Tim Horton’s
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PNC Bank pt24581 Target Market

Adults Tim Horton’s primary target market is men and women aged twenty five to forty. According to scottrade.com, this group accounts for almost half of its total business (forty nine percent). Tim Horton’s attract this group through contemporary design and consistency in its advertising and décor, and the drive to keep their products current to avoid the “lost in time” negativity that can arise in small businesses. According to a personal interview with my relative John R. Moses, who is a senior manager at one of the shops in Canada, claims “our consumers tend to be urbanites with relatively high income, professional careers and a focus on modern social lifestyles. This target audience grows at a rate of three percent annually.

Young Adults This category consists of individuals aged eighteen to twenty four, total forty percent of Tim Horton’s sales. (Scottrade.com) Tim Horton’s positions itself as a place for college students can relax, study, work in groups, and network. The company appeals to this consumer directly through free internet services, such as Wi-Fi, focusing on social networking and actively cultivating an “energizing” image. According to John R. Moses this group grows four point six percent each year.

Kids and Teens Through Tim Horton’s friendly environment, they appeal to kids that come with their parents. They do not cater directly towards kids; however they enjoy the welcoming atmosphere that’s offered there. Teens enjoy Tim Horton’s for the social aspect, to avoid boredom and a place parents can bring their kids to get out for the morning.

Positioning

As we can identify through the perceptual graph below, Tim Horton’s is placed at a level with good quality and a low price. Starbucks, being on the far right quadrant, is known for good quality and high price. We also observe McDonald’s being in the lower left quadrant for their low price and lacking quality. Lastly we examine how Dunkin Donut’s is there primary competitor both located in the upper left quadrant. Tim Horton’s needs to identify specific differentiation products to gain market share within that area.

Swot Analysis The SWOT Analysis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Tim Horton’s. In order for Tim Horton’s to become successful in the States, they need to concentrate on their reputation here in America. They previously tried to establish their brand throughout the eastern seaboard and failed. They are currently moving to the mid Atlantic areas such as Michigan, Ohio, and some areas of Chicago. The biggest threat is the competition throughout the United States especially Dunkin Donuts. Their opportunity of a new image here in America can be focused on, and turned into a success factor for the company. They need to exploit their strengths such as the company’s charity foundations which gives back to the communities in order to build a well established, respected name here in America and compete with the industry leaders.

Creative Slogan
Tim Hortons' advertising slogans have included "You've Always Got Time for Tim Hortons" and starting in the mid-2000s, "Always Fresh. Always Tim Hortons." While both of these slogans are still used, Tim Hortons began using an alternative slogan, "It's Time for Tims" in November 2011.

Creative Objectives
1. Inform public of rebranding strategy, “Tim Horton’s Cafe and Bake Shop”, in an effort to compete successfully
2. Positively reposition Tim Horton’s in the minds of target market.
3. Increase awareness of Tim Horton’s products offerings.
4. Increase customer base of Tim Horton’s through creative advertising strategies.

Creative Strategy
Tim Hortons’ core strategy is the reason for its success. On its most basic level, the Tim Hortons’ marketing team has created a brand that represents an idealized image of the Canadian national character: friendly, neighborly, unpretentious, gently playful, frugal, trustworthy, and clean. The company measures everything it does against this list of brand values.
The storefronts in United States will be rebranded “Tim Horton’s Cafe and Bake Shop” in an effort to compete successfully. The company has decided to launch itself as a cafe and bake shop in USA, which seems to be a more popular trend popular among consumers there. Tim Horton’s is rebranding in USA as a cafe style and bakery with more refined, upscale furnishings, furniture and lighting, test-driving a concept that may eventually be applied to stores across the chain. The company not only plans to have 4000 stores across Canada by 2013, It also plans to choose three to five overseas markets for expansion in the second half of the year by focusing on its rebranding strategy. The company is also looking to expand its menu, by introducing more variety in their list of food items.

Creative Imperatives
Our campaign focuses on rebranding. To ensure the different elements of marketing communication deliver a consistent and persuasive message, we focused on using one look for the campaign. To achieve this, we focused on having several items incorporated into the creative strategies of the campaign.

Our slogans “You've Always Got Time for Tim Hortons”, "Always Fresh. Always Tim Hortons.”, and "It's Time for Tims" will be incorporated as a main campaign element.

It was also imperative to have the Tim Horton’s logo incorporated into all promotional materials. We want customers to be able to connect the logo to a desire for our products.

Because we are focusing on one consistent look for the campaign, similar color palettes and typography will be used. This will be important to ensure different Tim Horton’s advertising materials will be consistent with one another and able to be tied together.

Creative Rationale

Print Advertisement

Television Advertisement
Commercials will promise that Tim Horton’s coffee isn't just normal coffee, but it is a part of your routine, by associating our products to living a desirable lifestyle.

Advertisement of Company Promotions and Contests
Roll up the Rim" contest uses facts, figures and repetition to emphasis the promotion and guarantee that a vast majority of the cups were winners, from muffins to vehicles, using the snob appeal in a number of their advertisements. Customers determine if they have won prizes by unrolling the rim on their paper cups when they have finished their drink, revealing their luck underneath. These promotions will be created specifically to boost coffee sales in the warmer spring months.

Sponsorship
For 45 years, Tim Horton’s and its store owners have practiced a philosophy of giving back to the communities in which we operate. As a company, their primary focus is on helping children and supporting fundraising events for non-profit organizations and registered charities. Tim Horton’s will also creatively advertise through their relationship with the Children's Foundation and sponsoring children's sports programs. The company’s logo will be shown on advertising materials throughout these events.

Media Objectives
We have carefully selected our marketing mix to attract a wide range of customers. By coordinating these mediums together, our goal is to attract as much business as possible and get ourselves a solid customer base in the area as quickly as possible
Our media objectives are as follows... 1.) Attract a minimum of 15% of our main competitors’ current customers within the first year. (mainly Dunkin, Starbucks, and Caribou) Track this through surveys we will issue in our stores. 2.) Increase brand awareness for Tim Horton in the area by incorporating the use of print ads, Billboards, social media advertising, and PR events such as exclusive grand opening promotions and various sales events. Creativity and variety are key elements in achieving this objective. 3.) Achieve a turn-around of 15% on our direct mailing and e-mailing promotions and special offers/coupons. 4.) Create and sustain a more personal relationship with our customers through special PR events, giveaways, promotions, surveys, and by effectively incorporating our different marketing strategies for a fresh experience. Media Strategies
We will use traditional and non-traditional media as well as use resources online. The selection of our media choice will be based on each mediums strengths and weaknesses. Realizing our target market for our marketing, we will be using a balance between each of these types of media.

Marketing
At Tim Horton’s, our campaign will have 3 main marketing objectives. The first is to inform our target markets of our products and services. It is crucial that we create customer awareness and get our potential customers interested in what we have to offer. Since we are new to the area and competition is steep (Star Bucks and Dunkin Donuts) it is crucial to get our brand out to the public in an efficient and effective manner as we have defined in our marketing strategies. Since we need to appeal to so many different age groups (teenagers to senior citizens) we must make sure to incorporate relative messages to attract these different ranges of people, which is why we have included everything from trendy social media advertising and e-mail, to direct mailing and billboards. Informing the public is key to our success.

The next objective we must achieve is to convince or persuade our customers that we can offer them the best value in comparison to the competition. To do so we must incorporate a strong mix of product promotions and discounts to attract our competitors’ current customers. If we don’t offer them anything better than what they already get from their current provider, they will have no incentive to try our services. We need to be very competitive with our pricing and create a more personal relationship with our customers in order to persuade them to convert to our services. We must prove that we will offer the consumer the best value possible.

Lastly we must get our potential customers to act on our marketing strategies. We must get them to take action and purchase our products. We will do this by staying creative and fresh with our marketing mix so that we can constantly remind them of our presence. Although we are new to the area, we feel that we have a chance to come in and steal a large percentage of our competitors’ customers by offering them a fresh and exciting experience. Also, people like to experience new things and if we can appeal to such customers we feel we can establish a solid customer base. Staying current, visible, and fresh in our target markets minds is a crucial marketing objective for Tim Horton’s.

Marketing Mix

Non Traditional Media

Mailings/Customer and Franchisee Surveys
Tim Horton’s will implement extensive customer and franchisee surveys, and other consumer research, to make sure its products, service, and communications fit the ideals. This will allow the company to engage not only its current and prospect customers, but also Tim Horton’s employees. New franchisees must complete a seven-week training program before taking ownership of stores. Furthermore, the company has strict quality control standards. It routinely surveys and inspects stores, including checking everything from how fast and friendly the staff is to whether the trash in the parking lot has been cleared.

Internet Radio
Many radio stations simultaneously broadcast over the Internet. Not only will a radio ad reach a local audience, but it has the potential to reach anybody in the world with Internet access.

Traditional Media

Radio
Radio will be an important media outlet that we will use to reach our target audience. We could entice our customers to try our offerings while they are “en route” to their intended location.
Radio ads will be cost and time efficient to make; other forms of media can be very costly and extremely time consuming before they are able to be presented to the public. Although strictly an audio experience, the imagery in radio advertising is only limited by listeners' imaginations. Listeners may visualize the ad's content however they please. This will cause us to have to be very creative with the way our ad constructed.
Magazines
Magazine advertising will also be used as a medium in our campaign. With little waste, it can deliver our message to our target audience very effectively. Each ad has the potential to be viewed numerous times over any period, making it very cost effective. Magazines also hold high quality in reproduction. The ads quality can reflect on the company being advertised, so we want to ensure that our campaign perceived well by the public.

We will place full and partial page, colored advertisements for our campaign. We will place them in magazines we believe will be read by our desired audience. The segmentation potential that magazines offer (the 3 largest being consumer, farm and business) will allow is to target our demographic specifically without wasting cost printing in magazines that would not be as beneficial. Some magazines offer additional ways for the advertisement to be noticed, such as gatefolds, popups, bleed pages, and other unique layout designs. Special additions raise the price, but command the attention of the reader in a visually unique way.

Billboards
We will utilize Billboard advertising because of its strength in the reach and frequency that it is able to be displayed to. People traveling in areas where these billboards are located have the potential to be persuaded into impulse buying. Billboards are an economical and effective way to be displayed to a large group, most being our target market and potentially creating interest in those typically not targeted as well. A billboard advertises a product to customers every day of the year, including holidays. For our campaign, our billboard will include lights or an electronic display, so it can also advertise the product at night.

Commercials
Television advertising is one of the best sources of traditional media to reach the largest audience. Television advertising is essential to rebranding Tim Horton’s to the media because we are able to place a focus on brand awareness and image. Television commercials also use multiple sources of communication. In contrast to radio advertising which an audience can only hear, television commercials on the other hand can take advantage of both the senses of hearing and of vision. By appealing to both senses a TV advertiser can use these to reinforce each other. We will verbally say our products or promotions in the TV advertisement and then reinforce it with a graphic on the television of either the Tim Horton’s logo or the product we are speaking of. Using a high quality graphic can make it easier for the customer to remember the product than just hearing about it on the advertisement.
Our commercials will be intermittently played on main cable channels as not over saturate our audience and cause them to “fast forward” because they have seen it too frequently. We will advertise on television channels that have the highest audience of viewers 16+. We will advertise during prime time and late night spots on these channels.

Online Media

Facebook/ Twitter
We will utilize social media to help drive online traffic. We will also buy ads on these social media sites to help grow our online presence. They can reach a large audience with a diverse base of users. Facebook ads can also be targeted to specific areas, so we focus our ads for areas with Tim Horton’s locations to make the most effective advertising for our campaign. Within our ads, the Tim Horton’s logo will be present to create brand awareness.

Tim Horton’s Official Website
Tim Horton’s will continue to maintenance their existing website. It is important for this to remain because customers can look up shop locations and hours. Customers may also come across it when using a search engines for coffee or bakery shops. Customers who have never gone to a Tim Horton’s may also use the website to learn more about the company and the products we offer in advance. With many people being health conscious nutritional information will be available on most Tim Hortons menu items in a two-page brochure and is available online. It is also important for Tim Hortons to use their name as the domain (www.timhortons.com) to make it easy to remember for the customers.

Evaluation

Measuring the objectives and ideas that have been put forth is important in determining the effectiveness of our campaign. In order to do this we must review our Creative and Marketing Objectives and conduct Post Test Evaluations to see what is catching on to the public and what is not.

Creative Objectives * Inform the public of the rebranding strategy * Positively reposition Tim Horton’s in the minds of the target market * Increase awareness of Tim Horton’s products offerings * Increase customer base of Tim Horton’s

Evaluation Methods * Create surveys and focus groups to evaluate rebranding strategy * Track and measure the usage of Tim Horton’s product offerings * Survey the target market to evaluate recall on specific target market advertisements * Track increase of awareness through social media sites

Marketing Objectives * Attract a minimum of 15% of our main competitors’ current customers within the first year. * Increase brand awareness in the area by using print ads, billboards, social media advertising, PR events, and promotions * Achieve a turn-around of 15% on our direct mailing and e-mailing promotions and special offers/coupons. * Create and sustain a more personal relationship with our customers

Evaluation Methods * Conduct and evaluate surveys put throughout Tim Horton’s locations * Measure traffic on Facebook and Twitter (amount of likes on Facebook and amount of followers on Twitter) * Measure attendance of promotional events such as the grand opening * Measure recall of advertisements (billboards, print ads, etc.) * Measure amount of traffic on timhortons.com after promotional events and advertising campaigns * Track and measure the amount of special offers/coupons from mailing and e-mailing being used at locations

After conducting the evaluation methods, we can then understand the effectiveness of our campaign. If the campaign was not as effective as projected, certain concepts and objectives may have to be changed.