Browsing through various Comm296 blogs, I came across Lauren Nipp’s blog. Her most recent posting describes Tim Horton’s current transition into the smoothie market.
In the posting, Lauren describes how Tim Horton’s has successfully segmented a group of consumers looking for coffee and tea beverages at a low price. Additionally, Lauren effectively recognizes the company’s primary target markets. Lauren has done a great job at identifying class concepts such as STP and brand extensions and combining them with what is currently happening in the market.
Tim Horton’s expansion into the smoothie market is similar to Blenz’s recent production of protein shakes. Blenz found a hole in their positioning map, and jumped on the opportunity to provide a healthy protein shake, bursting with high quality products. However, they key difference between Tim Hortons and Blenz is their prices and quality. As George Moen described last Friday at a keynote speech he made, Blenz is unable to provide their beverages at a price as low as Tim Hortons because their quality of goods is significantly high. He has also said “We’re responding to the market’s demand for a healthy meal alternative, and we’re excited that we can do so while maintaining our high standards of delicious, authentic, natural and handmade beverages with top quality ingredients.”
Both instances are prime examples of companies in the same industry with different focuses.
As Lauren described in her post, Tim Horton’s positioning statement would be “a reasonably priced coffeehouse company that also provides healthy alternatives.”
Conversely, Blenz would likely have a position statement such as “a superior coffee company providing various beverage alternatives that are made using the highest quality ingredients.”
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