Consumer Attitudes Toward Marketing and Consumerism Scale

What it measures

The CATMC is one of the earliest validated multi-item instruments for measuring consumer attitudes toward marketing institutions, marketing practices, and the consumerism movement. Barksdale and Darden (1972) developed the scale to track consumer sentiment across six dimensions of the marketing system at a time when the consumerism movement was gaining political and social momentum. Attitudes Toward Products captures beliefs about product quality, safety, durability, and value; Attitudes Toward Advertising captures beliefs about the truthfulness, social value, and manipulativeness of advertising; Attitudes Toward Pricing captures beliefs about the fairness of prices, price deception, and price competitiveness; Attitudes Toward Retailing captures beliefs about retail service quality, convenience, and retailer honesty; Attitudes Toward Marketing Ethics captures beliefs about the ethical conduct of businesses in marketing practices; and Support for Consumerism captures endorsement of consumer protection movements, regulation, and collective consumer advocacy. The CATMC provided the first empirical evidence that consumer attitudes toward marketing were systematically negative across multiple marketing domains in the early 1970s, and that attitudes toward products were generally more favourable than attitudes toward pricing, advertising, and retailing. The scale has been used to track longitudinal shifts in consumer sentiment toward marketing institutions and to compare attitudes across demographic segments and countries. It is particularly relevant to research on consumer policy, marketing ethics, corporate social responsibility, and anti-consumption.

Response format

5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree); six subscales scored separately; subscales averaged; no composite total

Scale items

Attitudes Toward Products — ATP (6 items): beliefs about product quality, safety, durability, and value of products available in the marketplace. 5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). Items averaged.

• Most products I buy are of satisfactory quality.
• Products available today are safer than they were ten years ago.
• The quality of most products has improved in recent years.
• Most products offer good value for the money.
• Product quality today is generally as good as it should be.
• Most products are durable and last a reasonable length of time.

Attitudes Toward Advertising — ATA (5 items): beliefs about the truthfulness, social value, and persuasive intent of advertising. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• Most advertising provides useful information about products.
• Most advertising is truthful.
• Advertising helps me make better purchasing decisions.
• Most advertising is more concerned with selling products than with informing consumers.
• I believe most advertising claims about products.

Attitudes Toward Pricing — ATPR (5 items): beliefs about the fairness, competitiveness, and honesty of business pricing practices. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• Prices charged by most companies are generally fair.
• Competition among businesses keeps prices at a reasonable level.
• Most businesses charge what the market will bear, regardless of cost.
• Prices of most products are higher than they should be.
• I feel I usually get good value for the prices I pay.

Attitudes Toward Retailing — ATR (5 items): beliefs about retail service quality, convenience, and retailer trustworthiness. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• Most retailers are genuinely interested in serving their customers well.
• The service I receive in most stores is adequate.
• Most stores are well stocked and easy to shop in.
• Most retailers are honest in their dealings with customers.
• I can usually return a defective product without difficulty.

Attitudes Toward Marketing Ethics — AME (5 items): beliefs about the ethical conduct and social responsibility of businesses in marketing. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• Most businesses put profits ahead of the public interest.
• Businesses are generally honest in their marketing practices.
• Most companies would do anything to make a profit, regardless of the consequences.
• Business generally acts in the best interests of consumers.
• Most marketing practices are ethical and socially responsible.

Support for Consumerism — SC (4 items): endorsement of consumer protection movements, advocacy organisations, and regulatory action to protect consumer interests. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• I support efforts to organise consumers to protect their rights.
• Government should do more to protect consumers from unfair business practices.
• Consumer advocacy groups perform a valuable service for society.
• There should be stronger laws to protect consumers.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

The six CATMC subscales should be reported separately. Several subscales have modest reliabilities (~0.64–0.70); report alphas for each subscale and interpret lower-reliability subscales with appropriate caution. The scale was developed in 1972 and some item wording reflects that era's marketing environment; researchers using the CATMC in contemporary studies should review items for contemporary relevance and consider updating specific referents (e.g., updating 'television advertising' to 'digital advertising') while preserving the theoretical construct. The consumerism movement context has evolved substantially since 1972 — the Support for Consumerism subscale should be interpreted in light of the contemporary regulatory and advocacy landscape. Pollay and Mittal (1993) POTA provides a more contemporary and psychometrically rigorous measure of advertising attitudes specifically.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Barksdale, H.C., & Darden, W.R. (1972). Consumer attitudes toward marketing and consumerism. Journal of Marketing, 36(4), 28–35.

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