What Québec Wants™

Unknown celebrity

Sears-owned Corbeil Appliance‘s decision to use its long-time Québec spokesperson Yves Corbeil in its Ontario advertising is puzzling.

Yves Corbeil is a very familiar face in Québec. He began his career as a television host in 1964 and has since appeared in over 100 Quebec shows of various genres. He has been the retailer’s spokesperson since 2002.

Corbeil Appliances’ website states that “Corbeil chose a well-known actor and speaker as spokesperson for the company in all its communications. Yves Corbeil’s personality – friendly and always willing to listen – fits perfectly with the image of Corbeil stores.”

That may be so in Québec but Mr. Corbeil isn’t well known in Toronto. There are no doubt cost efficiencies in using the same creative in both markets. I guess he’ll eventually become the face of the “specialist” even if few will recognize the namesake.

Missing Target

Like most Canadians, I was hoping to discover the same Target I’ve experienced in the US. So I visited a six day old Target store in Toronto this morning. I’m sure the retailer will eventually resolve the supply issue but the store looked more like a clearance at the Zellers store it replaced than a brand new store. First impressions matter. Mine was made years ago in the US so I’ll keep that impression. Hopefully my fellow shoppers will forgive the retailer and return when the shelves are stocked.

According to this article in La Presse, stores in Québec won't open until the fall. 

For a related story about Target’s expansion in the Québec market, see this article by Susan Krashinsky published in the Globe & Mail.

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Joyful Living in the kitchen and in the bedroom

You may remember the 1986 movie The Decline of the American Empire. It won numerous awards and was nominated for the 1986 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

It’s the story of eight intellectual friends - four men and four women from the Department of History at the Université de Montréal - preparing to have dinner together. The ensuing conversations range from their professional lives to politics, but primarily concern their sexual exploits. The group has plans to gather at a secluded house for dinner. While the four men prepare the food and reflect on their promiscuity, the four women discuss their own affairs at a nearby gym. At the dinner table, conflicts soon arise when Dominique reveals that she herself has had affairs with two of the men there, one of whom is married to Louise (also present).

While the movie is almost thirty years old, it captures much of what we call the Joyful Living Connector in our What Québec Wants study. It’s what compels Quebeckers to seek pleasures in all aspects of their lives; in the kitchen and, it appears, also in bedrooms.

We asked 3,030 Canadians about their level of agreement with the statement “I often enjoy entertaining at home”. 61.5% of French Quebeckers agreed compared to 48.5% of Canadians in the ROC.

Joyful Living is about being satisfied with one’s life. And Quebeckers are known to make  their “joie de vivre” a priority. Our study’s findings certainly confirm this but it also reveals that what is often thought of as a distinct attitude of French Quebeckers is not exclusive to them. Canadians in the ROC are equally keen to “getting more pleasure out of life”.

However, French Quebeckers stand out on one aspect of the Joyful Living Connector: the “need to satisfy a hunger for new experiences” and wanting to “be extravagant”. Perhaps this explain why sexual exploits were discussed around food and wine in the movie.

It’s interesting to note the obvious difference between the French and English versions of the movie poster. This too shows how aspects of Joyful Living differ between French and English Canadians. For a related post about Quebeckers and nudity, click here.

For more about the What Québec Wants syndicated study, click here.

Nutritional labels - informative only if you understand them.

Two years ago, Time Magazine ran a piece entitled “Building a Better Label”. It claimed that some food labels are designed to inform consumers while others are meant to confuse and seduce.

The article was prompted by the FDA’s “request for comments and information” on "ways to enhance the usefulness to consumers of information on the principal display panel of food products ('front-of-pack' labeling) or on shelf tags in retail stores." Simply put, the agency wanted to know how consumers read and use such nutritional information, and whether there's a way to standardize its presentation to help people make better choices.

Canadians and food labels

Had a similar request for comments and information been made of Canadians, the findings would have shown that a quarter of Canadians in English Canada say they “find it difficult to understand the nutrition terms on food labels”. That number climbs to 41% among French Quebeckers. According to findings from our What Québec Wants study on the grocery sector, French Quebeckers are more likely to struggle with the nutritional information found on food products. It's not a surprise then that 35% of French Quebeckers say they are “confused about how to eat a healthy diet” compared to 25% of Canadians in the ROC.

This reflects what we call the Life Uncomplicated Connector; Quebeckers’ desire to keep it simple, short and sweet. It’s what makes them significantly more likely to say that “reading is old fashioned - there are quicker and easier ways to find out what I want to know”.

Marketers have found ways to address this issues - some more transparent than others. They range from graphical representations of select nutritional information to “check marks” such as Health Check, Smart Choices, etc. to the UK’s “traffic lights” where color-coded traffic light labels — red (high), amber (medium) and green (low) — indicate levels of calories, sugars, fats and sodium in a food.

Traffic lights... that’s the kind of “quicker and easier way to find out what you want to know” that would likely please four in ten French Quebeckers.

Read more on these packaged-food labeling systems here.

For more about our What Québec Wants syndicated study, click here.

Related articles

FDA considers food label updates to make nutrition facts easier to read

Promoting local food provenance increases market share in Québec.

This logo is visible on the packaging of many food products in Québec. It has become a widely recognized sign of local provenance since it was first introduced in the late 90’s.

Findings from our recently released What Québec Wants syndicated study reveal that Québec consumers say it is important to “purchase local products, that is, those made or grown in my own province”; 48.6% of French Quebeckers say it’s important compared to 43.8% of Canadians in the ROC.

French Quebeckers appear to be more concerned with the provenance of the food they consume. 65.5% agree with the statement “it’s important to me to know about the origin of the food that I eat” compared to 54% of Canadians in the ROC.

French Quebeckers are also more likely to agree that “locally grown food products are generally superior to others”; 63% of French Quebeckers agree compared to 57% of Canadians in the ROC.

These are significant differences but does this translate into purchases? When comparing brands at the grocery store shelf, does it matter that one is made in Québec with ingredients sourced entirely from Québec while others aren’t?

A survey conduced by a professor of brand management from l’Université de Sherbrooke in 2008 confirmed that it does.

First, some background on Aliments du Québec and a few definitions.

According to the organization’s website, Aliments du Québec's mission is to increase the market share of Québec food products on the domestic market through promotional activities, brand identification and consumer education.

There are two classifications:

Aliments du Québec (Food from Québec)

Any product entirely made from ingredients sourced in Quebec or composed of a minimum of 85% of main ingredients from Quebec can be considered an « Aliments du Québec ».  All the processing and packaging activities must be done in Quebec.

Aliments préparés au Québec (Food prepared in Québec)

Any product processed and packaged entirely in Quebec can be considered an « Aliments préparés au Québec ».  When the main ingredients are available in Quebec in sufficient quantities, they must be used.

The value of the Aliments du Québec brand

The study was conducted by Francine Rodier, a Ph.D. in Brand Management from l’Université de Sherbrooke. The main finding was that food products stamped with the Aliment du Québec logo had an average market share increase of 2.8%.

The study looked at fifteen products during a 39 weeks period (27 weeks before the logo was applied and 12 weeks after the logo was applied). Increases were observed on products with dominant and much smaller market share. For the full report of the study (in French), click here.

For more about our What Québec Wants™ study, click here.

Pepsi’s global “Live for Now” campaign in Québec?

Twenty years ago Ries and Trout wrote a great little book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. One of the laws, the Law of Focus, states that “the most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind”.

In Québec, one brand has obeyed this law without fail: Pepsi

From the highly successful Claude Meunier campaign starting in the 80s to the most recent campaign featuring the comic duo Les Denis Drolet, Pepsi has been waiving the Fleur-de-lis. It has done so by focusing on one powerful word: “ici” (as in “here it’s Pepsi”)

 

This has served the brand very well as it played to Quebeckers strong sense of identity. As University of Toronto professor Andrew Stark once said “The place itself has become central to Quebeckers’ sense of identity”. This truism is also evident in the findings from our What Québec Want study.

The Chez Nous Connector (a strong sense of belonging) has a very high intensity - meaning it matters much to Quebeckers and does significantly more so to French Quebeckers than to Canadians in the rest of Canada.

Back then, Pepsi was justified in creating locally for the Québec market. The choice of a new generation featuring Michael Jackson just wasn't the choice of young French Quebeckers.

Perhaps things have changed.

It seems Pepsi is now hoping to own a word around the world. The still new global campaign “Live for Now” has been rolled out in English Canada since it was introduced by PepsiCo in the U.S. almost a year ago.

According to a Pepsi release “it conducted extensive global research, connecting with thousands of fans, and "Live for Now" reflects the insight that Pepsi fans all around the world desire to capture the excitement of now – a mind-set that is aligned at the very core with the brand's DNA.”

Embracing the now.

Findings from our What Québec Want study reveal that the Living in the Moment Connector, while not as intense as the Chez Nous Connector, is quite intense. Quebeckers are significantly more likely to say that it’s important to make the most of today because the future is uncertain.

Unsolicited advice to Pepsi

“Ici c’est Pepsi” is likely still a strong platform for the brand in Québec. However, it might be worth looking at ways to leverage the global campaign by combining two Connectors: Chez Nous and Living in the Moment. If the campaign can be rolled out in Spain (view the spot below), perhaps it can be adapted for Québec with a touch of Chez Nous. Only a few words of caution: while the message about living now might prove relevant to Quebeckers and, importantly efficiencies can be achieved by adapting a global platform, the backlash that dropping "ici" for "now" could trigger might not be worth it.

 

An animal skin for a human skin - the motto of Hudson's Bay

The new (old) logo is being praised as a smart move by the American-owned iconic Canadian retailer.

The French version is nice too albeit longer which means a smaller font on the website: LA BAIE D'HUDSON

However, upon closer examination, one has to worry about its legality in Québec.

The coat of arms contains the motto PRO PELLE CUTEM, Latin for "a skin for a skin" according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.

The official motto was adopted soon after the company received its charter in 1670. Both the origin and the interpretation of the motto have been much debated. It may be an adaptation of pellem pro pelle (Job 2:4, usually translated "skin for skin") or of pro cute pellem (Juvenal, Satires 10.192, "a hide in place of a skin"). The motto is often taken to mean "[animal] skins obtained at the cost of [human] skin."

Nice. But not French. Let's cross our fingers that officials from L'Office québécois de la langue française won't get too close to the logo. Not sure the rebranding would be such a good idea with the line "Animal skin for human skin" in French.

Looking after number one.

Remember when we sang about wanting to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony and buying the world a Coke?

 

The 1970 spot for Coke, even if it were updated for today, would likely resonate less with French Quebeckers than it would with Canadians in the ROC.

According to the findings from our What Québec Wants™ syndicated study, French Quebeckers are more self-centered than Canadians in the ROC. They’re more likely to say it’s important to live for themselves rather than for others, and to get what they want no matter what the consequences are.

While the All About Me Connector creates challenges for marketers appealing to altruistic motives, it compels French Quebeckers to spend on themselves. One in two say it’s important to buy themselves the things they like compared to one in three in the ROC.

For more about our What Québec Wants™ study, click here.

Sang-Froid

What do you get when you cross old Québécois myths and a PC game?

You get Sang-Froid, Tales of Werewolves. A video game PC Magazine praised for its “wonderfully vibrant art direction”. The game is the brainchild of Yan Pépin, the founder of Artifice Studio. It follows the story of two brothers, Jacques and Joe, defending a cabin and their fever-ridden sister Josephine from wolves, werewolves and, behind it all, the Devil himself.

The Toronto Star’s Adam Kovac wrote this about the game: “The twist to French Canada’s lore of loups-garous, or werewolves, is that they are based on a mixture of Catholic and aboriginal myth that emerged during a time of economic uncertainty in the 19th century. The terrifying stories told to children about half-man, half-wolf beasts that lurked in the dark were both a metaphor and a caution to any precocious youth who might have been thinking of leaving the family farm to seek work in a logging camp. Losing one’s soul (to say nothing of a potential mauling) was a very real fear in the Catholic-dominated culture of 19th-century Quebec.”

There are other examples of how popular French-Canadian tales have been used by marketers. The Chasse-galerie, also known as "The Bewitched Canoe" or "The Flying Canoe" is a tale of voyageurs who make a deal with the devil. That’s the image on the label of one of Québec’s most popular microbrew, La Maudite.

This taps into what we call the Chez Nous Connector; Quebeckers’ concern for tradition and pride in all that’s local. Our What Québec Wants™ study asked 3,030 Canadians how important or unimportant this statement is to them personally: Preventing regional customs or traditions from disappearing. 33.2% of Canadians in the ROC said it was important compared to 42.5% of French Quebeckers.

Quebeckers might not want the werewolves to return to their neighbourhood but they’ll enthusiastically shoot them in a digital world.

For more about our What Québec Wants™ study, click here.

What if we made life simpler?

That’s the question asked by the magazine L’actualité on its cover last month.

This is the answer we got a few months earlier in response to our What Québec Want™ survey. We asked 3,030 Canadians how important or unimportant this statement is to them personally: Taking measures to simplify my life. 49.8 % of Canadians in the ROC said it was important compared to 62.7% of French Quebeckers.

What does this mean to marketers? Keep it simple and take the guesswork out of the purchase decision. For an example, read this post about Québec Liquor Board’s taste tags.

For more about our What Québec Wants™ study, click here.