Consideration sets of size one: An empirical investigation of automobile purchases

Gilles Laurent (), Eric Lapersonne and Jean-Jacques Le Goff
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Gilles Laurent: HEC Paris - Recherche - Hors Laboratoire - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales

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Abstract: A consideration set does not necessarily contain several brands. We argue that, when building his or her consideration set, a consumer will decide to stop if a further search for possible solutions is not perceived to be potentially cost-effective. Certain consumers may therefore make a decision with a consideration set of size one. We present the results of an empirical exploratory study of about one thousand recent buyers of a new car. Among those, seventeen percent only considered the brand of their previous car, and had therefore a consideration set of size one. The phenomenon is thus rather frequent, and important from a supplier's perspective. It is useful to identify the marketing actions that may lead to it, as well as to understand uncontrollable causes, such as age. What can a manufacturer do to preclude active search of other brands by his current customers, and to trigger it for current customers of his competitors? We analyze factors predicting the consideration of a single brand: Satisfaction with the previous car and dealer, socio-demographic variables (being old, with a lower education and lower income), low perceived risk, and a number of product-specific elements (owning only one car, not owning a foreign car, staying in the same product segment, etc.).

Keywords: Consumer behavior; Consideration sets; Purchasing behavior; Decision processes; Automobiles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Published in International Journal of Research in Marketing, 1995, 12 (1), pp.55-66. ⟨10.1016/0167-8116(95)00005-M⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00458463

DOI: 10.1016/0167-8116(95)00005-M

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