple Inc. brands. I just develop an attitude that Apple Inc. products are genuine, durable, of high quality even though I could support my judgment with substantial evidence. Even at the young age, I could accept nothing other than Apple Inc. brands.

Attitude performs various functions in humans and affect how they relate within themselves nature or other natural phenomena on earth. In marketing, for a firm to develop a more successful promotional message or advertisement, they have to fully understand the consumers’ attitude and channel production and marketing strategy towards it.

According to a functional theory, attitudes performs the following basic functions.(Changing attitudes of consumers, pg.23).

• Knowledge: The knowledge function of attitude helps with the process of decision making. It makes potential customers make purchasing decisions based on their informed knowledge of brands and products they want to buy.
• Value Expression: This allows consumers to fully express their values, belief and self-concept to others. Those things that consumers love most are important in decision making especially when looking to buy products.
• Ego Defensive: This enables consumers to be in a position to justify what threatens them and choose to ignore them. It helps individuals boost their self-esteem. Also defends consumers from making purchases from the things they acknowledge as wrong.
• Utilitarian: This is the attitude that is based upon a punishment or a reward. This means that individuals makes decisions based on the pain or pleasure certain things bring to them. Products that are beneficial to consumers will be bought while others that do not have any other beneficial value will be neglected. Individual s would buy clothes that they feel fits them well. (Media buzz, 2018).

References:

Maio, G. R., & Olson, J. M. (2014). Why we evaluate: Functions of attitudes. London: Routledge.

Albarracin, D., Johnson, B. T., &Zanna, M. P. (2005). The handbook of attitudes. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

University of Michigan., & Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. (1999). Survey of Consumer Attitudes and Behavior, June 1995. Ann Arbor, Mich: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor.