Canada is a multicultural country. It ranks fifth in the world for number of immigrants. One in five Canadians were born in another country.
There are many immigrant communities across Canada. Eighteen of those immigrant communities each have more than 100 000 people. Canada’s large immigrant population means there are also many languages spoken other than English or French.
This section will cover the following points:
- Market segmentation
- Diasporas
Segments: Being Part of the Whole
There will be segments of the population who desire your products and services more than others. Segments of your community may also desire your products and services more than others. Market Segmentation is how populations are divided up for marketing purposes. To better understand how this works, it helps to understand how other businesses market to you.
Large corporations spend billions of dollars each year to do market research. These large companies pay expensive consultants to tell them how to market and advertise to you. If you understand why they do this and how they think of you as a consumer, you can use the same techniques and information to create your marketing plan. Immigrants are highly attractive customers for multinational corporations. Your cultural community may be a valued customer for you also.
How an Immigrant Community is Segmented
An immigrant community is called a Diaspora.
Immigrants must make decisions about how to keep their unique identity while living in a new country. Values differ from one culture to another. Buying habits and shopping choices can show the decisions immigrants make about how they are living in a new country. Multinational Corporations, who spend millions of dollars in market research, have divided consumers in a Diaspora into four market segments.
They are:
- Assimilators – Assimilators are quick to adjust to their new country. They do not keep many of the customs from their home country. A customer in this segment prefers to buy brands from the host country in which they live. In fact, this customer may wish to leave behind many customs from their homeland and look for every opportunity to “fit in” when they buy products and services.
- Marginals – Newcomers who have been forced to leave their homeland may have challenges with paying for everything during their first years in a new country. This segment of customer usually buys items they need and can afford. They do not have enough money to pay extra for items that are from their culture. It will not matter to this customer where a brand comes from, so long as it works well and is affordable.
- Ethnic Affirmers – It is important to this customer places to keep customs from their homeland. They will look for opportunities to shop within their cultural communities. This kind of customer may even feel the products and services from their homeland are superior to what they can find in their new country.
- Biculturals – This customer feels like they belong to their home and host cultures without losing their identity. This segment may enjoy cooking traditional food and dressing in traditional clothing from their culture while they are at home. This customer will also be comfortable dining out in Canadian clothing and enjoying North American food.
