Geographic industrialization patterns of the United States reflect the importance of markets. Initially, market oriented industries were concentrated in the Northeast and the Atlantic Seaboard. As the population center of the United States shifted westward, manufacturing followed.
It is important in industrial development efforts to distinguish between consumer markets and industrial markets. Consumer markets are generally related to population concentrations and income levels while industrial markets are related to centers of manufacturing a specific product. The variety of goods and services in consumer markets is extremely wide and competition for a share of the market of products is national or even international in scope. The producer of a particular product for this market must recognize this fact since it directly affects his volume of sales and product price. Many new plant locations in the Southwest that manufacture goods for consumer markets are branch plant operations of existing corporations seeking to serve that growing regional market.
The needs of industrial markets are generally more specific than consumer markets. Industrial development should not overlook the market potential arising from the needs of new or existing local industry that may be acquiring production inputs from distant areas. Often these needs can be met more efficiently by a local source.

A systematic analysis of plant location factors is generally made by firms that are searching for a new plant site. The number and types of factors affecting location vary in each case and they sometimes run into the hundreds. However, the breakdown of location factors examined usually includes the following:
Markets
Industrial Site
Labor
Utilities
Raw Materials
Financial Capital
Transportation
The importance of these factors varies widely from one industry to another. Moreover, with changing technology and economic conditions, their role will vary within a given industry and from one time period to another. They are interrelated and interdependent so that the desired location usually requires a compromise among factors. The important factors to a firm’s location decision may be attainable in several places. In these cases, personal factors enter into making the final decision and can be influenced directly by activities of the industrial development committee in promoting their community.