Grocery Stores Eye South Asian-Canadians

I have been telling my colleagues and clients that Grocery stores will be the next business sector that will target South Asian Canadians. And this was no rocket science. I saw following three signs for it.

1. Immigrants’ Life Cycle: Most South Asian (SA) are new immigrants. They look for products and taste from “back home” and also buy more groceries per visit because they have bigger families.
2. Developing of a critical mass: The SA- Canadians became the biggest visible minority group as per 2006 Census and have attained a critical mass with an estimated ~1.5 million people now.
3. Opening of neighborhood SA-grocery stores: More SA Grocery stores have sprung up in last few years with constant flow of customers providing an existing market to big box Grocery stores.

The above three factors collectively provide a ripe market for Grocery stores to cater, increase customer base and sales, and get loyal customers

Come 2010, we saw an attempt by big grocery stores to reach out to SA market segment, primarily with print ads and with some radio and TV advertising. I see these initial campaigns as more of a test or tactical implementation in nature rather than strategic. Only results, research and time will tell how effective these ad campaigns were in achieving the campaign objectives. Though I will provide my opinion on this soon. For now, see few of the print ads below. These ran during last few months.

Food Basics