Marketing in Canada isn’t quite the same as marketing in the United States…or Australia, or Japan, for that matter. There are different brands, cultural values and preferences north of the border that must be kept at the forefront of any marketing plan if it’s going to succeed. Simple as it may seem to reuse an international advertising agenda and just change a few names, that’s not going to get results. Worse, trying to market an already popular foreign brand within Canada could fail miserably if you try to change what’s on offer.
What works in one place won’t necessarily work here. There are hundreds of surprising examples of top retailers and brands from other parts of the world, especially the United States, who failed to tap into the Canadian market despite billions of dollars’ worth of effort. Usually, it was a simple matter of misunderstanding the audience. In Canada, marketing is definitely personal.
More than one top brand has failed to integrate its business into the Canadian market because of poor understanding of the Canadian identity. Using stereotypical elements in your Canadian marketing is almost always the wrong decision—Canadians do not appreciate an approach that turns them into two dimensional characters. Don’t say “eh” unless you know exactly what you’re doing! Don’t do a funny accent. And, it’s best not to mention things like polar bears, igloos, and poutines, unless they are directly related to your brand.
Speaking of poutines…back in 2017, while Canada celebrated its 150th birthday as a nation, the stateside Tim Horton’s locations got in on the action by offering a limited-time poutine doughnut. Canadians were in two minds about this nod to their national holiday: While many were questioning why they couldn’t get their own poutine doughnut within Canada, others were embarrassed that such an item was meant to represent their cultural identity. It wasn’t much of a hit down south, either.
Now, that’s something that a British Columbia or Ontario marketing agency wouldn’t let happen. It's clear that the southern iteration of Tim Horton’s capitalized on the most well-known food item from their neighbours north of the border, while Canadians themselves were offered Nanaimo bar doughnuts and maple Timbits. It could be argued that using the most stereotypical item available to promote a foreign holiday (which is less and less significant to the Tim Horton’s brand, since the company is no longer Canadian-owned) is a missed opportunity.
If a celebration of Canada is in order, why not share things that will make Canadians feel proud, like maple or saskatoon-themed pastries? Not only would a different item have pleased more actual Canadians, but it would have given American customers a real taste of their neighbours’ cuisine.
Tim Horton’s is, of course, not the first company to embarrass itself in the eyes of the Canadian market, and it won’t be the last! In November of 2020, Whole Foods found itself at the centre of a controversy over a very culturally significant emblem: the Remembrance Day poppy. With administration based in the United States, Whole Foods managers were following strict new uniform policies when they told employees to remove their poppies—and that didn’t sit well at all with locals. Following a flurry of negative press, the supermarket chain quickly announced that poppies were fine, after all.
The first thing to consider when running a Canadian digital marketing campaign for any brand is that this is a very large country, and it is home to all kinds of different people. More than 22 percent of Canadians consider themselves part of a minority ethnicity or culture, including South Asian, Black, Chinese, and multiple Indigenous groups. When you realise that diversity itself is a core tenet of the Canadian experience, you’ll be able to start putting together a local marketing plan that works.
Targeting the Canadian market, remember, is not about selecting “Canada” on your Facebook ad settings. It’s about reaching specific populations within that huge space and showing them that your values match their own—like we did for the Niagara 2020 Canada Summer Games campaign.
According to the Canadian Marketing Association, Canadians are becoming more accepting to sharing personal data with online apps—which is good news for digital marketers, as the immediate future of marketing will rely on even more technological advancements. Ad targeting is likely to become more finely tuned and effective in the years to come, which is why it is more important than ever to clearly identify your target market.
There are still brands that use general marketing to reach potential customers, without focusing on any particular niche group. It’s understandable, since many brands believe they have products that are used by “everybody”—but it doesn’t work as well as targeting. Canada is a fairly saturated market, which means that market separation is taking place between emerging luxury and low-budget retailers. The tighter the market becomes, the more you’ll need to distinguish your products from those of your competitors.
Start where you audience lives (online) to get the ball rolling. The top social media networks in Canada are Facebook and Twitter/X—but this can change depending on your target age group. If your core audience is in their 20s, you’ll definitely want to focus on an Instagram or TikTok content strategy.
At Symetric Productions, we’re not only great at international marketing and design, but we have feet on the ground with Canada’s brands and buyers. We’ve supplied local brands like Upper Canada Growers with everything they need to succeed, starting with a beautiful, highly functional website that’s mobile friendly. And, of course, we’ve strategically set them apart from the competition by focusing on their identity as a top Canadian producer in the Niagara region.
Get in touch today to find out what we can do for your brand! We would be happy to go through the process with you and decide on social media marketing tactics, logos, product image photography and much more.