Positioning Tim Hortons

Develop a brand position with a smart frame of reference for Tim Hortons. This brand position should describe the way that Tim Hortons intends for consumers to perceive the companys restaurants (and products) relative to its competitors. This positioning statement provides marketing managers with a strategic direction, identifying the target market, product type, points of differentiation, and the main reasons a customer should buy its product(s).

Target Consumer: Provide a brief description of Tim Horton’s targeted customers in terms of identifying characteristics, such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral.

Frame of Reference: (a) First, identify the targets goal that will be served by consuming the brand (all the possible criteria customers might use when positioning different brands in their mind — price, taste, choice, environment, service, speed, location, drive-up window, available parking, etc.?). Your list should be fairly exhaustive and comprehensive at this point because you want to make sure you are considering every possible reason why someone may want to consume the brand. Then (b) develop a list of relevant (closest) competitors (e.g., brands that claim to serve the same goal or offer the same or similar criteria).

Perceptual Brand Map: Marketers often use perceptual brand mapping to establish, and graphically represent, a F.O.R. Using the brand map in the article Perceptual Brand Mapping and Positioning as an example (and there are plenty others on the internet), construct a brand map by selecting (from the list that you just developed above) the two most important criteria used by consumers when considering this category. (MAKE SURE TO PROVIDE SOME RESEARCH TO BACK UP WHAT CRITERIA YOU THINK IS IMPORTANT AND WHY.) Then create a perceptual brand map to plot where Tim Hortons is positioned in relation to its competition.

Point of Difference: Describe why the Tim Hortons brand is superior (in the criteria you selected) to the competitors alternatives listed in the F.O.R.

Reasons to Believe: Provide the main reason(s) a customer should consume the Tim Hortons brand (e.g., quality, price, service, etc.) to support the claim of Tim Horton’s superiority described in P.O.D above. See if you can identify the target market, product type, points of differentiation, and the main reasons a customer should buy Tim Hortons. This is your positioning statement. (See the example of DeWalt Power Tools in the article, Perceptual Brand Mapping and Positioning.

Address each of the above.

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