A Toronto research firm is planning the largest study of the Chinese consumer in Canada.
DJC Research’s ‘The Chinese Consumer in Canada,’ a syndicated study of consumer behavior, will be the first of a series of annual tracking studies.
The study will cover such areas as shopping behavior, consumer durables buys, the use of financial and insurance products, media habits, lifestyle and travel preferences.
According to the 1991 census, Chinese is the fastest-growing language group in Canada.
Between 1986-91, the number of people who reported Chinese as their mother tongue increased by 85%.
Dan Calhoun, vice-president, quantitative services at DJC Research, says the tracking studies were designed to meet marketers’ informational needs in the face of a rapidly changing ethnic composition.
The project director for the study is Jessica To, a recent immigrant from Hong Kong.
About 1,500 telephone interviews will be carried out in Toronto and Vancouver – which have Canada’s largest Chinese communities – using computer-aided interviewing techniques.
The principal source of Chinese immigration to Canada is Hong Kong, says DJC Research, with immigration spurred by China’s planned reassertion of its sovereignty over the British colony in 1997.
Between 1987-91, Hong Kong immigrants brought more than $9 billion worth of capital with them, DJC Research says.
