With ethnic minorities predicted to become the majority across the GTA in the near future, mainstream businesses are looking to capitalize on the demographic shift. But ever since I've begun to counsel clients on multicultural marketing when I first immigrated to this country in 1990, I've always been skeptical about how long does it take for companies to realize it takes more than Google Translate to 'multiculturalize' a marketing strategy.

Data collected by Statistics Canada in 2006 shows the cities of Toronto, Markham, Brampton, Mississauga and Richmond Hill experienced a major surge in visible minorities from the previous census year (2001). Markham had the highest proportion of visible minorities in the country – they made up 65.4 per cent of its population. About half were Chinese and one-quarter were South Asian. In Brampton, the census subdivision that ranked behind Markham, 56 per cent of residents were South Asian.

Recently, grocery giant Metro purchased a majority share of Adonis, a grocer with a steady following of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern consumers. This came two years after its competitor, Loblaw, snatched up T&T, a major Chinese supermarket chain. Both deals give Metro and Loblaw access to suppliers and business strategies geared to reaching ethnic consumers.

While marketers realize that multicultural marketing is very different from using the same approach as preaching to predominantly white, middle-class consumers, very few mainstream companies are willing to dedicate manpower and budget to properly communicate and connect with multicultural audiences. As recently as 2006, major brands seemed to be missing the mark when it came to ethnic consumers. In a survey conducted that year by a Toronto-based research company, 52 per cent of the 3,000 visible-minority participants agreed with the statement, “I rarely see advertising messages intended for me.”

But there is good news after all these years. Though it still trails the steady growth of these populations, the industry is slowly gaining sophistication. Major businesses are co-ordinating ethnic merchandising teams and hiring ethnic marketing firms. With geographic information systems, they can learn which ethnic groups to target at various store locations. With loyalty programs, they can data-mine for consumption trends among their diverse customers. A year ago, Loblaw hired a senior manager of ethnic marketing. Scotiabank and Rogers have their own multicultural marketing managers. And in offices in Markham, North York, Mississauga and downtown Toronto are dozens of marketers who specialize in reaching Indian, Chinese, Filipino and other visible-minority consumers.

Most mainstream marketers fail to understand generational differences call for different ad strategies. The newcomer requires different treatment from the established family or the Canadian-born children of immigrants. Sterotyping visible minorities are not going to get you anywhere.

Is brand awareness enough to drive sales behaviour among multicultural consumers? Like their mainstream counterparts, the ethnic population shops around for prices. So, other than variety, pricing is also important because most of the new immigrants are smart shoppers. But being serious about understanding the diverse mix of new Canadians is an important first step in winning over the ethnic consumer.

Lina Ko

The Millennial Generation (in their 20s) is most likely to covet a job that offers quick advancement, congenial co-workers and a lot of fun. Gen-Xers (in their 30s and early 40s) put the most value on work-life balance. Boomers (aged 46 to 64) are most likely to say they want to continue to grow and use their skills on the job and get clear information from management on what’s expected from them. Mature workers (over 60) are more concerned about their advancement than boomers or Gen-Xers.

Job-hopping, apparently, has become a fact of life for younger employees. The study indicated that it’s not the economy that is making them jump ship, but because they feel that they have to keep moving because they are not getting what they want from their current jobs.

I’ve previously blogged about inter-generation tension within the workplace. But according to this new study, maybe the key takeaway for employers is that they should provide more flexibility for young and mature workers alike, and create more opportunities for employees to move within the organization to accumulate experience and enhance capabilities. Once companies are able to make this a reality, they should also try to brand themselves that way to attract the right people.

But these are business sectors on which marketers have already been focusing in the last five years. The following are my suggested alternatives:

- Customized travel tours designed for boomers: forget the cruise lines which have already been targeting boomers about a decade ago, but whoever fulfills the dreams of boomers such as guided hiking trips to Switzerland or adventure tours to exotic countries around the world will prosper;
- Organic food and nutraceuticals: baby boomers are increasingly concerned about what they eat and the impact of food on their health as they age. From farm to fork should be the key growth strategy for restaurants and food companies. Instead of drugs, any company manufacturing and marketing nutraceuticals – a combination of functional foods with health/medical benefits – will be highly popular;
- Retirement resorts – with the improvement of science and technology, boomers, hopefully, will not need assisted care until their very senior years. So developers should really look into building and designing retirement resorts for boomers to enjoy life while they can;
- Rebranding for boomers: any branding or image consulting experts who can offer some practical advice to boomers reinventing themselves or starting a second career will find themselves in hot demand;
- Mental fitness centres: everybody knows the importance of physical fitness and exercising to the aging process, but whoever focuses on the mental agility and spiritual fulfillment of boomers and seniors will enjoy a greater success.

I do agree with Lovett-Reid that there are numerous opportunities to market to the aging population, but a sound research prior to investment is crucial to a successful entrepreneur before embarking on a business venture aiming at baby boomers.

Lina Ko

In an industry where marketing to youth translates into profit, the AARP show stakes out an audience far from the 18- to 34-year-old target audience that advertisers and TV executives typically crave. Instead, the 30-minute show, hosted by Leeza Gibbons, is meant to appeal to a mature population, with health and wealth tips – Martina Navratilova on improving posture or investment strategies from Jim Cramer – and profiles of high-achieving people or celebrities, along with the doom-and-gloom segments on Alzheimer’s, care-giving and strokes.

According to The New York Times, the idea for “My Generation” was born several years ago, in AARP’s head office in Washington. In an effort to reach more people, the group decided to broaden its brand from publications (such as AARP the Magazine) to TV. The most powerful stakeholder organization wanted to move into a new medium to show the industry that there’s interest, there’s a market and it could be lucrative for marketers. According to the Association, this is a population with a fair amount of disposable income and contrary to the old stereotype that older people are brand loyal, that’s not necessarily the case. The bottom line is, the 50-plus are watching TV and buying products and services.

Picking 54-year-old Lisa Gibbons as the host of “My Generation” was probably the smartest move that AARP has done. “It’s not surprising that AARP is interested in making sure the voices and faces that represent them accurately reflect what it means to be 50 or better in our culture today,” she said, “I think I am a pretty good example of what it looks like. Being old doesn’t necessarily come with admission into the ‘sage and serene’ club, and that inspiration can strike at any age.

While AARP is continuing with its rebranding initiatives with Betty White, the MVP of aging, embarking on a campaign to invite people to “Get Over It (Aging),’ Moses Znaimer and his Zoomer Media empire are also doing the same thing to rebrand Canadian boomers and seniors; or, in his words, boomers with ‘zip.’ Boomers will watch TV, and they will like to see themselves continue to be represented in TV.

Lina Ko

The tightness in the labour market will force employers to scrutinize their own brands. An employer brand, perceived by current and potential employees, has three essential elements: it must have a strategy to attract new employees; it must provide a workplace experience that is appealing to retain current employees; and it must boost staff productivity by ‘engaging’ employees.

In other words, companies need a genuine face and touch of charisma to attract employees. If employees trust that the company is doing everything in their best interest, as well as practising two-way transparency by sharing information and seeking feedback, they will, in turn, give back to the company.

As marketers, we talk about corporate brands all the time. But now is the high time to apply the same marketing discipline to employer brands.

Lina Ko

The tightness in the labour market will force employers to scrutinize their own brands. An employer brand, perceived by current and potential employees, has three essential elements: it must have a strategy to attract new employees; it must provide a workplace experience that is appealing to retain current employees; and it must boost staff productivity by ‘engaging’ employees.

In other words, companies need a genuine face and touch of charisma to attract employees. If employees trust that the company is doing everything in their best interest, as well as practising two-way transparency by sharing information and seeking feedback, they will, in turn, give back to the company.

As marketers, we talk about corporate brands all the time. But now is the high time to apply the same marketing discipline to employer brands.

New findings show that a one-percentage-point increase in the jobless rate cuts the predicted mortality rate of people in their 30s by approximately two percent. It also lowers the death rate for women close to retirement. Economic professors at Wilfrid Laurier University pointed out that the data suggests “a strong relationship between unemployment and mortality rates of middle-aged Canadians – in other words, baby boomers.

After analysing Statistics Canada mortality rates from 1977 to 2009 along with unemployment rates, they’ve concluded there are differences in conclusions between the U.S. and Canadian numbers. South of the border, recessions tend to cut mortality rates of infants and seniors, but in Canada, the effect is more pronounced among the middle-aged.

It’s surprising to me that physical health sometimes improves during recessions. Smoking and obesity decline during temporary economic downturns, while leisure-time physical activity increases. Heavy drinkers tend to reduce alcohol consumption and people also tend to sleep more when the economy is tanking.

And this is also true outside North America. A 2004 German study found mortality drops in recessions due to decreases in cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, car accidents and suicides. Among 23 OECD countries, deaths tend to rise when economic times are good. The Canadian results seem to parallel in conclusions – individuals tend to take on behaviours that are harmful to their health when economic conditions are good.

So in spite of the doom and gloom about recessions, marketers in the health and wellness sector should perhaps leverage economic downturns to focus on further improving the physical and mental well-being of people.

Lina Ko

Research by both Bank of Montreal and RBC confirms men and women want different things in retirement. Women focus on expanding their horizons and personal growth. They want to take self-improvement courses. Men, on the other hand, look for rest and relaxation in retirement and want to go golfing. When they retire, men want to travel and spend time with their wives, while women want to spend more time with their friends, their adult children and also the husband.

Because of a longer life expectancy – 83 years for Canadian men and 86 for women, everybody is expecting to live at least 10-15 years longer than their previous generation. While about 40 percent of Canadian women will not celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary because of divorce, women’s self-earned wealth is increasing even though they may not be able to rely financially on their spouses.

Even if the marriages last, women tend to marry older men and outlive their husbands. So many of them might be recipients of a lump-sum of money. So one way or another, women in retirement nowadays should be better off than their mothers a generation ago.

However, the surveys indicate that both men and women retirees are concerned about maintaining their standard of living in the future. Retirees are marginally more likely to be worried about healthcare than those still working. An RBC poll about savings paints a grim picture for many because many Canadians are having difficulty meeting their savings goals. About 27 percent have reduced the amount they are saving since the 2008 market crash, and only 12 percent have managed to increase their savings.

No wonder most financial institutions are offering free courses for retiring baby boomers. Taking control of your financial situation is the key to fulfilling the retirement dream for both men and women boomers.

Lina Ko

As the massive baby boomer generation transitions into retirement, the medical-pharmaceutical sector is poised for significant job growth.

In November, the health care industry recorded gains of 120,000 positions, up 6.1 per cent, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada.

That's one of the highest employment-growth rates of any sector.

Recruitment experts predicted that health care positions - home health care, registered nurses, personal aides, physiotherapists, occupational therapists - are all in great demand because of the aging population.

At the same time, most professional jobs and trades face a glut of retiring boomers and a big gap remains as the older workers are leaving.

As we move into the new year, the advice for students is for them to enroll in courses catering to the aging population - there will be plenty of jobs associated with taking care of the old and senile waiting for these young people to graduate from proper training in this sector.

Younger colleagues of mine, some of whom are half my age, adore the same music I listened to during my younger days because they grew up listening to their parents’ favourite music before having any preferences of their own. Although one might agree that music written in the past three decades might have been more inspiring than what’s being played on the radio or TV or iTunes nowadays, I cannot but agree with Joel Rubinoff of the Waterloo Region Record that we have to support and recognize some of the current younger songwriters and musicians. Apart from Alanis Morissette and Feist who were given their due recognitions, newcomers like Drake, K’naan, Nikkii Yanofsky were neglected.

I often go out of the way to support younger musicians because while oldies are great, we need to encourage the next generation of recording artists to break barriers and be innovative. That’s why the Rolling Stones probably have the same share of my leisure time as Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, Sophie Milman, Black Eyed Peas and Robbie Williams. They are not necessarily Canadians all the time, and some of them are not even that young. But if we baby boomers were not open to new song-writing and new genres of music, this world would be a very boring place!

Lina Ko