Exporting to the United States – A Team Canada Inc Publication

1.5 Understanding the U.S. market

There's actually no single "U.S. market". What you'll actually find in the U.S. are markets – lots of them, segmented by race, religion, age, geography, nationality, citizenship status, income bracket, occupation, political persuasion, industry, profession, trade and so on.

This is hardly surprising: given the sheer size of the United States and the relative affluence of its 291 million people, the needs and desires of its population aren't likely to be the same across the country. For example, Oregonians probably won't have the same preferences for goods as North Carolinians; not all industries will operate in all states (there are no cotton plantations in Alaska); and products are altered for different climatic regions (different woods will be used for outdoor furniture in Florida and New Hampshire). This variety presents Canadian exporters with a myriad of opportunities.

To put the size of these markets into better perspective, we can think of each state as a nation, with a Gross State Product (GSP) equivalent to a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this framework, California's GSP is equivalent to the GDP of France, and Texas' GSP is equivalent to the GDP of Canada.

But looking at states as a whole, although it helps us understand market size, doesn't tell the entire story. Sometimes commonalities spread across state borders; conversely, sometimes people in one part of a state will have tastes that aren't shared by people elsewhere in the same state.

What this implies, for you as a Canadian exporter, is a strong need for careful market research and a well thought-out export strategy. To be successful, you'll have to be very focused.