So That’s Canadian – Eh?

By Calvin McElroy, Guest Author

We Canadians undersell our capabilities, and suffer from a lack of awareness and brand identity in the US, and international markets. Is Canada simply an incubator for the world’s peacekeepers, hockey players and comedians – or a vast, rugged, sparsely-populated land with lots of beavers and maple trees? Much more on Canadian culture [here].

The announcement this week by the Molson Coors Brewing Company, regarding their 2007 advertising campaign was quite telling…

“In a new campaign, Molson Coors Brewing Company is aligning itself with one of Canada’s greatest assets – nature. In the “Here’s to Good Nature” campaign, mysterious imagery transforms Molson Canadian beer into striking Canadian nature scenes. Every bottle of Molson Canadian is filled with the good nature and taste as big as Canada.”… whatever that is – perhaps secret ingredients that help sell Molson beer in the US, at “import” prices – like Heineken, Stella Artois and Corona.

The Coors and Molson brewing companies merged in 2005, with a goal to achieve global scale (now #3 in the world) and cross-sell each others brands into their respective markets. Apparently, within US beer-drinking focus groups, the only meaningful associations with Canada and Canadian were – tall trees, clean water and nice people. Molson (founded 1786) is North America’s oldest brewery – surely, they should have cracked the code on the US market, and built some brand awareness by now. OK – maybe the clean water angle might be a differentiator going forward.

Canadians like to wrap their identity, capabilities and unique strengths as a nation, in comedy. For example – check out the new (Molson) Canadian national anthem [here] – or Joe Canada’s Rant [here] – or the history of the 1980’s hit TV and Movie series, The Great White North [here]. Canada has produced its fair share of comedic talent [list here]. But are we also taken seriously? Does all this humor detract from our perceived value and importance on the world stage?

Maybe to sell beer in the US we need a Molson American campaign – and to be respected, revered or even feared, Canadian industry needs something other than “natural” and “funny” as a national brand identity… Eh?