Customer selection within competitive consumable commodity markets : an investigation of the video cassette, DVD, high definition video markets
Name
311867928-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
2.89 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
35f5246e39ec7a58a1e406b7b78ce863
Author(s)
St. Claire, Alexander F
Advisor(s)
Maria C. Yang.
Date Issued
2008
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Proper product design plays in important role in the success within a marketplace. In order for a product to succeed within a competitive consumable commodity market, the product must focus on specific attributes. This paper examines three historical case studies - the video cassette, the DVD, and the high definition markets. Through these three examples, trends amongst product features, consumer knowledge, brand, and the quality of technology were explored. To further examine what influences consumers' decision within a consumable commodity market a survey was designed to evaluate consumer choice. The survey consisted of a fictitious product that shares many of the same traits as a consumable commodity device. Correlation amongst the data was examined to help discern what might drive such markets. While numerous factors were observed within this study, the most significant results were observed regarding consumer knowledge and technology's role. Consumers tended to pick the products which they felt were most useful. Such a choice often did not correspond to the technologically superior product. As such, within a competitive consumable commodity market, it is important to design a product to focus on features that the consumers believe to be the most valuable.
Description
Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-28).
Subjects
Mechanical Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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