Month: March 2011

Recently I read Luke Vu’s blog post on the impact of colour on product purchases, and upon thinking about it, immediately realized how much marketer’s use this concept to brand their products. 

A quick summary of the original colour-association chart Luke posted showed that

Yellow: optimistic and cheerful
Red: energy, creates sense of urgency
Blue: trust and security
Green: wealth, relaxing
Orange: aggressive, a call to action to buy/sell
Pink: romantic and feminine
Black: powerful and sleek
Purple: soothe and calm

I love good food but I’m not much of a chef so I spend a lot of my time in restaurants.  I couldn’t help but realize how restaurant marketers apply the use of colour to their brand associations to instill certain emotions and portray their brand values.  Fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King all prominently use red and yellow represents the fun and happy but quick aspect of their brand.  Cafes such as Starbucks, Waves Coffee, and Blenz all make use of blue and green in their logos and/or decor to drive the relaxing, secure, comfortable homey feeling of their stores.  Lounge type restaurants such as Cactus Club, Earls, and Milestones typically use black to emphasize the trendy, young, sleek image they want to portray.   This use of a colour is a great way for companies to create strong brand equity and brand awareness for their logos and their companies value.

Can you think of any restaurants that are exceptions?

Inspired by my colleague, Nicholas Pezzaro’s blog on the Groupon craze, I can’t help but respond to his thoughts as well as further the dialogue with a few insights of my own.

Groupon has found success in it’s ability to make coupons trendy and not mired by the image of your coupon clipping grandma touting her 30 cents off coupon when she buys 3 jars of pasta sauce.  As Nicholas has reported, Groupon’s revenue model is widely successful, and are set to hit the $1 billion dollar mark faster than any other business, ever.  The popularity for both consumers and merchants lies in the collective buying nature of the website: local merchants only offer a deal if enough consumers buy, so consumers who want to get a deal that hasn’t tipped or even get it for free actively share the deal using word-of-mouth and their online and physical networks.  If an astonishingly discounted $20 for admission for two to the Vancouver Zoo (normally $40) is the daily deal, when enough consumers buy, consumers get half-off their admission rate, Groupon pulls in 50% of the coupon price – $10, and the Vancouver Zoo pulls in $10 as well as tremendous amount of advertising, discussion, food/beverage/souvenier sales when the consumers come in to redeem the coupon, on top of potential new customers who go because of the raves of the coupon-buyers who went.

In conclusion, Groupon is a win-win-win situation for everyone involved.

And by the way, yes, I did give in to the tremendously discounted deal to the Greater Vancouver Zoo: as soon as my final final (marketing) is over, I will be visiting the giraffes.

GAH so cute.  Can’t wait!!

I feel like lately numerous companies are creating social media accounts using platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, or creating their own online communities.  Done right, it’s very effective, but done poorly, which I feel most companies do, the resulting accounts that spew one-sided conversation that consumers do not engage in discourse with with simply die a quiet, lonely death and fade away into internet oblivion.

This thought was spurned by a blog post found on the Canadian Marketing Blog entitled  Who Knows Who, which brought up the very valid point that it is quality over quantity that matters when it comes to social networking in general.  It also made reference to a Harvard Business Review article that suggested companies ought to hire a “Social Media Ringmaster” – a dedicated professional whose job was solely to coordinate the social networking interactions of a company.

I think this idea would be hugely beneficial to companies whose marketing and customer service departments aren’t on the same page, but need to be in this modern digital age where every consumer interaction has an impact on both the image of a company’s brand and reputation.  One of the most effective corporate accounts I follow on Twitter is the account of Holt Renfrew, the Canadian luxury department store, which is successful for that very reason: branding and customer service in every tweet.  They respond to consumer’s questions, concerns, and even locate coveted hard-to-find designer merchandise for customers, driving the image of exceptional service of their brand, as well as use Twitter as a platform to advertise relevant contests, promotions, and sales to their dedicated and loyal followers.

A week’s worth of Tim Hortons’ double doubles and I’ve only seen the disappointing red “please play again”, but I’m not too worried given that there are over 47 million prizes, ranging from free coffee, baked goods, and even 100 Panasonic 3D tvs, 1000 Napolean barbeques, 5000 Raleigh mountain bikes, and 40 Toyota Matrixes.

The promotion is obviously huge for Tim Hortons, acting as a customer appreciation event for their loyal customers as well as an incentive for new customers to start drinking double doubles.  Tim Hortons brand manager states that “We don’t really measure the contest in terms of sales, because the primary focus is rewarding guests for their loyalty,” but the attraction of new customers is certainly a perk of the marketing initiative.

However the contest is equally important for their prize sponsors.  Napolean, the barbeque prize sponsor, is based in Ontario and is a first-time sponsor of the contest, though they have been trying to get involved for several years.  According to Napolean’s national advertising manager, “having the Napoleon name and logo in 3,500 Tim’s stores throughout Canada and the Northeastern U.S, as well as on literally millions of cups, creates huge brand recognition for the company”.

Toyota has also found this exposure to be a huge benefit and has acted as the vehicle prize sponsor for the contest for the last 6 years.  Director of External Affairs for Toyota Canada, Sandy Di Felice says that the partnership also allows Toyota, a foreign automaker, to align itself with a distinctly Canadian brand.

“It’s really not just a matter of whether our product appears on the cups–though we value that–but it’s about long-term shared values, shared brand pride,” she said. “We like to say that in building our value proposition with Canadians, Toyota’s as much a part of Canadian road trips as Tim Hortons is.”

We’re in the midst of my favourite Canadian holiday: its Tim Hortons’ Roll Up the Rim season!  Even if it isn’t yours, generally this time of the year is a good one for Canadian coffee drinkers as direct coffee chain competitors try to counter the coffee giant with their own promotions, most notably McDonald’s, which is once again offering free coffee.

Beginning February 21, Tim Horton’s launched their 25^th Annual Roll Up the Rim contest where customers who buy a hot beverage can roll up the rim of the cup to check for their winnings, offering a 1 in 6 chance of winning a prize, just by buying your daily double double.

This marketing strategy rewarding existing customers for their loyalty is a smart move by Tim Hortons, acting as a retention and loyalty program as part of their overall customer relationship management, which keeps customers loyal.  Aside from the coffee and doughnut prizes of which the costs are likely negligible, the other prizes given out are certainly costly, but in the long run they’re worth it when considering a customer’s life time value and the brand exposure for Tim Hortons.

In contrast, it’s unclear how well McDonald’s semi-annual free coffee event is doing to bolster their brand or retain customers.  The move generates no revenue for McDonalds: loyal paying customers don’t pay for their daily caffeine fixes and non-coffee drinkers and general cheapskates who are unlikely to return take advantage of the deal.  In March 2010 McDonald’s Ontario manager of communications reported seeing “a 30 percent increase in sales” after the promotion ran, but Tim Hortons still commands 76% of the Canadian coffee market, as well as 22% of the country’s fast-food market.