What Québec Wants

Advice to Dr. Rapaille as he begins his search for archetypes in Québec City

A follow-up on my previous post about Québec City’s decision to hire Clotaire Rapaille to build its brand.

Québec City’s newspaper Le Soleil reports that Dr. Clotaire Rapaille arrives in town today to begin his branding initiative using his unique approach – which is well document in his book The Culture Code. According to the paper, he will receive $250,000 for this assignment lasting ten weeks – plus another $25,000 for incentives for 330 focus group participants, plus travel and accommodation.

It’s the talk of the town in Québec City. The mayor has had to defend his decision to hire this outsider from the moment it was announced. Le Soleil covers it all including the stormy debate among the city council and the mayor’s visible irritation. The mayor even brought his consultant’s book into the debate yesterday and implored his opponents to read it.

Unsolicited advice:

Dr. Rapaille, forget the formal research – it’s going to be biased anyway given the debate raging about your legitimacy as an expert who can guide Québec City’s destiny.

Here’s an archetype – free of charge: CHAUVINISM

Chauvinism is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a blind belief in national superiority and glory. By extension it has come to include an extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of any group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group.

Try building a brand with that one. Good luck. Bonne chance.

A psychiatrist’s view of Québec City

Québec City has hired cultural archetypes expert Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, author of The Culture Code, to refresh the city’s image.

According to The Rapaille Institute’s website “Archetype Studies is unique. We are not consultants and do not charge by the hour or day. We do not conduct market research, and do not write reports. Our commitment to the client is that at the end of the process, you will thoroughly understand the Archetype studied. The Archetype Team will speak a common language, the unconscious Logic of Emotion of your customers.”

Dr. Rapaille is a colourful fellow who’s obviously impressed some of the world’s most sophisticated marketers. Can’t wait to see the outcome and what he discovers about Québec City’s residents’ and visitors’ unconscious logic of emotion.

Unique Naming for Liquor Brands | Branding Beer and Wine Products

via www.brandchannel.com

An interesting look at the naming of wine and beer brands in Canada. Learn about Dead Frog, Dirty Laundry and La fin du monde (The End of the World).

Friending brands

‘Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait to hear the answer.’

Can the same be said of online friends? And can brands be friends?

Here’s what blogger Patrick Glinski recently posted about brands that hang out in the same places where he connects with his friends. “These companies are not my friends in any sense of the word - they don’t call me, they don’t go out for beers with me, and they definitely weren’t at my last birthday party. They have no legitimate connection to me whatsoever. It’s scary to think that when I connect to a company through social media, I may have just given a psychopath access to my life.”

The psychopath reference is a bit much and borrowed from the documentary The Corporation. However, we can’t dismiss his take on ‘friending brands’: “The reality is, a “brand friend” is really more of an acquaintance.  If they start spamming your twitter feed, you’re probably going to block them. If they start messaging erratically, you tune them out. If they post in erratic voices you will be concerned about them, and if they lie to your face, you’ll be ticked off at them. It’s dangerous that more companies don’t evaluate what kind of friend they’re being.”

The firm Brand Amplitude heard similar views in two focus groups it conducted last March with Millenials about friending on Twitter and Facebook:

“Brands that show up on facebook often look like your parents when they (unsuccessfully) try to act cool.”

“Seeing a brand on facebook makes me just think is spam mail or a scam.”

“Yeah I don’t really pay attention to the ads on the side of facebook. A lot of them aren’t even accurate.”

“I’ve never clicked on the ads on the side on fbook or gmail – not out of principle, but they’ve just never grabbed me.”

“I mean, I think people use it as a user-to-user network. I mean, you call your connections “friends.” I don’t think I’ve ever joined a brand’s FB group — unless you count maybe a sports teams, though those are usually fan generated …There’s something really off-putting about a big brand sending you a facebook group invite. I’d never accept it.”

“I think there is a sniff test people give brands when they use such tactics. And I’m not sure what the formula is for passing it”

“I really enjoy being able to “friend” indie rock bands for their music, but I don’t really friend any product company, or brand. I always feel like most brands are scamming you in some way when they want to be your friend.”

The good news

Millennials do want to connect with brands as long as the connections are genuine and of value. One study even suggested Millennials would welcome a separate channel for ‘friending’ brands. Research by Pace University indicates 51% of Gen Y respondents saying they’d “join a separate social network dedicated to managing brand interactions.

Some of the more positive verbatim comments from the same focus groups:

“They need to surprise me with their content or genuine nature or candor.”

“I think a possibility forTwitter posts and Facebook pages for companies would be to have actual people doing them – to have entertaining personalities or something.”

“One cool use of Twitter is with Starbucks where they have a person at corporate who will communicate back to you.”

“Yeah Comcast has their customer service reps on twitter actually helping people.”

“Yeah exclusive deals are always good, makes you feel special, get you more engaged.”

“Make me feel smart for buying your shit.”

You can read more on this post titled Why Brands Make Poor ‘Friends’.

Here’s another interesting report on the subject written up in Brandweek, this time with data from an online survey of 1,000 US women conducted last month.

• Although 52 percent of female users have "friended" a brand, feelings of neutrality (64 percent) and negativity (19 percent) were the most common reactions when women encountered brands online. Only 17 percent said the experience was positive.
• Only 10 percent of women said that participating in brand-related activities, such as finding information (8.7 percent) and writing reviews (1 percent), was their most common social media activity.

Friending brands in Québec

Brands that befriend Quebeckers the right way might find it's worth the extra effort.

According to PMB 2009 data, Quebeckers are more likely than Canadians in the ROC to agree with the statements:

- When I find a new product I like, I typically recommend it.
- I find I'm easily swayed by other people's views.

Game of chicken

It’s tempting to have fun with a trademark to attract attention and deliver a message. I recently commented on Pepsi’s campaign in Argentina that spelled the brand name ‘Pecsi’ to get closer to consumers who weren’t pronouncing the brand name correctly.

But it can also weaken the brand’s ability to protect itself against trademark infringement.

I love the outdoor campaign BOS has developed for its client St-Hubert and it seems to be getting a lot of attention in Quebec.

I guess St-Hubert felt the upside potential was worth the risk. A gutsy decision given that not long ago St-Hubert successfully fought Vancouver-based Montreal BBQ for getting too close to its brand identity. Or perhaps, as was suggested by lawyer Robert Legault in a comment on Infopresse’s site, they chose to trademark each execution.

Value over price-cutting

In a recently published white paper entitled “Brand building in Quebec in uncertain times” we wrote that marketers should emphasize value over price reduction. A few readers asked me for proof. Here it is: research evidence that discounting damages brands. (As reported by Brandweek)

Yankelovich’s Dollars & Consumer Sense 2009 study found that consumers often have a negative reaction when they see the price slashed for their favorite product or service.

In fact, 70% of respondents said such cuts probably mean the brand was overpriced in the first place. 62%  said they assumed that the product was old and they were just trying to get rid of it.

Brands that do not discount achieve a positive halo among many consumers. 64% said they assume the product is either extremely popular or a good value if they maintain their price.

Up to 60% believed companies that cut prices would continue to do so. Marketers should create expectations of ongoing value, not ongoing price cuts.