My American Market’s main strategy is to target people familiar with American food products. Yet, I have always been curious to present my selection to some random Frenchies. Actually, educating French people to US products and taste is, I believe, a big component of My American Market’s mission. This is why I invented the “American reFOODlution” concept. It’s a movement to fight negative stereotypes regarding US food and promote American taste and gastronomy. You might be concerned if you, like me, are tired of:

- Explaining that you love European food but American food is tasty too!

- Arguing that American food is not all junk food

- Insisting that American food is more diverse than hamburgers and fries

- Having to prove you know how to cook too!

This is a non violent fight (so put back your meat knife and rolling pin in the kitchen drawers and cabinets). The art of convincing is what makes a difference here!

Back in January, I learned about Mirande’s festival: a small town of 40,000 inhabitants in the Gers region which has been organizing a 6-day country music and line dancing festival every year since 1993. And it works! I mean this festival receives over 160,000 visitors, from country fanatics to curious locals. 

So I thought this festival would just be the perfect chance to launch the American reFOODlution movement. After all, Mirande’s audience should have been a bit more open to concepts and things coming from the United States.

This is how I signed up to have a booth at the 2009 edition. I motivated a team of volunteers with my parents, sister and best friend to help me hold the booth during what would be a marathon.

A key element of our convincing strategy at Mirande was to offer some sample products. We had a wide variety of products to try such as JIF peanut butter, Fluff marshmallow spread, Aunt Jemima syrup, Goldfish, several sorts of cookies.

My parents were hilarious educating French adults’ manners. Here are the best quotes I heard from them:

→To someone not willing to try a food sample:

“You are always saying to your children they should try what is in their plates before saying they dislike it. Maybe you should start applying it for yourself”

→To someone trying a food sample and disliking it:

“You shouldn’t say it is disgusting. Say you don’t like it.”

“And you think eating foie gras makes you fit!”

Here are the best selling products:

- Fluff: I sold them all out in 1 day!

- Atomic fire balls: “this is awful. Give me 10!” type of clients. I guess they played a lot of jokes on their friends once back home…

- Wonka nerds and Bubble Yum gums: kids loved our booth. They kept coming back to our booth and bringing their new friends along. I have to say I was positively surprised to see how polite most of them were.

- Peanut Butter jars sold pretty well. JIF extra crunchy was slightly more popular than JIF creamy. Hardly anyone wanted the reduced fat kind. How surprising…

- Soda: a lot of visitors were curious to finally have a chance to try a can of Dr Pepper or Root Beer. They’ve heard so much about those drinks through US TV series and movies.

It was a tough job. We did sell to some US lovers or curious people and even managed to broaden a few visitors’ minds. This is a start. The American reFOODlution has now officially started and this is just the beginning!!

To conclude, it was a great human adventure with my family and friends. I still cannot believe they put up with so much work and my high standards and demands. I loved every moment working by their side and I am really grateful to have such precious people in my life.

More pictures on My American Market's facebook page > visit now!

2009-08-04