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

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.).