Exploiting cultural differences as a marketing strategy
Posted by Jack Brown on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 @ 02:32 PM
In a July 31, 2009 New York Times article entitled: "In a Quebecer's Heart, Pepsi Occupies a Special Place", the author explores how Pepsi has been able to exploit the cultural differences of this primarily French-speaking Canadian province's population to build a brand share over double that of Coke.
Traditionally, global advertisers have entered new markets by maintaining the homegrown themes in their advertising campaigns and translating these themes directly into the local language. In the early stages these translations were simply dubbed voiceovers in home-market produced television commercials. Gradually this strategy evolved to the hiring of local talent to provide a direct translation using the same theme and dialogue. But even these local talent translations ran the risk of being problematic or highly embarrassing. As an example, Coca-Cola's, "Coke Adds Life" theme of a number of years ago translated into the Chinese market as: "Coke Brings Your Ancestors Back from Their Graves". It was not until Coke and McDonalds were faced with flagging sales and profits in foreign markets that they rectified the situation by developing completely localized campaigns in each of these markets. Although more global advertisers are adopting this strategy; many still remain in "one-size-fits-all" camp. They adhere to the global village philosophy that we all have similar tastes and behaviors.
What makes the Pepsi situation unique in Canada in general, and Quebec in particular, is that Quebec can be viewed as a country within a country. From a media perspective, it is its own market. It's separated from the remainder of English-speaking Canada, and by extension, the U.S. market. That's why a campaign featuring Michael Jackson which was successfully run a number of years ago around the world, and in English Canada, but was replaced in Quebec using a local celebrity who had wide appeal in this market. Additionally, from a cultural perspective, there has historically been a certain amount of animosity between the English-speaking population of Canada, and the French-speaking Quebecers. This has created cultural sensitivities which, if not understood, could have created a negative backlash against Pepsi. But, Pepsi and its marketing team recognized these sensitivities and, rather than avoid them, have exploited them. As an example, by using mock stereotypes of Quebecers in a humorous way, they are poking fun at themselves. This tricky approach has worked because everyone is in on the joke. However, if these approaches had been developed by English Canadians, there would be a French revolution.
Clearly, global advertisers face the cost issue of tailoring campaigns to local markets and must determine the ROI associated with these campaigns. In the Pepsi- Quebec situation, where the Quebec market has only seven million people, and the per capita costs for localized efforts were significant relative to other more populated markets, the payout in generating a share double that of Coke far outweighed these costs.