Mark McCutcheons Marketing Blog

“I even DREAMT about winning 10,000 dollars in Roll up the Rim, and I don’t even buy coffee!!”  – Mark McCutcheon (Me)

Ahhh so it’s that time of year again, the time when local Tim Horton line ups are driven even further out the door and I, unlike many, do not wait. It does not help that my record for winning cups is nothing to brag about while other friends are piling in the free donuts and coffees like it was Christmas. Although I am not a coffee drinker, after reading Enzo Woo’s blog post from last term I was instantly reminded of the roll up the rim hype that I especially admire from a business point of view. With revenue increases of approximately 5% annually because of this campaign the extra money generated is outrageous because of the massive size of the company. Based on last years revenues of roughly 2.8 billion dollars this years campaign could bring in an additional $140 million or more assuming they out preform their previous fiscal year.  Although I am not a regular, from time to time I will purchase a hot chocolate or a steeped tea and when you are finished and it is FINALLY time to roll up the rim of your cup it is very thrilling. It gives people something to look forward to in the morning and Tim Horton’s has really done a superb job of creating customer value this way. I mean, I even dreamt about winning and I don’t buy coffee, Tim Horton’s has done well.

What other company has its customers excited about finishing their cup of coffee? I cannot think of one that is for sure!!!! Check out this very Canadian commercial below, although shot from a TV it does the job.

Introduced 26 years ago when their top prize was a box of timbits and now over %60 million in prizes, Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim to win campaign has had continued success since the day it launched. With my unlucky experiences with winning anything from the contest I get a little discouraged at times, but after seeing this video below i know its possible!!! *the guy wins a car*

Although a blurry camera, you can tell he won!

In response to Shay Segal’s blog post about the 2007 super bowl commercial launched for Fritos Lay’s Doritos chips, I found extremely intriguing that it was generated solely by a customer contest. Instead of Fritos Lay creating their own commercial, they chose the best customer developed commercial for super bowl Sunday! Super Bowl Sunday is the one time a year when companies differentiate themselves in very unique ways. Whether bringing a rap star on set like Brisk did last Super Bowl or simply designed to be hilarious, Super Bowl ads have an extremely large price tag. Companies strive to create the “add of the year” and at a cost of nearly $120,000 a second it better be worthwhile. Like the Doritos example Shay talked about in his blog, companies do whatever it takes to represent their brand image in a very attractive yet different way looking to be the “cool” and most talked about brand. Super Bowl Sunday is that one time a year when, as a marketing manager of a company, you know millions of people are watching and it your opportunity to create an image of your brand in the consumers mind and maybe even make them laugh in the meantime.

Since it is the day after the Super Bowl, interesting/hilarious commercials are on my mind and I happened to come across Shay’s recent blog post. I have to share some of the “cooler” ads from yesterday’s event.

This is Hersey’s commercial for their M&M product which I personally found pretty cheesy but at the same time funny. You can see the certain strategies they use to make this video attractive to viewers. They incorporate a catchy song that is fairly new with a course that repeats the lyrics “I’m sexy and I know it,” while the brown M&M is mistaken for being naked. The concept of a talking/dancing M&M seen as naked while moving to lyrics “I’m sexy and I know it” is simple, quite humorous, and does a superior job of sticking in the consumers mind.

Here you can find a playlist of 54 other Superbowl commercials and you can decide if you think it was worth a possible 3.5 million dollars for their 30 seconds of air time.
http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-2012-commercials/#MJzm6bIcjW8

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner could there be a fourth meal?

In attempt to attract hungry customers with a late night craving Taco Bell has recently introduced the idea of a “fourth meal” meant to attract customers to eat an additional meal after dinner time. Taco Bell is trying to introduce this “discovered” meal by targeting people who are out late at night and have evening cravings that they would normally satisfy by splurging on snacks or other fast food chains. On the Taco Bell website (found below) under Fourth Meal they use the phrase “You’re out late, you’re hungry, you’re doin’ Fourth Meal” to advertise their new idea and as a way to advertise their new products.

This technique used my Taco Bell, is ingenious. By creating this idea of a fourth meal, customers who know about this new advertisement roaming the streets late at night are much more likely to go out of their way to eat at a Taco Bell, ultimately increasing revenues for the company. Taco Bell is basically trying to gain market control over human cravings in the evening by adopting a name (fourth meal) to their late night menu items. However, whether or not this proves to be an effective strategy or not will be determined in time.

This marketing campaign does however bring up ethical issues that need to be thought about. Americans obesity rates are constantly rising and Taco Bell’s introduction of a Fourth Meal and later operating hours does not help this issue whatsoever. Would this have any effect on whether or not people will attend “Fourth Meal?” This issue is similar to the recent decision by Tim Hortons to demolish the “small” size cups in American outlets making every cup larger so that an extra large and all other sizes are much larger than before. Tim Hortons is promoting more consumption of unnecessary food similar to Taco Bell’s late night consumption campaign.

Taco Bells website promoting their new fourth meal idea          http://www.tacobell.com/fourthmeal