Even though when we think about North America, Canada and the U.S always come together, the cultures and people behaviors are quite different. Alan Middleton, assistant professor at the Schulich school of business at York University, has  generalized several differences. Firstly, he said canadians are more cautious. “we are more cautious, we are slow adopter of new things, new technology, new products than our friendly down south.”

I think this difference is largely due to the different life styles in these two countries . Compare to America, Canada is more relax. Canadians like to travel, skiing and enjoy their own time rather than work all the time. As a result, we are slower adopter for new objects.

Another culture difference that Middleton found was that “America is a much more deeply innovative and experimental culture. We are much more value culture.”He explains that this is a reason why online shopping grows a lot more slower in Canada than the U.S. Because we are value orientated, we want to actually see the product. Also, because of this, we tend to buy things for long term use and Americans like to search for newness .

Consumer behaviors is not a independent concept, it is just a part of our life style. People are different, so it is very complex to be specifically analyzed. Even though we say that Canadians are more leisure and Americans are more busy. These differences are not very obvious on younger generations, due to the global economic and high technology median. However, the younger generations might have some other differences that their parents don’t have.  Marketing study on consumer behaviors is not a once for all event, people will always change as tome goes by.

Reference:

Schulich marketing professor explains the difference between Canadian and American consumer (2012) http://media.schulich.yorku.ca/faculty/schulich-marketing-professor-explains-the-difference-between-canadian-and-american-consumers/

I have been lived in Canada for only 3 or 4 years，Zellers is part of “Canadian life” in my head. One day I saw the red sign “closing sale” one the door, I really felt surprised. Most of the stores were replaced by Target Canada or Walmart Canada. What makes this well-known brand failed after it has already operated for more than 80 years?

Zellers is popular in Canada, but its market size did not grow much in the last 30 years, the volume of Zellers was floating up and down around $2.5 billion a year. Comparing to this, Walmart Canada has grown to about 16 billion a year.“ the lowest price is the law”, as a discount department retailer, this is Zellers always pursuit for. However, Walmart took this away by offering the lowest price. The Canadian market became more and more global and diversity, but Zellers did not  effectively adapt itself to that. Meanwhile, Target, as a famous U.S retail brand, has great ambitions for expanding to the north. As a result, Zellers was chose as a footstep for them.

Not only Zellers, think back to many other Canadian brands, such as ATI, Rona, even Tim hortons faced the risk of merger before. For the overall economics, taking over might be a good thing. However, since the U.S companies have an increasingly large occupation in Canadian market by either taking over or expanding, there is a huge challenge for the local brands to competitive with them.

In a perfectly fair and open market, customers should be given all information about all products, however this ethical hypothesis is scarcely possible to happen in the really market, at least in the near future. This information dissymmetry leads to the inferior position of the consumers. As a result, morality is really important in maintaining a well-regulated and orderly market. Marketing ethics is an integral concept—marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing. Different countries, different nations, even different ages have different standard about marketing ethics. The “Market and Ethics” video shows some advertising within the past several centuries. Many of them, such as explore alcohol to kids and encourage kids to play with guns are not allowed to appear on TV in the present. However, at that time, they are allowed, and been promoted. Marketing ethics do not have a fixed content, it can change with time, with culture, with people’ consciousness or with the progress of the society.

From consumers’ standpoint, the most harmful ethic issue in marketing is counterfeit and shoddy products. This is unacceptable no matter when, as those unqualified products can not only deceive you but also threaten your life, especially foods and drugs. The most shocking news I have heard recently is the “Milk Scandal”, exploded in 2008 in China. “Melamine”, a chemical raw medical, became famous overnight because it had been found in infant milk powders under a brand called “Sanlu”. Many kids got hurt; some of them even got killed. If you go online to search, you will find more unbearable imagines. I think many people will ask why, and the reason is simple: to cut the cost and get more profit.

Ethic issue in marketing can be as little as one cent, but also, can be as big as life. Market is traded in both directions (sellers and buyers) and marketing ethics is one tool that can protect consumers from losing lot.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_ethics

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