Multi-Attribute Attitude Model
Attitude to a brand is computed by summing the person's belief scores on its attributes, optionally weighted by how important each attribute is and measured against an ideal level for that attribute (the weighted ideal point model).
What it is
The result is a relative index, useful for comparing brands and for testing concepts against actual products. The book lists four ways to move it: change beliefs, shift importance, add a belief, or change the ideal. On this site it is read alongside Tricomponent Model of Attitude, Benefit Segmentation and Brand Image and Positioning.
In effect
Hypothetical Diet Coke segment scores 170 on a scale where 0 is ideal and 540 is the worst; Fosters improves from 300 to 200 by shifting the taste belief.
What it does not say
It is not the same thing as Tricomponent Model of Attitude, which sits close to it on this site but describes a different part of how people decide. It also does not say that the finding reaches every product, buyer or setting; where this page goes beyond the cited research, the step is an inference and is labelled as one.
Sources
- Author of the 1963 Human Relations paper on the relationships between beliefs about an object and the attitude toward that object, listed at the University of Illinois on that paper.