The word “mosaic” to describe Canada’s social fabric was first coined by John Murray Gibbon in his book The Canadian Mosaic (1938). It refers to the fact that immigrants to this country are encouraged to maintain ties with their birth countries and to practise their cultural customs and traditions.
In 1971, multiculturalism was even made an official national policy. And yet mainstream advertisers (outside of perhaps telcos and banks) have historically not advertised specifically to ethnic groups in their mother tongue or their media of choice. There are a few reasons for this.
Relatively speaking, the number of visible minorities in Canada has not been that large, especially when compared to, say, the Hispanic population in the U.S. There’s also been a dearth of research in measuring ethnic marketing campaigns.
That’s changing – at least on the first front. By 2031, between 29% and 32% of the population is expected to belong to a visible minority, almost double the proportion reported in the 2006 census. And in urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver? They will be more like a visible majority. That’s too much spending power to simply ignore.
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This story first appeared in the Oct. 24, 2011 issue of Marketing
