What Québec Wants™

An Oscar for Québec?

What many Quebeckers want this weekend is for one of their own to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. They came close last year when Denis Villeneuve’s "Incendies" lost to the Danish film “In A Better World”.

This year’s five nominated films deserve to win for the simple reason that they all got this far. The nominees are:

• “A Separation” Iran
• “Bullhead” Belgium
• “Footnote” Israel
• “In Darkness” Poland
• “Monsieur Lazhar” Canada

“Monsieur Lazhar”, directed by Philippe Falardeau, is set in Montreal and tells the story of Bachir Lazhar, who is an Algerian refugee hired to take the place of an elementary school teacher who has committed suicide. As the students mourn their previous teacher’s death, Bachir tries to move on from the death of his wife, who was killed as a result of writing about some of Algeria’s social problems.

I haven’t seen all nomianted films in this category but I’m willing to make a prediction about the winner. I am not a movie critic but I have a hunch as to which one will have done what it takes to win: best lobbying.

Members of the Academy must see a movie in order to vote for it. This should go without saying yet not every member sees every nominated film - and that’s likely particularly true of foreign language films.

Lobbying, in this case, is akin to what political operatives call “getting the vote out” on election day. Studios and distributors will do whatever it takes to ensure voting members get to see their film. They arrange convenient screenings in L.A. and New-York and they’ll work the phones to get their movie seen.

Working the phones

Québec film producer Denise Robert, in an interview Radio-Canada aired recently, told of how Denys Arcand’s film Les Invasions Barbares won an Oscar in 2004 after losing to Osama at the Golden Globes. The film had been bought by Harvey Weistein after seeing it at Cannes. That night at the Golden Globe, Robert told Weinstein he’d better work the phones. He, and the powerful Miramax machine did, and Les Invasions Barbares won.

Sony’s Choice

The nominees for Best Foreign Language Films last year were:

• “Biutiful” Mexico
• “Dogtooth” Greece
• “Outside the Law” Algeria
• “In a Better World” Denmark
• “Incendies” Canada

“In a Better World” won. It had something in common with “Incendies”. Both were acquired by Sonic Picture Classics.

With two nominated films, Sony Picture Classics apparently decided to pick a horse. For whatever reason (and I’m sure they were well calculated), they chose to lobby hard (harder) for “In a Better World”.

Prediction

My prediction is therefore based on which film will likely lobby the hardest this year. I’d like to see “Monsieur Lazhar” win but it probably won’t. Its distributor, Music Box Films, likely doesn’t have Harvey Weinstein’s Rolodex or Sony Picture Classics’ muscle.

I’ll bet one of the two Sony Picture Classics films nominated this year will win; Iran’s “A Separation” or Poland’s “In Darkness” - but I'm still hopeful for "Monsieur Lazhar"

As Peter Knegt wrote in IndieWire, “making any assumption in this category is ill-advised.”

Where are the food swappers in Québec?

The Food Swap Network defines a food swap as a recurring event where members of a community share homemade, homegrown, or foraged foods with each other. Swaps allow direct trades to take place between attendees, e.g., a loaf of bread for a jar of pickles or a half-dozen backyard eggs. Swap events also include a potluck as an immediate food-sharing (and sometimes item-sampling) component. These events are a delicious way to diversify the homemade foods in your own pantry while getting to know members of your local food community.

It’s becoming a movement - what the Food Swap Network calls community-based food sharing groups. The Network’s website introduces visitors to people it calls “the core founders of the modern food swapping movement”. They are described as five ladies that have “spread the swap love across the US, Canada, and abroad by answering new hosts’ questions, describing food swapping to the media, and building communities around sharing food.”

That may be so but there’s another lady who’s getting a lot of attention.

Her name is Isabelle Baril-Ortley, a Quebecker living in California.

Here’s how she is described in an article by David Boylan published this week in The Coast News:

Baril-Ortley has a fascinating background, having been raised in a small town in Quebec where farming, foraging, hunting and trapping, fishing, making cheese, canning and butchering were a way of life. She mentioned that many of the photos of her youth include some type of wild game that she or her family had successfully hunted.

This was not hunting for sport; it was to fill the freezer for the long Canadian winters.

Baril-Ortley fondly remembers the canning parties with family and neighbors where everyone contributed and left with their fair share of whatever the group brought to the occasion. Baril-Ortley was farm/woods to table before those terms were catchy marketing phrases for restaurants. She really has walked the talk so to speak and those experiences formed the roots of the modern food swap.

I searched the Food Swap Network for a Food Swap in Québec and came out empty. That’s too bad. Perhaps Ms. Baril-Ortley still has family there and could encourage them to return to their roots as food swappers.

Accents and apostrophes

Should anyone care whether food retailer Metro has an acute accent in its name?

Yves Michaud, a well-known activist shareholder in Québec, clearly does. He filed a complaint with the Office québécois de la langue française and was quite vocal at Metro’s annual shareholder meeting held earlier this week.

Metro’s management isn’t budging. It argues that “Metro” (without an accent) has always been its trademark and is neither French nor English. From a strict legal standpoint, Metro is right and l’Office is likely to agree.

What might be surprising to some is not only the media coverage this is generating but also the views expressed in editorials by leading, pro-business publications.

Les Affaires’ François Pouliot asks “What would be the harm in giving Metro a true French name?” He argues that the retailer is a success story and a symbol of Québec Inc. After all, this wouldn’t have to be done overnight but gradually as new signs are installed so that they are “better adapted to Québec’s linguistic landscape” [The translations are mine.] Click here for the full article.

La Presse’s Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot writes that it’s difficult to understand Metro’s position on this. He suggests that Metro could keep its legal name for financial documents and for its operations in Ontario but gradually change its store signs in Québec. Click here for the full article.

Signs are expensive but the two Pouliots seem to forget that there’s far more to having two separate brand visual identities - just ask the folks at Staples/Bureau en Gros, Mark’s/L’Équipeur, Home Outfitters/Déco-Découverte, to name just a few.

Fueling this debate over accents is Quebecor’s recent public musing about adding an acute accent to its name in Québec. The media conglomerate is apparently studying the matter and will likely recommend the change to its board and shareholders.

Apostrophes

Retailers and foodservice operators entering Québec rarely have acute accent issues but they must sometimes deal with having an apostrophe in their name. Tim Horton’s dropped the apostrophe to become Tim Hortons when it entered the Québec market. Few in the rest of Canada seemed to care about the hockey player’s name new spelling. Just as few in Québec seem to care that Restaurant McDonald’s kept the apostrophe in its name.

On the Run

Don’t get me wrong. Language issues matter a great deal in Québec when branding decisions get media attention.

ExxonMobil brands its convenience stores On the Run, unstranslated, around the world, except in Québec, where opposition from the population, despite government sanction, forced Exxon’s local subsidiary to retain the French name Marché Express.

Marketing

Les Affaires’ François Pouliot claims that adding an accent to Métro would be “un bon coup de marketing” (a good marketing move).

It would be if Metro’s customers cared. Judging by the nature of readers’ comments in La Presse, it’s not clear that a majority does. Some rightly point out that even Paris’ Metro is spelled without an accent.
Even if many did care, one would have to assess the cost-benefit of implementing the name change on many more assets than simply exterior store signs? Would the brand equity gradually erode? Or worse, would customers start boycotting Metro without an accent?

I doubt it.

This is a public affairs issue at this point and it should be handled as such. How it’s handled will determine whether it becomes a marketing issue.

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Here are some cases that have attracted the interest of the language watchdog or people seeking to protect the French language:

• 1996: A woman warns the owner of a Quebec pet store she might get in touch with language authorities because Peekaboo, the parrot she wanted to buy, didn't speak French.
• 1999: The Old Navy chain is asked to rename its stores "La Vieille Rivière." It never happens.
• 2000: The owner of an Indian restaurant is told he's breaking the law by having coasters for "Double Diamond," a British beer.
• 2001: Some people express disappointment that race-car driver Jacques Villeneuve calls his restaurant "Newtown."
• 2005: Language authorities say they will investigate complaints that Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay's party used the word "Go" on its campaign posters and pamphlets, as in "Go Montreal."
• 2007: Imperial Oil says it will keep its Quebec-only "Marché Express" name for its Esso gas stations after protests against a proposal to change the name to "On the Run," as the stations are known elsewhere in North America.
• 2007: Language activists decry that callers to many Quebec government offices are told to "press nine" for English before instructions are delivered in French. Some of the departments have since changed the message to put English at the end.

[Source: CBC]

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Oprah wants to know about life in Montréal.

It’s not clear if the Oprah show is planning to travel to Montreal but it’s asking about life in Montreal on its website. The questions are fairly typical for Americans inquiring about life in Canada. Here’s a sample:

• We want to know what life is like in Montreal for a typical Canadian family and how it's different from those of us in the United States.
• How is your daily routine different from a typical Americans?
• Are there customs or traditions you follow that are unique to your family, Montreal or Canada?
• Are you a hockey fanatic?
• How is Montreal different from say life in Cleveland, Ohio?

This one suggests that Oprah’s researchers haven’t spent much time in Montreal, let alone checked out Stats Canada online...

• Does your family speak French at the dinner table?

If you’d like to provide answers, click here.

Here’s an image from the front page of le Journal de Montréal that provides a partial answer to this question:

• If we were to spend an average day with you or your family, what would we see?

This cyclist is riding one of 5,000 Bixi bikes available to residents of Montreal.

The wine this legal drinking age 18 year old is taking home is going to add up to the highest per capita consumption in Canada at 21.58 litres compared to 14.61 nationally and 8.96 in the USA.

And the music he’s listening to might very well be from Montreal's Arcade Fire.

 

Branding horror

It’s often said that if you don’t define your brand, someone else will.

Sometimes, that someone might be a monster.

Among all the media coverage that the tragedy in Norway generated, we find a few articles dealing with the fact that Anders Behring Breivik wears Lacoste shirts. It seems to be his preferred clothing label. According to an article in The Telegraph, he’s declared so on page 1406 of his crazy 1500 pages manifesto.

Yesterday, a representative from Lacoste reached by La Presse said their thoughts were with the people of Norway but offered no comments on the potential branding issue – a wise move… Why would they?

This reminds me of another horrific story. Karla Homolka, the partner of rapist and murderer Paul Bernardo, was reportedly fond of Tim Hortons’ Iced Capp. I recall media reports drawing attention to this irrelevant aspect of the case. But I don’t recall Tim issuing a statement about Homolka’s endorsement of the famous drink.

Why Québec Inc. might be Ltd.

 

The Financial Post recently published a most interesting article on Wealth in Québec.

Here are some excerpts. The full article can be accessed here.

Per capita, there are far fewer rich people in the French-speaking province than in Ontario. Barely 3.9% of taxpayers earn more than $100,000 a year in Quebec compared to 6.3% in Ontario, according to 2008 revenue department statistics, which are the most recent available. The ranks of the truly monied are even thinner.

“We in Quebec have succeeded in various things. But we still have a problem with risk-taking and growing,” says Yves-Thomas Dorval, head of the Conseil du Patronat, a group that represents Quebec’s largest employer associations. “We elevate people who like to keep things small. And we decry companies that are becoming big.”

Quebec has the lowest entrepreneurial intensity, as measured by the ratio of business owners and self-employed workers to total employment, when compared to Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. And that doesn’t appear set to improve, with one recent survey showing only 7% of Quebecers indicating they intend to start a new business or take over an existing business over the next 10 years, compared to a national average of 13%.

In his 2006 book Éloge de la Richesse (In Praise of Wealth), Montreal journalist Alain Dubuc writes that Quebec has a significant “ideological blockage” in which its citizens are deeply suspicious of richness and rich people in general. He says one of the main reasons is a widespread conviction that when someone enriches himself, “someone else, somewhere else, gets screwed.”

 

 

Are you fruity and vibrant?

There’s a great scene in the movie Sideways where Miles (Paul Giamatti) instructs Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on the art of wine tasting.

Miles: Let me show you how this is done. First thing, hold the glass up and examine the wine against the light. You're looking for color and clarity. Just, get a sense of it. OK? Uhh, thick? Thin? Watery? Syrupy? OK? Alright. Now, tip it. What you're doing here is checking for color density as it thins out towards the rim. Uhh, that's gonna tell you how old it is, among other things. It's usually more important with reds. OK? Now, stick your nose in it. Don't be shy, really get your nose in there. Mmm... a little citrus... maybe some strawberry... passion fruit... and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of like asparagus and just a flutter of a, like a, nutty Edam cheese... 

Jack: Wow. Strawberries, yeah! Strawberries. Not the cheese...

What do you do if you’re more Jack than Miles?

If you shop for wine in Québec’s liquor stores, you simply look for your colour. And I’m not referring to red or white.

Here’s an idea I’ve been meaning to write about for a while. It’s simple and beautifully executed online and in stores.

Go to SAQ.com and find your taste tag.

Let’s say you select ‘aromatic and mellow’.

You can then view all products from this tag, including their price and store availability.

What if you’re not sure about your preferred taste tag?

You take the online quiz to find your tag.

In case, you’re not sure about ‘fruit only’ versus ‘multiple aromas’, the illustrations should help… Jack would click on fruit only; “Wow. Strawberries”.

Pick your favourite varietal.

Bingo. You are fruity and sweet. Just look for all wines identified by this colour tag and enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Localisation

I came across this fantastic Greek-style yogurt from President’s Choice.

It’s a ‘Must try!’ product according to a flash on its packaging. If you use machine translation to find a French equivalent – say Google translate – you will get ‘Faut essayer’. It’s literal but it just doesn’t sound right. Sadly, we see this sort of meaningless literal translation on packaging quite often. For example, a handwash branded Level has a bilingual label describing the product in French as ‘la main se lave’ meaning ‘the hand washes itself’.

It’s clear from the French version of this yogurt that PC insists on more than translation for its labeling as ‘must try!’ becomes ‘coup de cœur!’ in French. (Notice the proper ligature of o and e.]

A 'coup de cœur' is when you fall instantly in love with something.  You are shopping and impulsively buy a new skirt that you just have to have - you could say that it is a 'coup de cœur'. The idiom is well understood by French consumers and, more importantly, will send a clear signal that the brand is making attempts to connect locally. It becomes even more important as many brands now seek to engage in meaningful conversations with consumers particularly via social networks.

We call this adaptation.

The language industry calls this localisation.

Language localisation is not merely a translation activity, because it involves a comprehensive study of the target culture in order to correctly adapt the product to local needs. (Wikipedia)

This definition of localisation suggests that it requires a comprehensive study of the target culture. It’s true. However, it seems that even machine translation is catching up - but isn't quite there. Ask Google translate for an English equivalent to ‘coup de cœur’ and you’ll get ‘favorite’ (or is it ‘favourite’?)

I guess machines don’t yet ensure true localisation (or is it ‘localization’?). And what should it be: yogurt, yoghurt or yogourt? Ok, you get the point (vous obtenez le point).

Ditch the blonde when advertising in Québec. - Part 2

A follow-up to a post from a year ago.

It referred to the president of Ipsos-ASI, a reputable advertising research firm, advising against featuring blondes in ads in Québec since blondes only make up only about 3% of the Québec population.

I argued that this simply reinforces one of many clichés about the kind of advertising that works and doesn’t work in Québec.

Ipsos Reid, a sister company to Ipsos-ASI, just released a survey it conducted on behalf of Schwarzkopf Professional that sheds new light on this burning question.

A majority (59%) of Canadians ‘agree’ (13% strongly/45% somewhat) that ‘blondes are sexy’, with men (67%) being especially likely to think so. Just four in ten (41%) ‘disagree’ (11% strongly/30% somewhat). In fact, given the choice to choose any hair colour for a day, fully one in three (33%) Canadians would go/stay blonde, rather than choose any other hair colour (67%), with Quebecers (37%) being the most likely to say they’d want to go/stay blonde.

Case closed.