How Canadian Consumers are the Same and Different from the US Market and Why That Doesn't Matter
Reaching the right person with the right message. Sounds simple enough. Your target audience has similar interests and characteristics. Based on that, they have similar needs that are served by your company’s products or services.
Marketing to your target audience means that your marketing has the greatest effect; which is why they should be the focus of your marketing. The most important thing for this to work is a precise definition based on your audience’s characteristics.
With the amount of audience solutions data we have at our fingertips, what could be easier than selling the right product to the right people?
Marketing to Canadian and American Audiences is the Same
Many companies serve customers in both the United States and Canada. Why not? They’re almost the same country. Or, are they?
Each country enjoys online shopping, bulk buying, drive-thru banking, and donuts. Both Canada and the United States have country music, and both speak, among other languages, English.
Both countries used to belong to England, and each is a democracy. People living there both love ice hockey and football. McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Walmart are common sites in either Toronto or Tulsa. You can pay with US dollars in many Canadian shops, too -- try that with Euros or Yen.
Canada sends three-quarters of its exports to the U.S. and is therefore quite dependent on the U.S. market. In comparison, the U.S. only sends 16% of its exports to Canada but that's America’s highest single export market, followed only by Mexico with 15%. The US Market loves Canadian Consumers.
While the U.S. has a population nine times larger than Canada's, Canada has a much larger land mass. The four largest provinces by area (Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta) are the most populous in Canada: 86% of the populace resides in these four provinces. (Statistics Canada)
In fact, most Canadians live within 100 miles of the U.S. border, and crossing the border to shop is a daily activity. Cross-border marketing would seem easy enough. Could the two countries be any similar?
Marketing to Canadian and American Audiences is Different
While the U.S. and Canada share many similarities, Canadians are a bit different than their American neighbours. For instance, they spell neighbors with an extra “u,” like we did just now.
Canadians, as a whole, are somewhat more polite and relaxed than Americans. Someone once said, “we advertise to American customers but we have conversations with Canadian customers.” There is a lot of truth in that statement.
Canada’s size, its history, the different time zones (the U.S. has 9 time zones, while Canada has 6), an entire province speaking French, and even its climate (not everyone lives in an igloo, but it does get very cold in the great white north) have contributed to the U.S. and Canada developing different sociocultural values.
American brands marketing to Canadians need a different approach to marketing. In fact, the regional and cultural variations mean that Canada might be better considered as a group of niche markets rather than a single one.
While Audience Modeling usually involves focusing on two or three important characteristics of each person, wouldn’t it be better to use all available customer data? Sure, but Audience Modeling of U.S. and Canadian customers would be challenged when faced with the regional and cultural differences between the two countries.
Canadians prefer watching historical adventure series more than Americans. While popular in the U.S., Star-Trek Discovery never ranked in the top 20 series in Canada, and the Marvel franchise was beaten out by Vikings on Canadian television.
Advertising, Promotion, and Privacy laws are different in both countries.
Casual dining restaurants in the US offer significantly more take-out and delivery options for their customers while Canadian restaurants are more oriented toward in-restaurant dining.
The term “New” may be used in Canada up to 1 year after a product’s introduction, while that is allowed for only up to 6 months in the U.S.
Due to the nutritional regulations for foods in Canada, breakfast cereals, like Cocoa Pebbles, Cookie Crisp, and others can only enter Canada if smuggled in.
French is an official language in Canada, which means product packaging is required to be in both English and French.
“Working with Canadian micro-influencers is a great way for U.S. brands to reach Canadian audiences with a smaller spend and a higher engagement rate programs with U.S. counterparts.” PR Daily
Audience Solution Focus: Cross-Border Real Estate Investment
What questions does a home buyer, or a home seller, ask? The age of first-time home buyers in the U.S. is 33, while in Canada it is 36, the age when we are starting our families and already settled in the first stages of our careers.
In 2019, approximately 42.7 million homeowners in the United States were 65 years or older (Statista). In Canada, Baby Boomers accounted for the largest share of homeowners in 2021 - 41% (Statistics Canada).
Why do these two generations matter when it comes to real estate? When we are selling our home, later in life, our children have grown up and our financial priorities, like our questions, will be different. What will be the same, regardless of our generation or our nationality, is getting the most for our money.
Audience Solution Focus: Cross-Border Life Insurance
As close as they are in other aspects, the U.S. and Canadian life insurance markets are very different. The average monthly life insurance rate in the U.S. is twice that of Canada -- $26 compared with $13. Canadian life insurers are regulated nationally, while American companies have different regulations in each state.
In Canada, a few major cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, manage the life insurance market, while American insurers are found across the country.
However, in both countries, everybody wants to be safe. They want their families and their homes to be secure in the event of an accident. Everyone needs insurance, and that need crosses nations and cultures.
“Our U.S. clients are spread across the country, making client management that much more challenging than in Canada. Despite their diversity, Canadian and US markets share two characteristics: maturity and fierce competition.” Mary Forrest, MunichRE President, and CEO, North America (Life)
Marketing to People is About Problem Solving
Regardless of whether your target audience is in Vancouver, Washington, Tokyo, or Frankfurt, everyone has a story with one thing in common: the desire to be safe, secure, and have our savings last as long as possible. That common thread allows us to market to our customers, in any country, by creating personalized, brand-related moments through understanding customers’ stories.
Storytelling gives us visual insights into our data. You can tell the right story to the right person, but connecting with what makes everyone the same empowers us as a brand.
As Mathematician Jon Tukey put it, “The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.”
Finding the Individual Consumer Story in the National Data HayStack
Lucky for you, we have a Canadian Consumer Database with a count over 16 million!
Andrews Wharton is known for sourcing data across the entire marketplace and curating it for your unique needs. We understand the importance of accurate, verified, and compliant data. We literally built a company on it! You can Be Certain, we know how fundamental data is to the future of your business.
