I, for one, welcome our American culture overlords

[lio45]

Some of those could realistically work. I imagine you could go and market a "Westmount-Style Cheesecake" in Quebec and it might fly.

(BTW, the Canadian city that gets the most absolute marketing would be the BC capital, through the Victoria's Secret brand. :p)

[esquire]

^ Slapping Canadian geographic designations on seafood works. PEI mussels, Nova Scotia lobster or whatever sounds high quality.

And strangely, Canadian wheat has a certain overseas cachet. It is well regarded among bakers for its characteristics. Italians, for instanace, have numerous brands of Manitoba flour to choose from:

[Acajack]

Farina d'America... complete with the stars and stripes?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Farina d'America... complete with the stars and stripes?

Yeah, I think they got a little confused on the details

[big T]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

"Care for some 'Regina-style pancakes'?"

"No thank you, I'm good".

You remind me I had “Saskatoon berries” on my pancakes once in Saskatoon.

I had no idea Saskatoon berries were a thing. At least they tried this branding thing, although with moderate success I suppose.

As far as I could tell they’re basically blueberries.

[drew]

Originally Posted by big T

You remind me I had “Saskatoon berries” on my pancakes once in Saskatoon.

I had no idea Saskatoon berries were a thing. At least they tried this branding thing, although with moderate success I suppose.

As far as I could tell they’re basically blueberries.

They are a relative of apples. So mini apples rather than blueberries.

And they aren't named after the city of Saskatoon...

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by big T

You remind me I had “Saskatoon berries” on my pancakes once in Saskatoon.

I had no idea Saskatoon berries were a thing. At least they tried this branding thing, although with moderate success I suppose.

As far as I could tell they’re basically blueberries.

Other way around, the city was named after the berry:

The name Saskatoon (in Cree: sâskwatôn, "Saskatoon" or the locatives: misâskwatôminihk, lit: "at the saskatoon berry", misâskwatôminiskâhk, "at the place of many saskatoon berries", mînisihk "at the berry") comes from the Cree inanimate noun misâskwatômina "saskatoon berries", which refers to the sweet, violet-coloured berry that grows in the area.

Wikipedia

[lio45]

Originally Posted by esquire

Yeah, I think they got a little confused on the details

Wonder what your fellow Manitoban Pinus would think of Manitoba wheat getting marketed in Europe as Manitoba-Wheat-From-America-With-Stars-And-Stripes! This has the potential to spoil his day.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Echoes

Other way around, the city was named after the berry:


Wikipedia

Well, I think many of us just learned something today

[esquire]

Originally Posted by lio45

Wonder what your fellow Manitoban Pinus would think of Manitoba wheat getting marketed in Europe as Manitoba-Wheat-From-America-With-Stars-And-Stripes! This has the potential to spoil his day.

Haha... let's hope not.

Yeah, the packaging is weird but I'm sure it's all the same thing to them, just a bunch of stuff "from America"... clearly they didn't stop to consider the SSP forum implications of that design!

It doesn't end there BTW, there's loads of this stuff.










Some get it right, though



You can always play it safe with hipster-minimalist packaging

[Doug]

Not everything needs to be authentic or an experience. Strip mall food is convenient, affordable and low risk. Ascribing cultural failing is ridiculous.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by esquire

Haha... let's hope not.

Yeah, the packaging is weird but I'm sure it's all the same thing to them, just a bunch of stuff "from America"... clearly they didn't stop to consider the SSP forum implications of that design!

It doesn't end there BTW, there's loads of this stuff.

Oh my! If you hadn't spoiled his day already, now you have!

[lio45]

Originally Posted by esquire

Yeah, the packaging is weird but I'm sure it's all the same thing to them, just a bunch of stuff "from America"... clearly they didn't stop to consider the SSP forum implications of that design!

Exactly. It's the equivalent of marketing a product as "Russian Vodka" in Brazil or Argentina or Australia, when it actually comes from Eastern Ukraine or Belarus. The distinction is too subtle for the target audience anyway.

To Europeans, this wheat comes from the optimal wheatgrowing areas of the Great Interior Plains of North America, first and foremost. "Manitoba" is secondary.

P.S. Interestingly, if I ever ran a sugaring operation on my Northern NH lands (which are quite full of sugar maples; you never know) and sold that product in Japan, it would probably be smart to do the exact opposite of this Manitoba Wheat In Italy, and market it as "Canadian Maple Syrup".

[Acajack]

I suspected something was up with MANITOBA and the U.S. imagery, and have found out that MANITOBA is a type of flour that is not necessarily exclusive to the province of Manitoba. They actually produce MANITOBA flour in neighbouring U.S. states as well.

Similar to how they grow Roma tomatoes all over the world, and not just in the region surrounding Rome in Italy.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

P.S. Interestingly, if I ever ran a sugaring operation on my Northern NH lands (which are quite full of sugar maples; you never know) and sold that product in Japan, it would probably be smart to do the exact opposite of this Manitoba Wheat In Italy, and market it as "Canadian Maple Syrup".

I guess your ability to do that would be dependent upon how feisty Canadian maple producers are about protecting their brand.

What's been going on in recent years is that names are being "reserved" for their region of origin only - French wines are famous for this. You can't call anything that isn't from the Champagne region "champagne", or you'll get in trouble.

India has tried to do the same thing with Basmati rice, as has Greece with feta cheese.

But at the very least with your New Hampshire syrup you could probably get away with a big red maple leaf on the container. After all, it's the tree that the stuff comes from. No one "owns" that exclusively.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I suspected something was up with MANITOBA and the U.S. imagery, and have found out that MANITOBA is a type of flour that is not necessarily exclusive to the province of Manitoba. They actually produce MANITOBA flour in neighbouring U.S. states as well.

Similar to how they grow Roma tomatoes all over the world, and not just in the region surrounding Rome in Italy.

I'm not surprised, I figured Manitoba didn't have a monopoly on that stuff. I'm not sure there's enough wheat here to meet the demand anyway.

But it does speak to the point I was making that Canadian names do have a certain appeal, at least when it comes to certain products.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I guess your ability to do that would be dependent upon how feisty Canadian maple producers are about protecting their brand.

What's been going on in recent years is that names are being "reserved" for their region of origin only - French wines are famous for this. You can't call anything that isn't from the Champagne region "champagne", or you'll get in trouble.

India has tried to do the same thing with Basmati rice, as has Greece with feta cheese.

But at the very least with your New Hampshire syrup you could probably get away with a big red maple leaf on the container. After all, it's the tree that the stuff comes from. No one "owns" that exclusively.

I don't know how strict the standards for origin are, but I could have my Quebec corporation buy the unprocessed maple water from my Florida corporation (which is the entity that owns the land with the maples on it), have that cross the border into the Eastern Townships, and have my Quebec corporation turn it into syrup there. Unless they're really anal (like some French wine or cheese producers), this would work.

[Denscity]

Another Canadian place name popular down in the states would be Yukon as mentioned earlier or Klondike. How many reality shows have either of these names in them?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Another Canadian place name popular down in the states would be Yukon as mentioned earlier or Klondike. How many reality shows have either of these names in them?

As someone else mentioned already, "Montana" sounds nice/cool/good for a state/province name, and so does "Yukon". Consider: "Montana Steakhouse" and "Wyoming Steakhouse" are equal to each other in terms of ruggedness/ranching-culture appeal, but I'm not surprised the former is 10000% more popular.

As a rule of thumb, if there are cars named after it then "it" is a name that "sounds good" to typical ears and is pleasant enough. (Which is not true of all place names by any means.)

https://www.gmc.com/suvs/yukon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Montana

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

As someone else mentioned already, "Montana" sounds nice/cool/good for a state/province name, and so does "Yukon". Consider: "Montana Steakhouse" and "Wyoming Steakhouse" are equal to each other in terms of ruggedness/ranching-culture appeal, but I'm not surprised the former is 10000% more popular.

As a rule of thumb, if there are cars named after it then "it" is a name that "sounds good" to typical ears and is pleasant enough. (Which is not true of all place names by any means.)

https://www.gmc.com/suvs/yukon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Montana

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian_(automobile)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_Acadia