Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/attitude.

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Definition of Buying Behavior:

Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using
products.

Need to understand:

• why consumers make the purchases that they make?

• what factors influence consumer purchases?
• the changing factors in our society.

Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate consumer. A firm
needs to analyze buying behavior for:

• Buyers reactions to a firms marketing strategy has a great impact on the firms success.
• The marketing concept stresses that a firm should create a Marketing Mix (MM) that
satisfies (gives utility to) customers, therefore need to analyze the what, where, when
and how consumers buy.
• Marketers can better predict how consumers will respond to marketing strategies.

Source: http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html

Why Attitude Counts If You Want Loyal Customers

by Jim Berkowitz on January 27, 2009

Here’s an excellent post by Gary Schwartz, SVP of Marketing at Confirmit, Why attitude
counts if you want loyal customers:
Poor service has a direct impact on new and repeat sales, and has a knock on effect on
customer advocacy. So what can be done to improve customer experience in the long term if
it is to become the key differentiator?

Many companies track key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the successes and
failures within the business – including customer satisfaction and churn rates – but the
data produced only tells you what has happened. It says nothing about the underlying
drivers of these trends.

The CRM industry set out to unlock the secrets of loyalty by examining historical purchasing
behavior in order to predict future purchasing behavior. People are quick to believe that
repeat purchase equals loyalty but this is a myth. It is readily accepted because companies
want to believe that they can predict purchasing behavior from the data collected. In fact,
most repeat purchases are simply a lack of other choices. Unhappy customers will change
their buying patterns, given an alternative.

Instead of tracking past performance, companies seeking to make a real impact on

customer experience will derive more benefit from trying to understand customer
attitude towards the products and services on offer. Why? Because all behavior, including
purchasing decisions, is directed by attitude. Companies talk about facilitating the ‘voice of
the customer’ but how many proactively ask their customers what they think and then act on
it in order to retain them?

Getting the timing right

There is a discrete amount of time between a change in attitude and a change in behaviour,
whether it be five minutes, five hours or five weeks. The sooner a business learns of a change
in attitude, the more time it has to intervene to prevent a customer from going elsewhere.

According to analysts Gartner, the most important aspect of feedback is timing. It determined
that feedback collected immediately after an event is 40% more accurate than feedback
collected 24 hours after the event. In order to learn about attitudinal changes most
quickly, it should be captured and measured on a continual, context-driven basis so that
the survey is not disconnected from the events that drive an experience with the
business.

The most efficient way to collect attitudinal information, for both the company and the
respondent, is to deploy event-driven, online feedback surveys around key ‘moments of truth’
in the customer lifecycle. Companies identify those that have greatest impact on customer
experience and capture attitude as quickly as possible after those events.

Continuous capture of attitudinal information must be matched by continuous monitoring,

both at an aggregate level in order for business management to understand trends in the
business (and drill down into the reports in order to locate the source of a problem), and also
at individual level where necessary.

Any indication of customer dissatisfaction must be handled as quickly as possible after they
provide feedback in order to turn them around. This should be automated as part of the
feedback management process and the monitoring is best done through dashboard reporting,
in which exceptions may be easily noted and appropriate action taken as necessary.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

Instead of tracking KPIs, which are by definition ‘trailing’ indicators that tell you what has
happened, feedback management software allows you to track key attitudinal indicators
(KAIs) that tell you why something is about to happen.

Measuring attitude enables organisations to understand the underlying drivers behind

performance. By ‘red flagging’ changes in attitude, companies should be able to alter their
business processes, not only to increase customer acquisition but to improve problem
resolution and maintain customer loyalty – the ultimate goal of customer experience.

By providing customers with a ‘voice’, marketers should also able to communicate more
effectively with their customers, centralising control over the frequency and look and feel of
all customer communications, whilst devising campaigns that address customer concerns or
issues in a more relevant, highly personalised and timely manner.

Source: http://crmweblog.crmmastery.com/2009/01/why-attitude-counts-if-you-
want-loyal-customers/

In marketing, understanding how and why consumers behave. An appropriate marketing

stimulus is formulated based on customer personality and needs to prompt sales. Consumers
adjust behavior to the marketplace based on internal needs and interpersonal factors.

Figuring out not only who would buy it, but why they would buy it, where they would buy it,
how often they would buy it, and how they would use it is the cornerstone of understanding
consumer behavior. Consumer behavior is the study of people: how we buy, consume and
dispose of products. There were 275 million people in the U.S. alone in 2000. Each of us is a
consumer of hundreds of products every day. As consumers, we can benefit from a better
understanding of how we make our decisions so that we can make wiser ones. Marketers can
benefit from an understanding of consumer behavior so that they can better predict what
consumers want and how best to offer it to them. Trusting their understanding of the
changing consumer market, the marketing specialists at Polaroid convinced the company to
launch the I-Zone. Less than three months after its launch, the I-Zone Instant Pocket Camera
became America's number-one selling camera (Klein, 2000).

There are two major forces that shape who we are and what we buy. Our personal motives,
attitudes, and decision-making abilities guide our consumption behavior. At the same time,
our families, cultural background, the ads we see on TV, and the sites we visit on the Internet
influence our thoughts and actions (see Figure 1).

Our consumption behavior is a function of who we are as individuals. Our

thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and patterns of behavior determine what we buy,
when we buy it, and how we use it.

Consumer motivation. A marketer's job is to figure out what needs and wants the consumer
has, and what motivates the consumer to purchase. Motivation is the drive that initiates all
our consumption behaviors, and consumers have multiple motives, or goals. Some of these
are overt, like a physiological thirst that motivates a consumer to purchase a soft drink or the
need to purchase a new suit for an interview. Other motives are more obscure, like a student's
need to tote a Kate Spade bookbag or wear Doc Martens to gain social approval. Most
consumption activities are the result of several motives operating at the same time.
Researchers specially trained in uncovering motives often use qualitative research techniques
in which consumers are encouraged to reveal their thoughts (cognitions) and feelings (affect)
through probing dialogue. Focus groups and in-depth interviews give consumers an
opportunity to discuss products and express opinions about consumption activities. Trained
moderators or interviewers are often able to tap into preconscious motives that might
otherwise go undetected. Sentence completion tasks (e.g., Men who wear Old Spice are . . .)
or variants of the Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT), in which respondents are shown a
picture and asked to tell a story surrounding it, are additional techniques that provide insight
into underlying motives.

Consumer motives or goals can be represented by the values they hold. Values are people's
broad life goals that symbolize a preferred mode of behaving (e.g., independent,
compassionate, honest) or a preferred end-state of being (e.g., sense of accomplishment, love
and affection, social recognition). Consumers buy products that will help them achieve
desired values; they see product attributes as a means to an end. Understanding the means-
end perspective can help marketers better position the product and create more effective
advertising and promotion campaigns.

Attitude formation and change. The set of beliefs consumers have stored in long-term
memory provides another critical function to marketers: It provides the basis for a consumer's
attitude toward a brand or an ad. An attitude is an overall evaluation of an object, idea, or
action. Attitudes can be positive or negative, and weakly or strongly held. The statement "I
love Ben & Jerry's Vanilla Toffee Crunch" is a strong, positively valenced attitude toward a
product. The statement "I dislike the new Toyota ad" is a weak, negatively valenced attitude
toward an advertisement. Marketers work hard to continuously monitor consumer attitudes
toward their products. Among other things, attitudes can indicate problems with a product or
campaign, success with a product or campaign, likelihood of future sales, and overall strength
of the brand or brand equity.

A popular perspective is that attitude has three components: cognitive, affective, and co
native. The cognitive component reflects the knowledge and beliefs one has about the object
(e.g., "Digital Club Network is an on-line live music Internet site."), the affective component
reflects feelings (e.g., "I like the Digital Club Network site") and the co native component
reflects a behavioral tendency toward the object (e.g., "I will become a registered user of
digitalclubnetwork.com"). Thus, attitudes are predispositions to behave in a certain way. If
you have a favorable attitude toward a politician, you will likely vote for him or her in the
next election. Because of this, many marketers use attitude measures for forecasting future
sales. It is important to note, however, that the link between attitudes and behavior is far from
perfect. Consumers can hold positive attitudes toward multiple brands but intend to purchase
only one. External economic, social, or personal factors often alter behavioral plans.

Attitudes are dynamic, which means they are constantly changing. As an individual learns
new information, as fads change, as time goes on, the attitudes you once held with confidence
may no longer exist. Did you ever look at old photos of yourself and wonder "What was I
thinking wearing clothes like that? And look at my hairstyle!"

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/consumer-behavior