Single- and Multi-Ideology Marketing in the Province of Quebec in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

In this article, the authors examine the marketing strategies that stove manufacturers implemented in the province of Quebec at the beginning of the twentieth century where the French and English Canadian nationalist ideologies coexisted. More specifically, the authors document evidence that a multi-ideology marketing framework mixing English and French Canadian nationalisms was used by French Canadian producers while English Canadian producers developed advertising campaigns exhibiting references to a single ideology. The analyses further suggest that the nationalist ideologies that producers tried to embed in stoves were consistent with their differentiation strategies. Overall, the authors conclude that advertising campaigns designed by members of a threatened ideological minority are more sensitive to all ideologies forming a population than are campaigns designed by members of an unthreatened ideological majority. More broadly, this study provides support for the widespread claim that the social context in which marketing is to occur ought to be taken into consideration.