Ethnic Market

The ethnic diversity of the Canadian and American marketplace has always presented a specific communication problem as well as a great opportunity for businesses wishing to beat the competition to affluent ethnic consumer and business customers. New immigration patterns from the former Soviet Union, eastern European, new Asian and African countries has created new surnames in telephone directories previously unknown and unseen in North American telephone directories.

Table 1. Occurrence of Unique Surnames in National Telephone Directories

Occurrence	%	Qty of Names	Ontario	Quebec	East	West	Canada
1X	48%	319375	143710	87872	9853	77940	319375
2-5X	30%	199614	282427	97650	13868	184201	578146
6-10X	8%	55356	193533	54344	10902	160877	419656
11 to 20X	6%	36872	237092	60005	16426	223302	536825
21 to 50X	4%	27396	372683	91503	35077	364195	863458
50 Plus	4%	23318	3282426	2531612	983460	2810132	9607630
Totals	100%	661931	4511871	2922986	1069586	3820647	12325090

Traditional surname matches to attempt to determine the ethnic origin of the household's surname are no longer adequate enough to segment your customer or prospect customer base. Surname matches must be supplemented with other criteria and methods. See the research chart below to review the occurrences of unique surnames in Canada.

Table 2.  Occurrences of Specific Sample Surnames

Our methods segment prospect or customer households using much more than surname matches and we segment records into highly predictive ethnic origin segments. The Asian and Chinese segment has been one example in which companies have tailored their prospecting and advertising to niche affluent ethnic markets in the recent past. Now new immigration patterns are creating new ethnic marketing challenges. Your company may find it highly successful to match your order desk personnel language skills to incoming callers or specific 1-800 lines offers.

Eastern European immigration since the breakup of the Soviet block has created new hungry consumers longing to spend and enjoy the consumerism of the west. If your marketing campaign and data analysis can not distinguish these new types of consumers and how to best to communicate to them your sales will suffer. Having an affinity with a potential customer, perhaps taking the order in their preferred language will make lasting business relationships. This personalized segmentation of a prospect and customer base can make your company’s marketing creative and sales efforts much more receptive by the customer.

Don't let your ethnic marketing be obsolete like the Soviet Union by using outdated technology. Ethnic surname word tables need to be up to date. Our modern methods can identify new immigration from the former Soviet Union as well as from Asian, African and South American countries. See the sample Russian surnames in the table below and how infrequently these sample Russian surnames occur across Canadian telephone directories. Could your ethnic marketing distinguish these new surnames if they appeared in your database? Our methods can!....and You will dance with delight as your ethnic marketing response rates increase!


Table 3. Russian surnames in Canadian National Telephone Directories

Russian Name	Occurrence	Canada	Ontario	Quebec	East	West
BYSTROVA	2-5 X	5	3	1	0	1
PELIPENKO	2-5 X	4	4	0	0	0
MARTSENYUK	2-5 X	4	4	0	0	0
GORCHAKOV	2-5 X	4	4	0	0	0
CHTCHERBAKOV	2-5 X	4	4	0	0	0
MOURACHOV	2-5 X	3	2	0	0	1
ZABEZINSKY	2-5 X	2	2	0	0	0
VIKHNOVICH	2-5 X	2	2	0	0	0
PERLAMUTROV	2-5 X	2	2	0	0	0
KOTCHETOVA	2-5 X	2	2	0	0	0