McDonald’s has just started a campaign in June, “Our Food. your questions“,  aiming to “foster a message of transparency, and … recoup its image within social media”. The consumers are encouraged to pose their questions to McDonald’s through various social media like Facebook and twitter. And they will get the answers they want.

The company has received more than 6,000 questions so far and has clarified numerous questions by making videos, and those videos are quite popular among the consumers. One of them “showing how pictures of the chain’s food is manipulated to look more appetizing in ads is the fourth most popular Canadian-made ad on YouTube”. Meanwhile, McDonald’s has successfully promoted its products and built a image in consumer’s mind that McDonald’s produces high quality fast foods and is the leader in the market.

McDonald’s tries to consolidate its role as the market leader; at the same time, the company wants to offer consumers a good dining experience by delivering its value proposition, which is a brand promise including food security, appealing flavours, low price, etc.

Reference:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/from-twitter-to-tv-mcdonalds-offers-answers/article4583492/

http://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/questions/1210

Katya’s post describes iOS 6 users’ great disappointment with Apple’s replacement of the Google Maps with its own “Apple Maps”. The customers are quite upset by the defects and weakness in iOS 6 map rather than surprised by the new features, including turn-by-turn navigation and 3D flyover.

Apple would be better off now if Google Maps was not integrated into previous generations of iphone. Google Maps has already got “into the mind of consumer” and consolidated its role as the leader of the maps market. However, despite the fact that iOS6 maps does have quite a few flaws, it’s positioned as the very top in the market by Apple rather than a follower, which leads to even greater dissatisfaction. As a consequence, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, later on apologized for the poor performance of iOS 6 maps to all the users.

Currently, Apple’s priority shoud be improving the quality of its product; in this way, the 3D flyover feature and turn-by-turn navigation function are able to  differentiate iOS 6 maps from the other products. Repositioning the competition is also essential, and Apple has already exposed some of the shortcomings of Google Maps, such as the higher data usage.

Reference:

http://www.androidauthority.com/apple-ios-6-maps-turns-out-disappointing-will-apple-approve-googles-new-maps-submission-soon-116705/

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/

As is read in Sally Chen’s post, Tim Hortons has a high brand loyalty within Canada as “its tradition, history, and hockey roots provide their customers with a sense of national identity and pride”. Correspondently, when I came to Canada in 2011, the first thing l learnt from others was about Tim Hortons rather than Starbucks or McDonald’s. As a consequence, these attributes are already able to differentiate Tim Hortons from other fast food chains.

“Always Fresh“, the value proposition, is what Tim Hortons want to offer to the consumers and it is also a promise. Its vision is “to be the quality leader in everything we do”. Tim Hortons has been diversifying its product line since its foundation, for the sake of meeting the changes of time and customers’ various tastes. And the consumers now perceive this brand as correlated to high quality and a part of their daily life.  The company positions itself as the leader of coffee chains in Canada. It also assumes the obligations for animal welfare, the community and the planet, building a better image in customers’ mind.

Reference:

http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/difference/environment.html