In the last article we talked about emotions and involvement as influencing factors influencing consumer behaviour. Now we look at attitude and customer satisfaction of digital marketing agency as two other extremely important influencing factors that can influence consumer behaviour both positively and negatively as marketing experts.
What is an attitude?
An attitude describes a consumer’s inner attitude towards a certain person, behaviour, idea or thing, which is connected with a rating or expectation. This mindset is learned by consumers over time and is considered to be relatively stable over time.
TYPES OF ATTITUDE
Cognitive setting
Cognitively influenced attitudes are based on mentally evaluated information about the respective object.
Emotional attitudes
Emotionally influenced attitudes, on the other hand, are not based on intellectually evaluated information, but rather on feelings towards the reference object.
Stable attitude
Stable attitudes are difficult to influence, for example political attitudes or religious beliefs often represent stable attitudes.
Unstable attitudes
Unstable attitudes, on the other hand, are easier to influence, so that marketing has considerably more possibilities to influence these attitudes of the consumer.
Specific setting
In contrast to categorical settings, specific settings refer to specific objects. For example, if a consumer has reservations about a particular company or product, we speak of specific settings.
Experience-Based Settings
Experience-based attitudes develop from experiences that the consumer has made personally with the object.
How are settings created?
There are different and sometimes very complex models for the creation of settings, which would go beyond the scope of this article, so I will skip this part and instead describe below how we can influence settings in the context of marketing.
Measuring Settings
The measurement of attitudes usually turns out to be very problematic, since psychological reactions as well as surveys do not usually provide reliable results.
How can we influence consumer attitudes in marketing?
First, we need to look at the design of our communication tools. This way we can create the basis for a positive attitude of the consumer towards our company through a serious design from the very beginning.
Previously, we talked about involvement and we can use these insights to influence attitudes. For example, if consumers are highly involved, we should pay attention to cognitive communication if we want to change attitudes.
In the case of a low level of involvement, on the other hand, the use of emotional communication content is more appropriate.
The product characteristics naturally have a direct impact on consumer attitudes. This enables us to influence consumer attitudes solely through product attributes with skilful product development.
The brand itself is of course one of the central factors influencing consumer attitudes. With clever brand management you can create another basis for a positive attitude of consumers towards your products.
When does an attitude cause a certain behavior?
The more specific, the more stable it is over time, the more convinced the person is and the more strongly this attitude is based on the personal experiences of the customer, the more effective this attitude will be.
Customer satisfaction as a factor influencing consumer behaviour
Customer satisfaction is a specific type of attitude that usually has a strong impact on consumer behaviour. If a customer is very disappointed with a product of a certain company, he likes to let this anger air in social media and can trigger a “shitstorm”. In the opposite case, a customer with a high customer satisfaction tells his friends and colleagues about this product and thus contributes to the marketing.
How does customer satisfaction develop?
The C/D paradigm (co-firmations/disconfirmation paradigm) was developed to explain how customer satisfaction develops. This means that customer satisfaction results from the comparison of the actual experience when using a service (or using a product) with a certain comparison standard of the customer. Thus a comparison between actual performance and target performance takes place. Customer satisfaction therefore depends on our expectations and demands.
Effects of customer satisfaction on consumer behavior
Customer satisfaction usually has a very direct effect on customer behaviour. This enables us to detect a significantly higher level of customer loyalty among customers with a high level of customer satisfaction.
A high level of customer loyalty has an effect on the repurchasing behaviour of consumers, which means that consumers are prepared to buy regularly from this company. The willingness to buy additional products also increases as a result of high customer satisfaction. It is hardly surprising that satisfied customers often recommend these products to friends.
It is very interesting for companies that a high level of customer satisfaction usually also leads to a higher willingness to pay on the part of consumers. However, only a very high level of customer satisfaction also leads to an increased willingness to pay. With only an insignificantly higher customer satisfaction, many consumers are not prepared to pay significantly more for these products.