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Canadians, especially marketers, are curiously inclined to overlook, underestimate and undervalue some of our biggest brand success stories. Many business pundits dismiss our biggest international brands – names like Four Seasons, Blackberry, Cirque du Soleil – as aberrations. Other major players like McCain Foods, Umbra and Roots don’t even get nods of recognition. The myth is that Canadians can’t compete with the American genius for branding and marketing. The reality is that we have an impressive roster of stars that prove Canadian businesses can compete on their own terms by leveraging indigenous advantages. But first we need to recognize certain traits as competitive advantages. |
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Culture, like gravity, is impossible to see but its force is inescapable. Marketers need home-grown solutions to address Canada’s unique consumer climate. Two simple examples: According to Environics research, Canadians are far more skeptical about advertising than Americans. (Example: 44% of American agree “a widely advertised product is probably a good product.” Only 17% of Canadians would concur.) Over-hyped advertising brings out contrarian instincts here. In contrast, Canadians are adopting social networking tools like Facebook in astounding numbers. In April, 2007, the Toronto Facebook network alone had 140,000 more members than all of California’s 19 networks combined. Clearly, businesses need to understand the impact of cultural values on market dynamics. But few have paid attention… until now. |
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Canada has rich strains of natural resources that homegrown branders have yet to fully exploit. For example, being adaptive, communitarian and international in outlook are all examples of traits that can give Canadian businesses a huge sustainable advantage internationally. Ikonica identifies 11 Canadian characteristics that – taken as a whole – distinguish and shape our most successful brands in significant ways: - Communitarian
- International
- Chameleon
- Synthesizing
- Endurance
- Skeptical
- Multi-cultural
- Adaptable
- Collaborative
- Experiential
- Entrepreneurial
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is an example of an extraordinary success that draws deeply on its Canadian values. Tim Hortons is another. It’s highly communitarian and entrepreneurial. But its leadership is also blessed with skepticism. Executive Chairman Paul House says: “I always say to our guys, we’re not as good as everyone tells us we are, so don’t get your head too full.” |
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Most organizations don’t realize the value of their culture as a competitive advantage. No organization can sustain itself without addressing fundamental questions about purpose (“What do we do?”), character (“How we do it?”) and relevance (“Why does it matters?”). Chaviva Hosek, President of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), describes new insights into personal, social and organizational health factors that show a tangible connection between work that matters and the bottom line. The way to motivate people, Hosek explains, is to have shared, meaningful goals. Where management lives by strong organizational values, authenticity thrives. And it pays huge dividends, as Hosek illustrates: “If you measure it against pay, through regression analysis you can show that a one point improvement in trust in the workplace is worth more than a thirty-percent increase in salary.” |
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Ikonic brands are those that go beyond product or service benefits to tap – and feed – deep, cultural roots in the community. Over time, they connect commerce, community and culture in powerful ways that become real competitive advantages. Eaton’s is a prime example of a brand that failed simply because it lost touch with the meaning it had enjoyed in Canadian culture for generations. Businesses that are plagued with disengaged employees or social challenges aren’t good investment risks. Investment firms are now indexing stocks of companies with strong social responsibility platforms. In Canada, the category grew more than seven hundred percent in two years, from $65.5 billion to $503 billion. Understanding the connections between commerce, culture and community is one of the biggest challenges Canadian brands face if they hope to expand internationally as well. |
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Coping with Climate Change |
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The business world is facing its own climate change as the “Net Generation” (Don Tapscott’s term for those born since 1978) reshape our notions of commerce, culture and community in fundamentally new ways. Collaboration is the clearly the modus operandi of those weaned on MySpace, Facebook, flickr and a host of other social hubs. For this cohort, community is like breathing. Tapscott and Williams make the case that, “the Internet makes life an ongoing massive collaboration, and this generation loves it… They have a strong sense of the common good and of collective social and civic responsibility.” The makeup of Canada’s under-forty set, according to pollster of Frank Graves of Ekos Research, is quite different than either its US or European counterparts… more pluralistic, internationally minded, tolerant of diversity. Canadian businesses that stay attuned to these cultural shifts and that learn new ways of connecting with communities (virtual and physical) will thrive. If we recognize and parlay our strengths – being adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity, experiential, multicultural, curious about the world, skeptical but patient, collaborative with a strong communitarian streak – Canada’s brands should be well equipped to take on whatever the winds of change blow our way. |
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