What Québec Wants™

What motivates French Canadians to engage with online content

AOL’s Content Moments study looked at over 6,800 consumer interactions with online content from 4,000 online consumers. It uncovered eight universal motivations or Content Moments:

• Inspire: look for fresh ideas or try something new
• Be in the Know: stay updated or find relevant ideas
• Find: seek answers or advice
• Comfort: seek support or insight
• Connect: learn something new or be part of a community
• Feel Good: improve mood or feel relaxed
• Entertain: look for an escape or a mental break
• Update Socially: stay updated or take a mental break

French Canadians are more likely to be in a Find, Entertain and Feel Good Moment, while English Canadians are more likely to be in a Comfort, Update Socially and Connect Moment.

IGA, Rona and Lindt are Québec's most trusted brands according to the Gustavson Brand Trust survey

Costco and Canon stand out as the only two brands to make the top ten most trusted brands in Québec and Canada overall.

The Gustavson Brand Trust Index (GBTI) measures Canadian consumers' opinions about 276 corporate and product brands across 27 categories. The GBTI evaluated responses collected from 6384 Canadian consumers to assess their levels of brand trust and examine what causes them to recommend a brand to their friends and family.

Canada's top ten most trusted brands:

1. MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op)
2. President’s Choice
3. Costco
4. Home Hardware
5. Shoppers Drug Mart / Pharmaprix
6. Canon
7. DavidsTea
8. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
9. Band-Aid
10. Columbia Sportswear

Québec's top ten most trusted brands:

1. IGA
2. Rona
3. Lindt/Lindor
4. Sony
5. Canon
6. Purolator
7. Samsung
8. Costco
9. Agropur
10. FedEx

Gustavson Brand Trust Model

The brand trust survey instrument measures different dimensions of trust that influence whether consumers recommend a brand to their networks:

• Brand trust – consumer perceptions of whether the brand is trustworthy and acts with integrity
• Values-based trust – consumer perceptions on the brand’s social responsibility
• Functional trust – consumer perceptions on how well the brand’s product performs or functions
• Relationship trust – consumer perception on how the brand interacts with its customers
• Net recommendations – whether consumers recommend the brand to others

The state of Lowe's Canada - six months after its purchase of Rona

Interesting look at Lowe's plans in this exclusive interview with the head of Lowe's Canada, Sylvain Prud'homme, in a recent issue of Québec business publication Les affaires.

Objective is to double net profit of the combined Lowe's/Rona business by 2021.

A new operational structure around four divisions with separate P&Ls; big box format, neighbourhood stores, pros and contractors, affiliated stores.

A decentralized structure to cater to regional differences leveraging the retailer's extensive database.

Multi-million dollar investment in e-commerce. According to Prud'homme, online sales do no negatively impact in-store sales - quite the contrary. In the home renovation sector, the web is only the starting point to a bathroom renovation project where shoppers may choose a bath and a sink but eventually visit the store to confirm their choice, get tips from store personnel and complete the project with additional purchases.

Rona signs won't soon disappear from Québec's landscape but Lowe's signs will very likely appear in the province over the next few years. Let's see if the retailer decides to drop the apostrophe as Tim Hortons did when it entered the market decades ago.

The Québec character: joie de vivre, easygoing, non-committal, victim, villagers, creative and proud

New book by pollster Jean-Marc Léger, journalist Pierre Duhamel and Professor Jacques Natel: Cracking the Quebec Code: The 7 keys to understanding Quebecers. It identifies seven traits that define the Quebec character: joie de vivre, easygoing, non-committal, victim, villagers, creative and proud.

Our firm, Headspace Marketing, published similar findings in 2012 and 2014 from our What Québec Wants study.