Attitudes toward a specific product can be studied in order to bring the “right” product to the marketplace (McDaniel & Gates, 2013). To measure attitudes in more detail, attitudes toward specific attributes of an object can be studied to determine which attributes are regarded as favourable and which are unfavourable (Solomon, 2013). Although consumers’ overall evaluation of a product sometimes accounts for most of their attitude, it may become more complex than merely whether consumers like the product or not (Solomon, 2013). A product may be composed of many attributes and some of these may be more important than others to individuals (Clow & Baack, 2014; Solomon, 2013; Yosini, 2011). Based on individual preferences and attitudes, consumers can classify some product attributes as being important in their decision to consume the product, while less important attributes may be compromised to obtain the important attributes when selecting a product (Solomon, 2013). In order to measure consumer attitudes toward multiple attributes of a product, a researcher can use a multi-attribute attitude model.
Among the multi-attribute attitude models, Fishbein’s attitude-toward-object model proves to be the most useful for a study on South African respondents’ attitudes towards game meat. In essence, the model maintains that consumers evaluate individual attributes of products as favourable or unfavourable (Ahamed et al., 2015; Mollah et al., 2015; Schiffman & Wisenblit, 2015). Consequently, they have favourable attitudes towards products that they consider possess adequate levels of positive attributes and unfavourable attitudes towards products that they believe possess insufficient positive
46 attributes or too many negative attributes (Schiffman & Wisenblit, 2015). This model is helpful in studying attitudes toward game meat since it has been established that South Africans consider a variety of different attributes of game meat, such as sensory characteristics, health benefits, production methods, meat safety and quality, availability, price and preparation required, as positive or negative and may base their consumption behaviour on those attitudes. By using a multi-attribute model that focuses on a specific object, the research will be able to evaluate the attitudes of consumers and non- consumers of game meat toward multiple attributes of game meat (the object).
Mowen and Minor (1998) gives one of the clearest descriptions of Fishbein’s attitude- toward-the-object model and demonstrate how to apply it in research. Although Mowen and Minor described Fishbein’s attitude-toward-the-object model in 1998, it is still relevant, since the model is the same and even now current sources (Schiffman & Wisenblit, 2015; Solomon, 2013), recommend this model to determine consumer attitudes toward an object. The model identifies three major factors that are predictive of attitudes. These factors are based on the individual’s personal beliefs and not necessarily on experience and are, therefore, subjective. Firstly, the model identifies the salient beliefs that a person has about an object (Solomon, 2013; Mowen & Minor, 1998). Salient beliefs are the beliefs that are activated in memory when attention is focused upon an object and tends to include the attributes that are most important to the consumer (Mollah et al., 2015; Solomon, 2013; Mowen & Minor, 1998). The second component is the strength of the belief that an object possesses the particular attribute in question (Mollah et al., 2015; Mowen & Minor, 1998). It involves the extent to which the individual believes that the object possesses the attribute and can vary in intensity (Solomon, 2013). The third component of the model evaluates each of the salient attributes and provides an assessment of the goodness or badness of the salient attributes (Mollah et al., 2015; Mowen & Minor, 1998).
Fishbein’s attitude-toward-the-object model makes no direct attempt to measure the importance of individual attributes, but the importance of each attribute is determined by the evaluation ratings (Ahamed et al., 2015; Solomon, 2013; Mowen & Minor, 1998). Researchers have found that the evaluation ratings become more extreme as the importance of an attribute increases (Yosini, 2011; Mowen & Minor, 1998). If an attribute is, therefore, not important, the evaluation rating is close to zero – which is equivalent to rating the attribute as having low importance (Yosini, 2011; Mowen & Minor, 1998). Therefore, recent sources, (Clow & Baack, 2014; Solomon, 2013) accept that the
47 evaluation of the goodness or badness of the attribute is also an accurate measurement of the importance of the attribute to the consumer.
Fishbein’s attitude-toward-the-object model has been found useful in a variety of other studies where the role of specific attributes of a product were studied to determine consumer preferences and needs. Yosini (2011) used it to find the most dominantly preferred attributes of local and imported fruits in Indonesia to determine consumer needs with regard to fruit. Moon et al. (2005) used the model to determine consumers in the United States of America’s attitudes toward soy products and to determine the importance of difference attributes in their behaviour. In Bangladesh, Mollah et al. (2015) used it to understand which attributes were important to attract and retain consumer loyalty regarding shampoo products, while Ahamed et al. (2015) used the model to identify attributes that are important to consumers regarding e-commerce sites.
By selecting the best combination of product attributes and using those attributes to market a product, a marketing manager can advertise the product by highlighting its important attributes. However, in order to do this, the manager will need to analyse which attributes of the product are perceived by the consumer as important. Therefore, to market game meat purposefully and to direct consumer decisions in a favourable
direction, game meat’s different attributes must be carefully analysed through a
multiattribute approach. The next section provides the specific attributes of game meat selected for this exploratory study and why it is considered important as described by other research findings.
3.3.4 Product Attributes Explored