In order to understand and measure customer attitude to a brand and how it affects buying behaviour and brand image, it is necessary to define attitude. There are many definitions of attitude (e.g. Foxall & Goldsmith, 1994; Statt, 1997; Carlson, Martin & Buskist, 2004), thus it is very difficult to define it, as there is no single universally-accepted definition.
A widely used model in explaining what attitude is and how it is related to behaviour is Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975) theory of reasoned action. This theory implies that behaviour is determined by behavioural intentions, which is a result of an individual's attitude towards the behaviour and subjective norms surrounding the performance of the behaviour.
According to Fishbein and Ajzen, attitude is made up of beliefs and evaluation of belief. This links with Neisser’s perceptual cycle, which shows how the relationships between schemata, object and the environment can shape an individual’s perceptions and actions. The cycle suggests that stimuli received via the sensory modes modifies an individual’s schema (knowledge and expectations of aspects of the world), which then directs the individual’s actions. Those actions sample the information available for pick up in the environment and so on. Each person’s schemas are unique, and an individual’s perceptual exploration process will be different, as it is suggested that all information from the external environment are received but dependent on certain variables, different schemas are activated and perceived (Neisser)
This theory of perception emphasises both the top-down and bottom-up processes, in that the environment and the external stimulus modifies the schemas in our cognition, yet ...