What is attribute substitution?

Attribute substitution is a cognitive process where individuals replace difficult-to-evaluate attributes with easier-to-evaluate attributes in their decision-making. This happens when people have to make a choice between products or services that have multiple attributes, but they cannot easily evaluate or compare all those attributes. As a result, they substitute certain attributes that they can easily evaluate in place of the difficult-to-evaluate attributes.

For example, a person may be choosing between two cars and cannot easily evaluate the reliability of the engines. In this case, the person may substitute the attribute of price for the difficult-to-evaluate attribute of reliability. They may assume that the more expensive car has a more reliable engine, even though this may not necessarily be true.

The attribute substitution phenomenon has important implications for marketing and advertising. Marketers often use tactics that focus on easy-to-evaluate attributes like price or quality, knowing that consumers may use these as substitutes for harder-to-evaluate attributes like reliability or performance. Understanding attribute substitution can help marketers design more effective campaigns that resonate with customers by emphasizing important features that align with customers’ decision-making processes.