Consumer behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Consumer behaviour - Essay Example The key role of an advertisement is to bring about a positive change in attitudes of consumers towards a brand, which is accomplished by first creating an awareness regarding the brand, followed by communicating a positive message about the same, in a manner which appeals to the sensibilities of the target consumers. The information included in the advertisements exposes the consumers to a variety of information, thus in turn psychologically pressurizing them to buy the product through positive social pressures (Donovan, Henley, 2010). Pride and Ferrell (2011) define attitude as "an enduring evaluation of feelings about and behavioural tendencies toward an object or idea" (Pp. 138). The marketers try to capture and change the individual's feelings / attitudes through advertising. Advertising helps in creating awareness of brands and companies in the minds of the consumers, and the same can be done by appealing to one or all of the three key elements of attitude; which includes - cogn itive, affective and behavioural. The cognitive element entails an individual's knowledge and information regarding the product or idea being marketed by the companies; the affective element entails the feelings and emotions of the individuals towards those products or ideas; while the behavioural element comprises of actions taken by the individuals with regard to the product or ideas. Of these components / elements of attitude, the affective component plays a major role in developing a positive attitude in the minds of the consumers with regard to a given product or idea. The emotions in turn comprise of both psychological as well as biological elements. Feelings such as love, hatred, anger etc., influence an individual's behaviour towards any object or idea; and if used effectively, can be used to generate positive responses towards a specific brand (Hoyer et al., 2008). Impact of attitudes on consumer behaviour: Attitudes of consumers are one of the key elements of marketing str ategies, which is often targeted by the marketers and advertisers with a view to gain a positive response from the target customers. Attitudes are formed of various characteristics such as favourability, attitude accessibility, confidence, persistence, and resistance. Favourability refers to the likes or dislikes of consumers with regard to a product / brand attribute; accessibility refers to the ease with which the consumers can identify and relate a brand attribute and retrieve it from one's memory; confidence refers to certainty of one's feelings towards a given brand; persistence refers to the time-period for which a consumer can hold on to such an attitude; and resistance refers to the reluctance of consumers to change their attitudes towards a certain brand. Studies have shown that consumers, in most cases, frequently change their attitudes towards brands depending on the marketing strategies applied by the marketers, although bringing about such a change is a difficult task. The marketers hence use a variety of strategies and tactics to influence the consumers and develop a positive attitu