Kraft Foods

Samstag, 4. August 2012

WHY?

Why Kraft?

Considering my post about Kraft Foods, the main reason for exactly this company is its size. But besides that, food is the only product every country and every single person in the world is consuming. A country’s cuisine is a major part of its culture. Specialties in meals need centuries to evolve. The way cultures prepare their dishes, the ingredients, the vegetables, the herbs and more than that the meat they use. When do they eat? With whom do they eat? What influence does it have on the society and the society on the way people eat? All this gives an imaginable and palpable reflection of a country’s culture.

Why Canada and Europe?

Because on the surface Canada and Europe are quite similar (since Canadians mostly are descendants from Europeans). You have to take a closer look to see all the details that differs them so much. Many people like to think, that Canada is just like the USA, it almost seems as if people temp to forget about and ignore it. But the people’s attitude is a lot different in Canada. As I already mentioned in a prior post, Canadians are very open for strangers and worship multiculturalism. And they absolutely hate being compared to US-Americans. Still, compared to Europe, their culture is very American. They are big in consuming and wasting. Cars have to be big. An SUV. A Truck. Food is huge. Gallons of water. Extra big burgers. And what is more important about the food-size is the food-quality. It seems like North-Americans don’t care that much about cooking and eating healthy.

In Europe, people do care a lot about their meals. They cook a lot more often by themselves and they use more difficult, complex and time-consuming recipes.

Many Europeans try to eat nutritious, especially when it comes to feeding their children. Actually, food itself is an amazingly big part of European culture.

As you can see, there are enough differences, at least in eating habits. And that is what I am going to concentrate on.

Europe

From Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire to an European Union

Summing up European history in a few sentences is an absurd try. So there was Ancient Greece, which is said to have built the foundation of western civilisation. The Roman Empire, which was destroyed by Germanic peoples. The Black Death pandemic killed 30-60% of Europe’s population. French Revolution, World War I, fascism, World War II, Iron Curtain, … Europe is old.

Geographically it is quite varied for such a small area. In the south are many mountains like the Alps and the Pyrenees. Whereas the north is more broad, covered with low plains. Still the sub-regions are more complex, especially the islands and peninsulas. Europe lies between the Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Regarding Europe’s immense history, even nowadays it keeps changing pretty fast. The European Union counts 27 members meanwhile, having the world’s biggest economy. And the member’s economies keep growing, people keep immigrating into the EU and more European countries want to join and become a part of this big community. It’s political system is based on seven institutions: the European Parliament, the Council if the European Union, the European Commission, the European Council, the European Central Bank, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors. The two important persons to know are the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy (left), and the Commission President, José M. Barroso (right).

Culturally you cannot speak of one united Europe. You better compare it to a series of overlapping cultures, which foundations are built by Europe’s history. All in all it is highly influenced by religion and its global connection lead to an urge to adopt, adapt and affect other cultures and their trends. Even though it is too complex to describe the culture accurately now, it is definite, that Europe is very rich in culture. Combining incredibly old traditions with the most modern way of thinking and high individualisation.

The Haute Cuisine of France is probably the most famous one in Europe. But Italian Food you can find everywhere, if it is Pizza or Pasta, the whole western world loves it. Whereas English dishes are known to be the worst. But these are just the most popular cuisine, there is so much more to eat in Central and Eastern Europe. What most dishes have in common is, that compared to Asia for example, meat is a substantial part.

Important numbers:

Area	4,423,147 km²
Population	502,486,499
Population density	116.2/km²
Population growth (2002-2011)	3.7%
Net migration rate	3.1/1000 inhabitants
GDP (nominal)	$17.577 trillion
GDP per capita	$35,116

Transport:

Roads	75,200 km
Airports	330
Railway	78,000 km
Harbours	480

Company commercials

Kraft Commercial Europe
Kraft Commercial USA

These videos are no product commercials but image commercials. The two of them do not differ a lot, the main difference is in the shown products. They chose the local brands of cheese and sweets, the ones that are more common and known in the target group (Europe vs America). The commercials are very playful and colourful and the music is happy and motivating. The food seems to make life more easy-going and an enrichment to daily life. Thus Kraft tries to establish a positive, young, modern and happy image of their company.

Freitag, 3. August 2012

Canada

About Natives, Immigrants and Poutine

Canada. Just the country north of the USA?

Between the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Ocean lies Canada. It is the second largest country by area in the world. The first human presence is supposed to have been in circa 24,500 BC and in the late 15^th century there were about two million Natives living in the area. The population decreased pretty fast as soon as the Europeans captured the land due to new infectious diseases and conflicts between both groups. During the Age of Colonization the land was inhabited by mainly the British and the French. After both parties fought the Seven Years' War, Canada became a bilingual and bicultural country, leaving the English and French settlers in peace with each other.

Canada is governed as a federal parliamentary democracy and it is still a constitutional monarchy, making Queen Elizabeth II the head of state. Current Prime Minister is Stephen Harper and the Parliament is in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.

The world's largest coastline with a vast maritime terrain, 8 different geoclimatic regions, forests that prevail the country, ice covers the north, the impressive Rocky Mountains, flat prairies, the Great Lakes and the famous Niagara Falls. As you can see, Canada’s geographical features are so widely spread and varied, you can not call it “just Canada”. Politically the country is divided into ten provinces.

Today Canada is one of the most immigrated countries. It is famous for its multiculturalism and xenophilia. Unlike other countries, Canadian nationalism is not about ethnocentricity but about securing their sovereignty. Since Canada has historically been influenced by the United Kingdom and the United States, they are very keen on being independent. Multiculturalism is even a value for most Canadians, which differs them so much from other countries (especially the US, which they are always compared to). Because Canada is a typical immigration country with many different ethnics, the society is heterogeneous and you can consider it as a "low context culture". Unlike the USA, Canada includes it's aboriginal past into nowaday's society. In gift shops you can buy small totem poles and the Native's culture was part of the Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver.

Just like the extremely diverse society, so is the cuisine. Canada is a very young country, unlike Europe, and local or regional dishes need time to evolve. Thus they adapted their immigrant’s meals. One of the very few Canadian recipes is Poutine: fries with gravy and cheese. Sounds gross but still delicious. Of course Canada is famous for it's unique maple syrup. Compared to non-american countries, the food is more unhealthy and what Europeans would consider junk food, is a regular meal in many households, e.g. Kraft dinner (Mac and cheese).

Economically Canada is highly globalized. It pursues a high level of economic freedom and their GDP per capita is one of the highest in the world. Considering the country’s size, products have to travel a long way, making a good infrastructure essential (see chart below). As said before, Canada is geographically diverse and big in size. The nature’s importance is also shown in the economy, because natural resources are the biggest economic sector for exports (especially fishery, forestry, agriculture, petroleum and mining.