Québec and British Columbia continue to be the provinces with the highest percentage of their population within the “normal” BMI range.
Many find this puzzling given Quebeckers’ laissez-faire attitude towards food.
When we asked 3,000 Canadians last year about their agreement with the statement “I can eat whatever I want with little concern about my health”, significantly more Quebeckers agreed (32.8%) than Canadians in the RoC (27.5%).
Unfortunately, the puzzle is being gradually solved as this attitude appears to be catching up.
According to new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, not only have obesity rates in Canada tripled since 1985, Québec saw the biggest regional increase in obesity levels; from 12.7% in 2000/01 to 16.8% in 2011, a 32.3% increase.
Familiprix and its agency lg2 are pushing the envelope with a new spot that aired during the most recent “Bye Bye” - the much anticipated humouristic year-end review on ICI Radio-Canada.
For some context about this campaign, here’s a summary of the 2011 CASSIES case study published by STRATEGY magazine:
Situation Analysis:
Familiprix is a chain of pharmacies in Quebec. It competes with several banners, amongst them Jean Coutu, which has nearly half the market share and has been the leader for many years. In the past, Familiprix had delivered impressive results with the “Ah! Ha!” campaign (CASSIES Grand Prix in 2003, Gold for Sustained Success in 2005), but the chain had been absent from advertising for two years. The return to TV was highly anticipated, and the objective over the winter of 2010/11 was to increase sales by 10%, and to attract a new generation of pharmacists into the Familiprix network.
Strategy & Insight:
Although a pharmacy is a health care destination, most banners rely on beauty products, loyalty programs, daily promotions and proximity (rather than the pharmacy) to demonstrate their added value. However, Quebec was experiencing a shortage of family physicians, so there was an opportunity to focus on the Familiprix pharmacist as a health care advisor. But what type of advisor? Familiprix took the pulse of the public and, unexpectedly, discovered that empathy and understanding were by far the most popular requirements in a pharmacist. Professional qualifications were a distant second.
Execution:
This led to two 30-second commercials based on the thought, “We put ourselves in your shoes.” In “Granddad,” three young kids (one gigantic) play horsey, and bounce up and down on Granddad’s back. However, by the magic of television, we don’t see Granddad; we see a long-suffering young pharmacist in his place. “High School” follows the same pattern. A 40-ish pharmacist is part of a gaggle of schoolgirls. He goes to his locker, sees a zit on his forehead and screeches in girlish horror.
Results:
Sales increased by 13.5% in a market that grew barely 2%. In addition, 17 new pharmacists brought their businesses into the chain.
Cause & Effect:
The TV campaign was the only Familiprix advertising effort in 2010 and 2011. No promotion more aggressive than those of the past was undertaken during the campaign. In addition, if anything, competitive pressure increased, with heavyweight and new campaigns from most of the competitive banners.
Breaking news: "Average Canadians Scratches Itchy Body Spots For Nearly Half the Year (5.2 Months), While One in Five (21%) Scratch All Year"
That's the headline of a press release issued by Ipsos Reid about a poll it conducted on behalf of Spectro.
The average Canadian scratches the itchy places on their body for nearly half the calendar year (approximately 5.2 months). One in five (21%) Canadians even indicate scratching itchy places on their body for all 12 months of the year.
How is this relevant? The survey reveals that Quebeckers only scratch their itchy body spots for 4.1 months per year. It seems Quebeckers scratch the least compared to Canadians the RoC. And it's not because they moisturize more. PMB 2013 data indicate that Quebeckers are less likely than Canadians in the RoC to be regular users of hand & body creams and lotions (48% used in past 6 months compared to 59%). Perhaps Quebeckers have a higher tolerance for itchiness...
Interesting article by Susan Krashinsky in the Globe & Mail today about the findings from a study to be published in the July issue of Food Quality and Preference.
On a related note, les Aliments du Québec recently unveiled a new logo for local organic products. It initially will be stamped on 277 products appearing on grocery shelves next month.
For more on Aliments du Québec, read this previous post.
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.
Here’s an interesting article by Jonathan Montpetit published in Canadian Business about the demand for protest-related items in Québec these days.
The symbol of this protest - the red square - is meant to say that you’re ‘squarely in the red’ or in debt. It is worn as a small square-shaped piece of red cloth. Retailers are apparently running out of red cloth.
Maalox, the heartburn remedy, is a big seller these days. As Montpetit writes “the pinkish substance is used as an eye rub by activists looking for quick relief from the burning effects of pepper spray.”
La Matraque, a microbrewery brand launched to support the student movement, sold 500 cases in one week. It helped that the name means a policeman’s billy club and the brand was launched the day Bill 78 became law…
The symptoms of ovarian cancer are difficult to identify for both patients and healthcare professionals. Not only are the signs vague and easily missed, there is no reliable early detection screening test available. That’s why listening to one’s body can make all the difference. The statistics tell the story: 70% of women diagnosed at a late stage with ovarian cancer will not survive more than five years while 90% will survive if diagnosed early.
Working with Ovarian Cancer Canada, Headspace Marketing created an awareness campaign aimed at women in Québec. The campaign literally turns up the volume on the cancer that whispers. The campaign includes a :30 TV spot, print and interactive ads and the website soyealecoute featuring Dr. Valerie Garneau.
This awareness campaign, featured in today’s issue of Infopresse Infopresse online, was created with the generous support of Les Productions 401, Pear Interactive, Louise Savoie Photographe, Boogie Studio, Pierre-Olivier Boucher, L’Oreille cassée, Marie Charlebois and VMS productions.
Seeing this classic Viagra commercial on TV prompted me to look for data on usage of erectile dysfunction drugs among Québec men. Here’s what I found from a study conducted by the UBC Center for Health Services and Policy Research. The findings were reported on this site for generic drugs.
The survey shows interesting differences in the use of erectile dysfunction drugs based on geographic location.
It shows that Canadians spent approximately $20 billion on prescriptions drugs in 2007. The highest per capita spending on prescription drugs was in Québec where people spent $681 millions on these drugs. The lowest per capita spending on prescription drugs was in British Columbia, where people spent $43 millions on prescription drugs.
However, when you consider the category of erectile dysfunction drugs, the tables were changed. Men in British Colombia seemed to obtain or use 16 percent more of ED drugs than the average male in Canada. However, men in Québec seemed to obtain or use 16 percent less erectile dysfunction drugs than the Canadian average.
This difference in the use of erectile dysfunction drugs between Québec and British Columbia is being attributed to lifestyle differences, as well as cultural factors. The mindset of a Québec male may be such that he prefers to bring out a bottle of wine, set up a candle-lit dinner and open bottles of massage oils to set off a romantic mood, than whip out a pack of erectile dysfunction pills. Québec men seem to be more averse to taking erectile dysfunction drugs, even when their partners are encouraging them to take these.
Note that the author writes "the mindset of a Québec male may be such that he prefers to bring out a bottle of wine..." That may help with the mood but too much of it won't help with the dysfunction. Here's a Q&A on this topic from WebMD: It's difficult for you to get an erection when you've been drinking. - Drinking too much alcohol can lead to erectile dysfunction. While a glass of wine may help you and your partner get in the mood, heavy drinking can really hamper your sexual performance.
I love sugar in my coffee. And I’ve never adopted so-called artificial sweeteners.
Now an alternative appears to be gaining in popularity. A sweetener is derived from a plant called stevia, which grows in Paraguay and Brazil and has been used for centuries in South America. According to the Globe & Mail, it's already available in Canadian natural-food stores as a tabletop sweetener. But now companies such as Cargill Ltd. and Merisant Worldwide Inc. are extracting rebaudioside A, one of the components that makes the plant sweet, and turning it into a zero-calorie, natural rival to artificial sweeteners like Splenda.
According to the same G&M article, consumer research firm Mintel estimates the market for products made with stevia could reach $2-billion (U.S.) by the end of 2011.
Last fall, Health Canada released updated rules that allow stevia and its extracts to be added as a non-medicinal ingredient to natural health products, which has opened the door to allowing food and beverage makers to expand the use of stevia in their products.
Stevia is available under various brands including Truvia and PureVia.
See this spot for Truvia – the all natural, zero calorie sweetener that comes from a leaf. Honestly sweet. Honestly?
Quebeckers and low calorie sweeteners
The all-natural aspect of a sweetener that comes from a leaf might change Quebeckers’ attitudes towards low calories sweeteners. However, for now, it seems they aren’t huge fans of the stuff. According to PMB 2009 data, only 7.7% of Quebeckers used a low calorie sweetener in the past 6 months compared to 16.1% of Canadians in the ROC.
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