Thursday, September 24, 2009

Canadians Like Ketchup

One of the biggest advantages of being at Darden is that we get to occasionally debrief our cases with the people who were involved in the actual outcome of the case. Today in marketing was one of those days, where we were joined by the brand manager for Heinz ketchup (who happens to be a Darden alum!).

While she said a lot of interesting things, the phrase that struck me most was this: "Canada is a fascinating case study." I previously thought that it was common to eat ketchup not just on french fries, hot dogs and hamburgers, but also on scrambled eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches and with chicken nuggets. Apparently, however, this is not the case in the US. Canadians consume a lot more ketchup than Americans. According to the brand manager, it's because we put it on a lot more things, but also because we use it in recipes. And when you use ketchup half a cup at a time, consumption is much higher than putting a little plot of it on your plate to dip your french fries in.

When she mentioned that they consume a lot more ketchup in Canada, the whole class turned to look at me, and I admitted quietly to the guy sitting beside me that I don't actually eat ketchup at all. I guess I'm not a true Canadian, eh?

1 comment:

Pink Lemonade said...

I won't eat ketchup with eggs but it is a secret ingredient in the best BBQ-wings sauce recipe bestowed upon me by my mother, and vital when eating meatloaf. My grandma was quite a ketchup fan, she'd spread it as the tomato sauce on homemade pizza. (ew.) When she would run out of Kraft Cheese slices to top her pizza dollops of Cheese Whiz would fill in. (also ew.)

What's the Canadian consumption of Cheese Whiz? I work with a guy who has 5 x 1L jars in his pantry in case of emergencies.