Find Out More about the Elusive Teen Market

Do you have a product or service that you think would appeal to the teen or youth market? How do you find out more about this market that represents a large demographic having a fair amount of disposable income?

Check out the census portion of Statistics Canada’s website for demographic information by age and sex. The Portrait of the Canadian Population in 2006, by Age and Sex, 2006 Census paints a good picture of Canadians according to their age and sex and where they live in every province or territory. Starting on page 16, check out the descriptions and age pyramids province by province. You will see differences between 2001 and 2006 and, generally, the aging of the population with most provinces exhibiting large demographic “bumps” in the baby-boomers and children of the baby-boomers (born between 1975 and 1995).

PBS Frontline produces “incisive documentaries covering the scope and complexity of the human experience”. One of the recent documentaries is called “The Merchants of Cool: A Report on the Creators & Marketers of Popular Culture for Teenagers”. The show can be viewed online or you can read the interviews and reports. One of the companies profiled on this site that specializes in “cool hunting” or research on youth culture is Look-Look.

Should you wish to do some reading on selling to teenagers, check out your local public library for copies of books like Alissa Quart’s “Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers”.

What Are People Buying and Where Are They Buying It (aka Spending Patterns)?

Spending Patterns in Canada

Check out a report released today called Spending Patterns in Canada. From Statistics Canada, with data from 2006, this is a direct quote from the report’s highlights:

“Household spending in 2006 continued to show the effects of the strong resource economy in the West. Spending growth in Alberta surpassed all other provinces by a wide margin.”

This publication is available online for FREE. For a quick read, browse the Analysis section; navigate through the various sections of the report using the sidebar links. For those of you who like numbers, there are tables of data to look at. There is also a pdf version of the whole report available too.

Hardly surprising, most money was spent on personal taxes, shelter and transportation (both vehicle purchases and public transportation). Other big expenditures were on wireless communication, new computer hardware, and new audio and video equipment. Notably, people spent more on health care in 2006 and less on tobacco products (a nod to an aging and more health-conscious population?).

Alberta Business

To learn more about Alberta and to take advantage of the growth taking place in that province, check out AlbertaFirst.com. This website is a provincial, municipal and industry partnership created to provide information to businesses and individuals interested in starting a business or locating to Alberta. There is a a Business Directory Search as well as a Profile page which provides links to extensive statistical data for all Alberta communities and census divisions. If you click through to the Regional MarketPlace Profiles, you will see demographic, labour force, household income and expenditure and other statistical data for 11 distinct regions in Alberta. Click through to the Investment Profiles section and you will be directed to the Government of Alberta’s Investment Attraction System, which provides economic indicator information.

Another credible website for small business information in Alberta is The Business Link: Alberta’s Business Information Service. The Business Link is a not-for-profit organization supported by the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta.

Note: Don’t forget about The Business Link for other provinces too. The main page has flags at the bottom representing each province which you click on to get to the various provincial small business pages.

More Potential Canadian Customers! Demographic Profiling

The Canadian population is now above 33 million people. Think about it: more people = more potential customers!

Click here to see the December 19, 2007 population estimates release from Statistics Canada. This release details which provinces showed the most and least growth due to births over deaths, immigration and interprovincial migration.

Demographic Profiling

That's great, you say, but how can someone build a business based on other demographic information? Do you want to find out who lives where: adults, teenagers, children, male/female? How can you find out the languages that are spoken in a particular community? How can you slice and dice the available demographic data to target a specific audience for your business' products and services?

Statistics Canada is always a good place to start and 2006 census data is now in the midst of being released, much of it for free. To quickly create a demographic profile of a community, go to:

1. Statistics Canada: http://www.statcan.ca/ and select either English or French.
2. Click on the "Community Profiles" link, type in the desired place name with the appropriate province and click on the Search button.
3. Click on the match to your place name and the next page that appears in the "All Data" default. This provides details of your place name with male/female data compared to its corresponding provincial data: population and dwelling counts, age characteristics, marital status, dwelling data, family and household characteristics, language, immigrant and citizenship status, generation status and mobility status.

Demographics at the Postal Code Level!

Should you require more specific data, say to a particular postal code level, you can use Census Tract profiles. Using census tracts, you can target customers in specific geographic areas with populations from 2500 to 8000 people. There are three different ways to get to these small slices of demographic data, one being using postal codes. Click here to do this.

Language Data

Statistics Canada census data is released over time so check the releases periodically; some data is free and some is not. Some of the language data was released on December 4, 2007, much of it free and containing some excellent detailed data. Click here for access to this data.

By viewing/downloading a particular table (click on the numbered product), you can view such things as language knowledge by the population in a specific city. To do this:

1. Click on one of the catalogue product numbers i.e. Cat. No. 97-555-X2006016
2. Click on the "View/download this product" button
3. Click on the "Geographic index" link
4. Scroll down the page and click on your target geographic area's name
5. View or print the page or download the data in various formats (i.e. comma-delimited to use with Excel)

As an example, click here to show language knowledge in Oakville, Ontario.