Tim Horton's Coffee Cruiser

Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake Shop is kicking off the summer season with the launch of four food trucks providing free, full-size samples of the chain's most popular iced and hot beverages at community events and summer outings.
The Coffee Cruisers also will visit area businesses surprising employees with a free cup of Tim Hortons premium blend coffee in the morning or a Real Fruit Smoothie or Iced Capp in the mid-afternoon.
Businesses and event planners can request a Coffee Cruiser visit by posting on the Cruisers' Facebook page.

Here is a great marketing video promoting the Country of Iceland.  This is how you promote a country!

http://vimeo.com/12236680 Inspired by Iceland

McQuality

McDonald’s Canada has developed a platform that allows consumers to ask the fast food restaurant any question that comes to mind (provided that it pertains to its offerings), with the promise of receiving a direct and immediate response from the brand.  The chain is allowing inquisitive consumers to submit a query on its “Our Food. Your Questions” microsite, which could include anything from what ingredients are put in its meals, to how menu items are prepared to how the egg in a McMuffin gets its perfect shape.

It is the  company's ongoing efforts to have Canadians gain a better understanding about the quality of its food which began in 2011 when it launched the McDonald's All-Access Moms program.  
The project is meant to foster no-holds-barred interactivity with Canadians and to offer more transparency about the company’s food and tackle long-held beliefs – not all positive – that consumers have about its offerings. 

McDonald's Canada launched the following commercial to promote its new site:

I believe it is more of a continued marketing strategy directly targeting it's competitors with key promotions on the quality of their food versus others in the QSR industry. The site is nicely laid out in a pinterest fashion with easy to navigate tools, but I noticed that some of the more pressing questions where conspicuously void of an answer and alternatively had a "follow" button to seek the answers.

Here is an example.

" Does McDs use chopped or formed chicken or is it all chicken breasts"

" Is the thing about Chicken McNuggets true?  They are made from a processed pink sludge of meat and  bones and ground up with chemicals"

"  Do your grill your chicken and beef on the same grill?  I don't eat red meat so I am picky about my chicken"

McDonalds should stick to the basics, promoting a product, we all know ( or really don't want to know ) what goes into some of our processed foods, and it is a choice we all make daily.  I rather like the old commercials like this 1983 Egg McMuffin clip starring Megan Mullally as a teenager. 

Starbucks in Gas Stations?

Not content with opening three or four coffee shops on every major city block, Starbucks is now planning to sell its beverages through thousands of vending machines across the United States. In a five-year deal with Coinstar – better known for its DVD rental boxes – the java retailer will offer its Seattle’s Best Coffee brew at kiosks in supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchants.




The Rubi serves up a variety of hot drinks, from mochas to lattes. Coffee drinks are available for as little as $1. The device takes up nine-square feet of retail space, and the machines eventually may be able to produce iced drinks as well.

The “Rubi” kiosks will begin rolling out this summer at grocers, drugstores and mass-market retailers, the companies said yesterday in a statement. Starbucks is seeking to expand beyond its namesake products and boost sales with the more affordable Seattle's Best Coffee brand, acquired in 2003. In February, the brewer said it would begin selling Seattle’s Best at Kmart stores and Chevron gas stations. It’s also sold in some Yum Brand's Taco Bell restaurants, Burger King Worldwide Holdings Inc. locations and Subway stores.

Self serve kiosks are not new, California based Jamba Juice recently announced they will install 400 to 500 units of its new JambaGO outlets in schools, convenience stores, colleges, entertainment centers and other nontraditional locations.  Taking roughly the space of a soda fountain beverage dispenser, the self-service JambaGO outlets expects a revenue stream of about $700,000 for 2012.

You may have seen Sprinkles the cupcake chain installed a “cupcake ATM” at its original location in Beverly Hills, Calif., that has red velvet-craving patrons lining up at all hours of the day and night selling roughly 1000 cupcakes per day.  Very creative.

Coffee Sleeve Advertising

The coffee sleeve, also known as a java jacket are designed to protect the consumer's hand from the heat of the beverage by creating space for heat to escape.  Made from 100% recycled paper they are the customer's preferred receptacle for hot drinks. Double cupping is expensive and not as effective as using a cup with a coffee sleeve.

Using the coffee sleeve as an advertising medium has been around for years and allows you to connect with your customer.  One company is taking this a step further.  Tim Horton's in The United Arab Emirates recognized that drinking coffee and reading the newspaper go hand in hand joined forces with Gulf News to create a new advertising medium.

The result is hourly headline news printed on each sleeve using Gulf News Twitter account.  Accordingly, every cup sold in the UAE now bears the newspaper’s current top headline on the coffee sleeve it comes with, with updates made every hour. Also included on the sleeve are a short URL and QR code directing customers to the Gulf News website for the full story. The video below explains the campaign in further detail:

The result?  Nearly 3000 new Gulf News Twitter followers signed up for the campaign, and traffic grew on the Gulf News website by 41%!  Certainly something to think about.

Did you know?

Did you know all the changes going on?
Are you prepared to cope with the new world coming?
Have you changed your mindset and turned it into a digital and flexible one?
You may have seen this video in the past but just in case you are not fully aware of all the changes + opportunities that are arising, please take a look at this video:

 

The World as we know it is disappearing. Time to evolve or die.
Welcome to the New World!!!
THINK DIFFERENT!!!

A New Way To Shop!

The internet is all around us and is changing our world everyday.  One of the biggest changes I see is the way people shop.  We have all heard of the death of the Big Box retailer with chains such as Blockbuster and Rogers video closing, as well as the announcement by electronics retailer Best Buy closing 65 stores.  Well no wonder, check out this video from Home Plus, a South Korean discount retail chain jointly owned by Samsung and British grocery chain Tesco.

The supermarket opened a virtual grocery store in a south korea subway station, permitting users to shop using their smartphones. A large, wall-length billboard was installed in the station, designed to look like a series of supermarket shelves displaying images and prices of a range of common products. Each sign also includes a QR code that users scan any product they would like to purchase, thereby adding it to their online shopping cart. After the web transaction is completed, the products are delivered to the user's home within the day.

The strategy makes productive use of commuters' waiting time, while simultaneously saving shoppers time spent going to the supermarket. Whether you think it's stupid or not, it's an obviously ingenious marketing ploy that actually WORKS.  The chains online sales have increased 130%.

 Digital Marketing

Here is a great example of a company ( Maison Cailler ) a French Chocolate company that really understands the power of the internet when it comes to marketing their product.  I really like the way they put together their Facebook page, very engaging and informative, with lots of focus on special events such as Mothers Day.

Keep An Eye On Starbucks

It looks like Starbucks is trying to diversify its image from just coffee to all the other products it sells at its stores (like cakes, pastries etc).  On Monday Starbucks announced an agreement to acquire the San Francisco-based  La Boulange bakery brand for $100 million in cash.  La Boulange Bakery and Cafe is part of the Bay Bread Group and is a popular San Francisco Bakery offering fantastic brunches and healthful lunches.

Maybe they are now trying to expand the contribution from these other products to their top line growth.  Certainly worth paying attention, remember it was only 3 years ago that the company stock was in a downturn and company founder Howard Shultz return prompted many changes, including a new logo, the closing of over 300 stores and the decision to add more Seattle's best coffee and expand the drive thru concept.

 I would think that further growth of Starbucks would come from its international expansion. However I also think that Starbucks coffee will have a harder time competing in the international market because of the varying tastes and preferences about what constitutes good coffee, and the increased competition from other international brands. One good thing going for it is that Starbucks seems to have a relatively more exclusive brand image in developing countries like India because of its lower store density.
In the end, I think Starbucks is trying to sell an experience rather than just coffee or any other product. Unfortunately, almost every other brand worth its name is trying to sell the exact same thing nowadays. The challenge for Starbucks is to identify what is its core brand image and then assert that image both in US and worldwide.

Good For Business

Could your business benefit from 482,000 followers?  Just ask Sherry and John Petersik from Richmond Virginia.  Full time stay at home parents raising a one year old while juggling do-it-yourself projects, book writing and blogging.  They make a modest living out of blogging about... modest living.

The couple have delighted and inspired millions of visitors to their site with the premise that you don't have to be an expert to successfully renovate and decorate your home—just an enthusiast!  They began posting some of their work and original photos on websites such as We Heart It and Pinterest and today have a huge following. 


Just recently they started working with Benjamin Moore paints to design their own color palletes.
Certainly a young couple making it look easy.  Follow them at www.younghouselove.com

Caribou Coffee Going Global

Caribou Coffee reaches global expansion milestone | FastCasual.com

When to Start Marketing

Back in March 2012 I read a blog by Seth Grodin, it was simply titled "When Should We Add Marketing".   In this article he brings up a very interesting point.   In the past we would create a product or open a new store front and maybe a few days or even a week before opening we would begin an advertising campaign to promote what we made or sold.

Today, in the era of connectivity, the marketing is the product, the service and the conversations generated that makes the connection.  In other words, when people connect with your product or service they begin to tell others.  Successful companies know that marketing is not advertising, the notion of throwing a ton of money into flyers or newsprint ( Mad Men )  is dead.  Marketing today is about telling a story about your product or service, that story should be true and should resonate with people.  It's not about making a better cup of coffee, but how your coffee is better and why people should buy your coffee.

With the changing media and the changing world, marketing should be the first thing we do, not the last.  Build connections, a tribe or a following about your product or service from the start.  Every successful internet marketer has earned attention, built trust  and then when they opened their doors they turned it into a profit.

If you're entering a competitive field and you intend to grow, the best plan is to create a presence in the new market about your product and or service from the start and then the end gets a lot easier.

Dallas Cowboys Fumble The Donut

Dunkin' Donuts has added some star power to its franchise base in Dallas, welcoming Dallas Cowboys Football Club Owner and General Manager Jerry Jones and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman as the brand's newest partners.

 As part of a limited partnership between Dunkin' Donuts, the Jones Family and Aikman, the group plans to open at least 50 new Dunkin' Donuts restaurants throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth region throughout the next five years.

Not sure what Aikman and Jones know about running a chain of donut shops.  But maybe we should sign up some hockey players and open up some Tim Horton's