Automobile Variety in Emerging Countries: A Comparative Study between Brazil and USA

Abstract

A high range of product is referred as an alternative to better reach specific customer needs. By the other hand, an increase in product portfolio may result in a reduction of company's operational performance. In the automotive sector, there is an increasing number of options available to customers, even though recent studies indicate low association between product variety and sales volume in some markets. In the Brazilian market, the car still has a limited amount of customization options compared to the levels provided in developed countries, like the United States. This study compares the association between the current variety in Brazilian and American cars with sales volume in each country. Through a Spearman correlation analysis, the results indicate a greater association between sales and external variety in the Brazilian market (ρ = 0.642) than in the United States (ρ = 0.330). This result indicates that the increasing car variety in the Brazilian market may not be advantageous, since higher levels of variety, as seen in the United States, are less associated with the sales volume.