David Lam is busy counting days. Days until his trading company in Toronto will move to make way for a 250,000-square-foot, three-storey shopping mall geared specifically for the city's growing South Asian community.

"When built in two years' time, it will be North America's largest South Asian mall," said Lam, whose Canadian fisheries trading company Tai Foong International Ltd., at McNicoll Avenue and Markham Road in Scarborough, will soon be demolished to accommodate the new mall.

Named the Sitara (the Star), the mall will house 500 retail shops, a huge banquet and convention centre, and a two-storey-high atrium for pop concerts, along with several patios and a 1,000-car park facility.

Lam isn't the only one in Canada eyeing the growing and potentially lucrative market of South Asians — categorized as those coming from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Companies are starting to factor the community into their marketing plans as its numbers grow.

An architectural drawing of what The Sitara shopping centre in Scarborough, Ont., will look like once it is built. The 250,000-square-foot, three-storey mall designed specifically to cater to the city's growing South Asian community will house 500 retail shops, a banquet and convention centre, and a two-storey-high atrium for concerts.

About 250,000 people moved to Canada in 2006 — and according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, those from India and Pakistan alone made up 43,500 of that number (31,000 and 12,500 respectively). South Asians are the fastest growing minority in the country, accounting for three per cent of the population (about one million people) in 2007 and expected to account for six per cent within the next decade.

Statistics Canada predicts there will be 1.8 million South Asians living in Canada by 2017, equaling the Chinese-Canadian population.

Demographics

Numbers aside, it's the demographic profile and the unique cultural traits of South Asians that make them a lucrative segment to pursue. Canadian companies in the retail, durables, food and banking sectors, and even the service industry, are channeling their marketing dollars towards this segment of the population. And they're starting to do research to keep tabs on trends within this community.

"The makeup of the South Asian immigrant, both politically and professionally, has changed," said Imtiaz Sayed, vice-president of South Asian markets at RBC.

"Today they are largely made up of more professionals and entrepreneurs — significantly different from the immigrant in the '70s and '80s, where there were more blue-collar as well as family class. In recent years, South Asians are arriving from nations other than the Indian subcontinent — also the United Kingdom, Dubai, Australia South Africa and the U.S."

One reason for the market's attractiveness is that it has long-term growth potential for companies that can establish brand loyalty.

Solutions Research Group president Kaan Yigit said a study the company did in nine languages across six target groups revealed that the average South Asian family is younger than the average Canadian family, with more than 60 per cent of South Asian households having at least one child under the age of 18 (compared to 45 per cent for the rest of Canada.) The median age for South Asians is 30, compared to 38 for the rest of the country.

While 80 per cent of South Asians live in Toronto and Vancouver, communities are growing in places such as Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Ottawa, which together account for about 15 per cent of the country's South Asian population, said Yigit.

Kathy Cheng, associate vice-president at market research firm Ipsos-Reid, points out that many of the more highly educated newcomers are finding lucrative jobs in the booming economies of Alberta and Calgary.

Culture and marketing

Since food and culture are very dear to them, South Asians tend to create a demand for certain products, and companies that understand this and can cater to those needs are finding there is money to be made.

For instance, when people from Muslim countries like Pakistan migrate here they tend to prefer meats that are slaughtered according to their religious beliefs — a designation termed halal. That's one reason 50-year-old Canadian meat supplier Maple Lodge Farms Ltd., for example, decided to become one of the first companies to distribute halal meats across the country. Mainstream grocery chains all over Canada are beginning to cater to the needs of the South Asian community by stocking these special foods.

But food is just the beginning.

"They [South Asians] represent a big opportunity for most marketers in almost all segments, and an ample opportunity to tailor products specifically for them," said Ipso's Cheng.

For instance, many South Asians purchase larger houses because they live with their extended families, such as parents. For banks, that means developing suitable financial products for mortgages, retirement or savings that take into consideration the financial needs of a big family, rather than North America's more traditional and smaller nuclear family.

Settlement patterns are also creating new marketing possibilities for savvy companies. Cheng adds that unlike previous generations of immigrants — Italians or Greeks who historically settled in a downtown core on arrival — the newer immigrants from South Asia settle directly in the suburbs. "For a car manufacturer, then, it means an opportunity — as there is a lesser dependence on public transport and more on one's own personal transport."

As a result, car companies such as Chrysler Canada Inc. have recently started testing the waters by advertising directly to the South Asian consumer in mainstream English magazines and on OMNI Television, which features multilingual and multicultural broadcasts.

Pearl Davies, senior manager of marketing at Chrysler, said the company is actively increasing its exposure to the South Asian community, and that a big push to address this segment came from Chrysler's own dealers who are in direct contact with this segment and who have seen notable interest in specific types of vehicles.

"We know most South Asian families are large, and in this season several relatives come to visit from overseas," said David Innis, president of Fat Free Communications, who created the Dodge Caravan ads for Chrysler. Titled "Bring on the Khandan [family]," the ads highlight the caravan's spacious interiors.

Davies said the company is also advertising the Sebring with the same approach for this market, highlighting its spacious features and fuel efficiency.

The ground-up approach

Some companies are going a step further, tinkering directly with their products to as well as the marketing message.

Quixtar Canada, commonly known for marketing its Amway products, changed the ingredients in its nutritional supplement Nutrilite Double X to make it halal-certified, for example (it does not contain any byproducts from pork or alcohol). Lise Beland, the company's senior product marketer, said that requests from the company's Indian and Pakistani marketing team prompted the company to examine the product and change it, so that it could be consumed by Muslims.

Besides the newcomers, second-generation South Asians are also presenting an opportunity for marketers. Preet Dhillon, Telus's multicultural segment marketing manger in Vancouver, said that in the 1960s and 70s, many second-generation youth in Canada weren't really into connecting with their parents' hometowns, but now there is a resurgence or a "going back to one's roots."

So Telus, through its phone-based content site, now offers things like ring tones, Bollywood music and overseas news. Sponsoring educational activities with Canadian universities that have a large South Asian student population is another way Telus is building its brand within the market segment.

As for Lam, he said more than 60 per cent of the retail outlets of the new South Asian mall planned for Scarborough were booked before the ground could even be broken.

"South Asians need something they can be proud of, and I think this mall will be very good for them," he said.