Consumer Ecoregions and the Geography of Automotive Brand Preference: An Analysis of Vehicle Registration Data

Abstract

This article analyzes regional variability in consumer automotive brand preferences using vehicle registration data from Oregon and Washington. Vehicle registration data are aggregated by county and per-capita ownership rates are calculated and analyzed to assess regional variability. Results indicate that Consumer Ecoregions may be more cohesive, in terms of homogenous ownership rates by automotive brand groups, than corresponding States. As such, Consumer Ecoregions may provide a more useful partition for understanding regional variability for a variety of business applications including the identification of sales and distribution territories or comparable applications where the geographical dimension of the supply chain is salient.