The role of consideration in the pursuit of market share : a study of the U.S. automobile industry

The state of business in the U.S. automobile industry is such that competition is fierce, and consumers have a perplexing number of alternatives from which to choose. The final purchase decision by the consumer is where most industry experts focus their attention and efforts. Incentives and price wars are common as manufacturers fight for fractional market share and long-term survival at the expense of corporate profitability. However, the buying decision occurs at the end of the purchasing process, and takes place only after a consumer has formed a list of acceptable alternatives that fit his/her consideration criteria. This thesis explores the consideration phase of the purchasing process--(awareness -> familiarity -> overall opinion -> consideration)--with the goal of developing an in-depth understanding that can be used to formulate a strategic recommendation for General Motors regarding improving the consideration levels of several of its brands. The thesis begins with research into the attributes that form consumer consideration sets, as described by marketing and behavioral science scholars. These writings are applicable to brands, products, or services competing in many different industries because I believe strongly that the solutions to consideration problems will not exist solely from within the knowledge base of a firm's core environment. Next, a historical analysis is performed on independently collected consideration data for several General Motors brands as compared with key competitors. This analysis showed that a correlation exists between trends among subsets of consideration data and trends in brand market share, thus supporting the theory that growth can be obtained by addressing the consideration issue. Interviews were

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Knight, Kenneth Darnell, 1960-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Glen L. Urban.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17897

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17897