Month: March 2013

So I just went to Seattle the other day and, indeed, I went to the world’s largest burger chain: McDonald’s. Before going to Seattle, I heard from a friend that the McNuggets are extremely cheap in the States, compared to the price in Canada. “How different could it be?” I thought.

So I went there, totally prepared to buy a few chicken nuggets for my friends. Friend #1 wanted 40 pieces, friend #2 wanted 20 pieces, and friend #3 wanted 10 pieces, so 70 pieces in total.  I went up to the cashier lady and told her that I wanted 3 boxes of 20 pieces nuggets and a box of 10, and she asked me why don’t I just get 2 boxes of 40 pieces nuggets instead. I was amazed. Each box costs less than $10 AFTER TAX. I remember buying 10 pieces nuggets at the Village McD for $5.29 + HST. No wonder people in the States love McDonald’s so much. It’s just so cheap! I think this is a good example of how the pricing of a good can affect the lifestyle of many, many people (a lot more demand for McDonald’s food in the US than in Canada), though the people’s basic principles and lifestyle play huge roles in making decisions on the food they want to consume.

I remembered reading an article on this a couple of weeks ago, and my friends were talking about it. I think this is a very good branding news. Let’s look at the pros and cons:

Pros: 

1. People are more familiar with the name “Blackberry” since that’s what they’re more used to “using”
2. Maybe they’re trying to renew their image with their latest product launch (Z10 and Q10)?
3. Giving a sense of unity through making the company name the same as the brand name

Cons:

1. It does not change their products’ quality
2. People have been associating RIM with Blackberry in the first place, if they’re trying to rebrand themselves and give impression of something new, this might not be a good way to do it

Can you think of any other pros and cons to this strategy?