A Private-Public Strategy for International Marketing Through Collective Brands: Canada Brand Foods

Abstract A country brand for agrifood products requires managing quality across a range of products and firms while recognizing the potential pitfalls in linking a brand's image with a country's image. Understanding the incentives for firms adopting the brand to use and contribute to the brand's equity informs the choice of brand management mechanism. The challenges in managing a country brand for international agrifood exports are discussed. This case is used to illustrate a strategy based on the obstacles faced by a collective brand that is used by many firms. The article highlights how a successful strategy will produce a brand that is unique, robust to impersonators, and has quality assurance mechanisms that are in line with firm's incentives to produce high-quality products. KEYWORDS: brand strategycountry branddifferentiationmarketingpublic-private partnership Notes In this article we make a clear distinction between brands and labels. A label simply identifies a specific product characteristic pertaining only and precisely to the product itself (such as origin or composition), whereas a brand is a broader concept that captures a product's characteristics, its reputation, and the accumulated customer experience with that brand name and symbol that is viewed at the customer's point of purchase. “Canada's Approach on Kyoto Criticized” (Whittington, Citation2007), “Credibility Hangs on Meeting Kyoto Targets” (Anonymous, Citation2007), “The U.S. Is Set to Move on Climate Change—What About Us?” (Simpson, Citation2006). It is also possible that the development and marketing costs associated with a country brand might be shared with both the firms using the brand and the government bearing the cost. Although this would alter the threshold of a firm's decision to use a brand, it would not materially alter the results. The moratoriums in both Quebec and Manitoba have arisen in response to concerns about the effect of pork industry expansion on water quality. Runoff and leaching of manure leading to groundwater contamination were key concerns that precipitated the bans. The effects of Brazil creating its own brand described earlier rely on the assumption that the characteristics contributing to the success of the Canada brand are unique to Canada and cannot be simply adopted as characteristics of the Brazilian brand. There is also the potential for a more complex strategic game to be played between the owner of the brand, Canada, and the imitator, Brazil. Indeed, New Zealand has already carved out this niche in markets such as lamb (Clemens & Babcock, Citation2004) as has Denmark in the case of pork (Hobbs et al., Citation1998). The Compté Cheese label has developed stringent process and quality standards relating to the breed of cow milked, the feed they are fed, origin of milk used for cheese, and the method for making the cheese itself. The protected nature of the Compté label enables the standards to be enforced strictly and has resulted in a consistent quality product, recognized as such by consumers (European Commission, Citation2006). The Boerenkaas label is not protected and consists of a variety of small and large producers. Attempts to establish consistent standards have been largely unsuccessful due to the heterogeneous nature of producers and the inability to control who uses the label. Consumer recognition of Boerenkaas is limited to 13%; production has been declining in recent years and the label has lost most of its distinctness (European Commission, Citation2006). Credence attributes are those whose quality cannot be identified even after consumption (Darby & Karni, Citation1973). Search attributes are those that can be ascertained upon inspection, and experience attributes are only ascertained following consumption (Nelson, Citation1970). A terroir by definition refers to the climate and soil characteristics of a particular region. Additional informationNotes on contributorsBrian G. Innes Brian G. Innes is a Research Associate in the Department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. William A. Kerr William A. Kerr is Van Vliet Professor of International Trade at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Jill E. Hobbs Jill E. Hobbs is Professor and Head, Department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

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