Mediocrity, citizens of the world and other musings

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to speak at a conference on multicultural marketing organized by the NDMAC (Non-prescription Drug Manufacturers Association of Canada). I was there to speak about marketing in Québec. It was nice to be invited considering how conferences about multicultural marketing rarely include French-Québec as an "ethnic" group. Likely because it's a visible minority that isn't as visible as others.

Jean-François Bouchard, President and Co-Founder of Montreal-based agency Sid Lee was also a speaker. But he wasn't there to speak about marketing in Québec. He made it clear that he did not want to speak about Québec since his agency has global reach and just happens to be based in Montréal. In fact, Bouchard claimed that all marketing is ethic marketing. True enough. But he also claimed that there is no such thing as Québec experts since Québec is not a homogeneous market. True to a point. But I disagree that there is no need for Québec market expertise. I’ll let the renowned pollster and social analyst Michael Adams argue my point. Here’s what he writes in his book Unlikely Utopia: In Québec, fully 70 percent of the population claim French ancestry, have French as their mother tongue, and have family heritage in Québec stretching back three generations or more. This is a province that, although diverse, has a dominant ethnic and linguistic majority – a “nous”. In my experience in boardrooms in Toronto and various North-American cities, I can tell you that there is a great need for objective expertise on the Québec market.

While he was not interested in speaking about Québec, Bouchard could not resist sharing his five deadly  sins of marketing in Québec. And I cannot resist sharing my thoughts on his deadly sin #3. “Hire a mediocre agency”. Can’t argue with that. But I’ll argue with what followed in brackets: “(because it is part of your agency network)”. Translation: global network agencies operating in Montréal are mediocre and independent Montréal agencies are not. To be even more provocative, something Bouchard repeatedly said he wanted to be in front of this group of drug marketers, he added that there are a lot of “has beens” working in these network agencies and “they work for you”. I have to admit, this is a new business pitch I have never heard a Montréal agency use with a Toronto audience.

I recognize that there is a new generation of young Québec entrepreneurs who see the world as their oyster. And it has achieved much. Sid Lee and Taxi being great examples in our industry. Yet pursuing global opportunities seems to often come with what sounds like a rejection of Québec’s unique place in the world and a desire to somehow homogenize it with the rest of the world. To some, Jacques Bouchard’s 36 distinctive keys of Québécois are old news. “To be honest, I couldn’t tell you the 36 cordes sensibles” said Stéphane Charier, VP and creative director at Taxi’s Montreal office in Marketing Magazine’s October 27, 2008 issue.

This brings me back to Sid Lee’s Bouchard. In his remarks about multiculturalism (which he referred to as intra-culturalism), we heard about his client Cirque du Soleil – very much a multicultural organization with contortionists from China, gymnasts from Russia and so on. Bouchard’s point was that even the Québécois members of its management team no longer think of themselves as Québécois. They instead think of themselves as “citizens of the world”.

This, somehow, reflects the same need to shed the Québec identity in order to act on the world stage. As if one cannot be a citizen of the world and a Quebecker.  Or an agency cannot be a world agency and a Quebec agency.

I spoke later in the day about marketing in Québec. And I shared our firm’s model of filters and influencers that can help ensure brand success in Québec. I of course spoke about Quebeckers’ deep sense of belonging and sense of place. Something many who market beer and pop in the province have successfully capitalized on over the years. To support my point, I showed a somewhat serendipitous video clip from CNN’s Larry King interviewing the surviving Beatles and the widows about the Cirque du  Soleil’s show called Love.  Also interviewed was Guy Laliberté, the Cirque’s founder. I have often used this video clip because it shows one of Québec’s most successful entrepreneurs on the world stage - a Sid Lee client and likely a model for Bouchard’s global aspirations. When Larry King asks Laliberté if it was difficult to stage to the Beatles’ music, his answer was “Listen, the pressure is enormous. We were just a bunch of little kids from Québec, Montréal, you know.”

So here’s a billionaire “citizen of the world” who is still very much from and about Québec. It runs deep...

Too bad Bouchard doesn’t want to talk about it; his agency would be even richer for it.

Comments

[Negar]

Having been on the client side here in Quebec for some national companies (operating usually out of T.O.), I can certainly attest to the fact that most do not do their homework when launching a product here or when expanding their business into Quebec.

I too have seen one too many companies reaching out to the Montreal branch of their agency network to design strategies for this market, only to conclude that Quebec is a ‘tough’ market to get into (probably because of poor strategies developed out of convenience). So although I totally agree that there is a significant necessity for Quebec-specific market intelligence and expertise, I also agree that (global) network agencies operating out of Montreal sometimes do a sub-par job because they are riding the wave of ‘international recognition and calibration’.

[JF Bouchard]

Hello Eric,

Thanks for the review.

I wish to point out three things:

1) I did mention quite clearly that I believe Quebec agencies have a great potential to do well in Canada and the rest of the world since they evolve in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and creative environment. I think that limiting Quebec agencies to the Quebec market does not maximize our potential. However, that does not mean we reject our roots. On the contrary, we believe they can help us extend our reach. You can be both a “citizen of the world” and be proud of your heritage and build on it.

2) I invited clients to be careful not the hire the first Québécois that shows up and pretends to be a so-called Québec specialist. I urged them to be as thorough as when they select an agency in Toronto. We all have seen clients hire terrible partners because they don’t really know the market and do not do their homework well enough. A decision to work with any agency, from any country or province, should always be based first and foremost an excellence, not on the language they speak.

3) The reason I did not want to talk about Québec when I was first approached is quite simple: it was a box I did not want to be limited to, especially when talking to Canadian executives. We have been extremely vocal about how our Quebec origins are helping us. Our press coverage in Europe and USA (see Advertising Age / Creativity, for example) shows that we always mention with great pride our Montréal origins. We have even created videos and a magazine that celebrate that (see www.sidlee.com).

JF Bouchard