Customer Selection within Competitive Consumable Commodity Markets

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. Thesis Supervisor: Maria Yang Title: Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering