Paul from Paris

couverture du magazine Ikea Family Live (hiver 2010)

“Et si vous fixiez vos propres règles?”

Voici la question posée en couverture de Ikea Family Live magazine, publication du magasin suédois éponyme destinée surtout aux consommateurs parents de jeunes enfants en quête d’”idées et inspiration pour la maison”.

Il s’agit d’une question ouverte, un brin provocante tout en gardant le ton bon enfant du magazine et du magasin.

C’est aussi une réponse à l’affirmation de la RATP à bord des bus parisiens : “Si chacun fait ses propres règles, tout se dérègle.”

Il s’agit, pour la RATP, d’un énoncé fermé, vaguement ménaçant, qui n’admet pas de discussion. Bizarrement, c’est aussi un mécanisme à disculper la RATP de dysfonctionnements : l’origine de dérèglements se trouverait auprès des usagers, intempestivement innovateurs.

Seen and noticed in Paris, on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine (east of the Bastille): a bakery whose display window projects on to the sidewalk.

The display window shows off cakes and pastries. This show is remarkable because it projects –literally– from the bakery to the street: in a fashion, the cakes come to the customer.

Isn’t this inspired marketing?

One of the pleasures of strolling in Paris is being able to enjoy many desserts in bakery store windows. I eat cakes only rarely –were I to travel back in time, I’m sure my 10-year-old self would be aghast– but I enjoy them through bakery windows most every day.

Many bakeries use display windows to promote their wares, but the grammar of bakery windows is drawn mostly from jewelry stores, and banks. The bakery pictured here takes a different approach.

Anelka burger

French society is permeated by rules.

There are many rules. Most have exceptions or derogations. Many can be broken, often with seeming impunity. But some must never be sidestepped.

Drawing the line between rules that can be broken, and those that must be followed always, is an enduring source of confusion to me.

I was particularly confused by a dust-up in France’s World Cup fiasco, from which the French team was eliminated in the first round.

Hamburger as World Cup trophy

One player, Nicolas Anelka, by most accounts a gifted athlete (he plays with Chelsea) but also a hothead (at ease trash-talking back to coaches or team management), let loose in the locker room with some rough talk directed against Raymond Domenech, the French team’s manager. In short order, Anelka was relieved of further duties to the team, and sent home.

As reported, Anelka’s words sound to my ears much like dialog I’d expect in a Quentin Tarantino film.

But French ears seem to have heard something different. A line seems to have been crossed. Quick, a fast food chain, and Pringles, a potato chip brand of Procter & Gamble, pulled ads that featured Anelka.

I’m confused.

A few years ago, before he wed Carla Bruni, French president Sarkozy wound up in a spot that seemed much the same. The French president, frustrated by an unfriendly crowd, singled out one heckler and let loose with a comparable stream of nasty words. Everyone seemed to have agreed then that Sarkozy showed himself to be uncouth or unpolished; but this impetuous roughness around the edges was part of the conventional wisdom that everyone knew already. After a collective “tsk, tsk”, business went on as normal.

At the end of the last World Cup, in 2006, France competed against Italy. The match was tight, and tough. Towards the end of the game, French superstar Zinedine Zidane delivered a head butt to the chest of Italian superstar Marco Materazzi. Reportedly, Materazzi had provoked Zidane with taunting. In any case, Zidane was promptly sanctioned with a red card, and sent back to the locker room. Despite striking another player during a game –violating the game’s rules and sportsmanship– Zidane’s fortunes did not suffer. Then-president Chirac said he “understood” Zidane’s act, and the French public bore him no grudges. Zidane is, today, a pitchman much in view.

What, exactly, makes Anelka’s situation so different from Sarkozy’s or Zidane’s?

Here are two campaigns that caught my eye:

Burberry features Emma Watson, an actress best known for her role in the Harry Potter series of films. Ms. Watson turns 20 this year. I think of Burberry as an older brand, vaguely matronly. This campaign changes my mind.

Dior‘s Eau Sauvage cologne for men features a handsome young man in its campaign. The handsome man happens to be Alain Delon, a French actor who turns 75 this year. I like this campaign because it makes me think of Eau Sauvage, like Alain Delon, as a living legend. It turns out that the photo of Delon dates from 1966, the year that Eau Sauvage was launched. If you’re under 30, chances are that you haven’t a clue who the man in the campaign is.

Does a long commute cause stress on the job?

A French consultancy, Technologia, looked into this question. Its efforts are a model to understand how companies can use proprietary research to advance their marketing.

The context

The French workplace is heavily regulated. In larger firms, committees with employee representatives discuss business information, workplace safety, or site closures. In doing their work, these committees solicit input from consultancies that do audits and offer advice. (Consultancies also act for management, for example in putting together required paperwork for a layoff or site closure plan.) When a committee chooses a consultancy, the committee is probably confronted with bad news, and time might be short; urgency often limits the consultancy selection process.

The study

Technologia is an established consultancy. It has carried out big-scale projects, reported in the media: in the wake of a perceived suicide wave at France Telecom, its survey tended to show that France Telecom personnel feel stressed.

Technologia put together a survey. It then interviewed 63 people and had 92 respondents complete a questionnaire. (I couldn’t tell whether the 63 interview subjects figure among the 92 survey respondents.) To the extent Technologia surveyed its clients, it was able to solidify relationships by underscoring its intellectual seriousness and by valuing client input.

The completed work, Impact study of mass transit in the Paris area on employee and enterprise health, runs 72 pages and reads like a master’s thesis. The title promises more than the study actually delivers. The study is in not medical and does not establish a causal relation between commuting and health. For this reader, it instead catalogs issues that commuting presents to employees and their employers.

To an extent, it’s beside the point whether the study answers the question it poses. No one will counter that commuting is pleasurable. What matters is that the issue has been put on the table.

How the research is marketed

Technologia seems to limit circulation of its study to clients and prospects. My request for a copy went unanswered. I accessed the report through an article in French daily Liberation, which I found referenced on a blog by a union activist. The report is perennial enough that I expect that the consultancy will be able to use it for several years.

Technologia carried out an impressive marketing campaign through French media. On a Monday, major French dailies reported on the study: in addition to Liberation, the study was reported in Le Parisien –the daily of choice for taxi drivers and commuters– Le Figaro, and Le Monde. Weeklies and television news also picked up the story. Especially in the Paris area, there are plenty of disgruntled commuters. The story resonates with many and confirms provincials’ worst suspicions about life in the capital.

Technologia offers readers a sort of handout to follow up on news reports. The handout is posted on the consultancy’s web site –which this visitor found dull– and especially through hypertext links in media reports posted on the web, such as on sites of French newspapers.

The handout is not a summary of the study. It’s instead a call for action. It’s a two-page Manifesto (!), with a ten-point plan. Most of the suggestions are matters of public policy, not action points for employers; they all struck this reader as aspirational. The design and layout of the Manifesto rivals that of the study. It clearly identifies Technologia as its source and solicits reactions from readers.