Sauder Student's Blog

Tim Hortons Inc. is now moving customers through some of its drive-in windows every 25 seconds, but the company’s new chief executive officer Marc Caira, says that’s not fast enough to thwart competitors threatening the iconic chain’s market share.

Tim Horton’s share of “quick service” restaurant-brewed coffee market slipped to 76.2 per cent from 78.1 per cent in 2009 and McDonald’s share rose to 10.7 per cent  from 5.4 percent in that same span. This is a signal that is telling Tim Hortons to be aware of its competitors because they are “stealing” the share of coffee market. Decreasing each customer’s waiting time is an effective way to keep old consumers and attract new consumers in the terms of keeping a good customer relationships. As the “best in class” in speedy fast-food drive-through orders, Tim Hortons has to deal with the long lines for example by simplifying the food and beverage preparation process and restore confidence in the system.

Moreover, Tim Hortons needs to focus on the quality of coffee and build more innovation technologies into the beverages and food. Tim Horton’s competitor, McDonald’s has upgraded the quality of coffee, as an executive previously in beverage powerhouse Nestlé SA, the new CEO Mr. Caira can borrow from the playbook in Nestlé to introduce more innovation to coffee and other Tim Hortons offerings to lure customers.

Resources from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/tim-hortons-vows-faster-service-to-fend-off-rivals/article14357952/

Apple Inc. unveiled two new iPhones on Tuesday, including the low-end iPhone 5C which only costs $99(U.S) on a two year contract. However, iPhone 5C is not that cheap considering the price in China.

In China, there are really great domestic mobile phone brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, which also has great quality and wonderful performance, more importantly, they are only  800~1200 RMB ($100~200). If we compare that with the price of iPhone 5C, which is 4488 RMB ($640),  we can easily find that iPhone 5C is not “cheap” at all. Before the iPhone 5C is released, many people estimated it to be under 3000RMB which is affordable for most people in China, and it proves to be a nice “dream” ultimately. In addition, iPhone 5S is 5288 RMB ($760), which is just 800 RMB ($100)more expensive! According to the reviews on the Chinese Internet media, many Chinese people are disappointed at the price of iPhone5C and they would rather pay 800RMB more to buy an iPhone5S with faster speed and has a fingerprint scanner built into it.

My analysis shows that on the one hand, Apple Inc. is aware of the very big potential in Chinese market and that’s why Apple tried to release the cheap version of iPhone to compete with other phones running on the platform of android. On the other hand,  Apple  still does not want to give up the profit, as a public company, it must ensure the profit for the shareholders, so it has to put iPhone5C to a such high price which is not considered to be “cheap” unless buy a two-year contract.

Related articles:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/apples-shares-drop-as-new-iphones-fail-to-dazzle/article14245208/

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