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Who are your customers? What is your target market?

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Find out who would buy your product/service – what are their demographics (characteristics of age, income, gender, education and family structure)? What is your customer’s geographic area (where can you sell to get the best results)? What is your customer’s purchasing behaviour (readiness to buy, use frequency, loyalty, and purchase occasion).

Demographics

Simply Analytics – see below, can be used to create a map or data table with detailed information about Canada’s population, households, consumer spending, technology usage and more. Can focus your search by province, municipality or neighbourhood.

If you are using a computer from outside the Library, you will need a Vancouver Public Library card to login to this database.

Profiles of Canadian communities including family characteristics, primary language, mobility, education, marital status, labour force activity, earnings, and mode of transportation to work.
British Columbia and community level statistics on population, income, education, housing and more
Market area profiles for main business districts in Vancouver neighbourhoods.
Consumer profiles by neighbourhood across Canada. Search by postal code.
Business and Careers Subject Icon

Provides demographic information including Canadian census data, household spending on hundreds of goods and services and detailed business profiles from Dun & Bradstreet. Digital lifestyle data providing mobile phone ownership/usage, detailed social media behaviors and activities, and online shopping insights is also provided. Limited to 5 simultaneous users. Resource will time-out after 20 minutes of inactivity. Not optimized for phones and tablets.

For more information see our help guide.

Access:
Everywhere for VPL cardholders

Demographics - Local Municipalities

Check the municipality you want to do business in to see if they have demographic profiles for the city itself or neighbourhood profiles, e.g.

Profiles of 23 areas (e.g. Kitsilano) and smaller neighbourhoods (e.g. West Broadway).
Profiles of the 4 areas of Burnaby; including demographics.
A complete list of municipal websites is available.

Demographics - Spending Patterns

Simply Analytics see below, can also be used to create a map, data table or report with detailed information about household and consumer spending on goods and services. Can focus your search by province, municipality or neighbourhood.

If you are using a computer from outside the Library, you will need a Vancouver Public Library card to login to this database.

Provides statistics up to 2019 for spending across BC – over 300 types of expenditures including food, housing, clothing, transportation.
UBC Small Business Accelerator SBA
Crash Course in Market Research – Uncovering your Best Customer
Business and Careers Subject Icon

Provides demographic information including Canadian census data, household spending on hundreds of goods and services and detailed business profiles from Dun & Bradstreet. Digital lifestyle data providing mobile phone ownership/usage, detailed social media behaviors and activities, and online shopping insights is also provided. Limited to 5 simultaneous users. Resource will time-out after 20 minutes of inactivity. Not optimized for phones and tablets.

For more information see our help guide.

Access:
Everywhere for VPL cardholders