A quick slideshow showcasing the degradation of the Tim Hortons brand.

1. ISTIM HORTONS
OUTDATED?
Benjamin Madjanovich ~ 2019

2. Canada’s Favorite
brand?
Not anymore. After a slew of poor PR
and marketing decisions,Tim
Hortons sank to the 16th place slot
in terms of popularity. Since then,
Tim’s has managed to climb back
into the top 10, however, they
haven’t been able to catch the
attention of millennials and Gen-Z.

3. What do Canadians have to say?
“Both the food and the coffee are
horrible. Fix both or at least one and you
may improve market share.”
- FP commenter Del James
“The coffee. It's
watered down. It gives
me cramps.”
-Reddit user,
u/StatikSquid
“I don't know why people keep complaining
aboutTim Hortons.You know how you make
things better? Stop giving them your money.”
~Reddit user, u/Neutral-President
“Their coffee is terrible.”
~FP commenter Jeremy
Stock

4. How did it come to this?
The first red flag signalingTims’
impending drop in quality was when they
changed how they their donuts were
manufactured as a cost cutting measure.
Instead of baking their pastries in store,
Tim Hortons began manufacturing their
baked goods in a single central factory
where they were then frozen, and later
shipped to individual stores to be thawed,
glazed, and sold. Since then,Tim Hortons
has taken more and more cost cutting
measure at the cost of product quality

5. Why don’t their
new products
work?
Tim Hortons has been failing to come out
with new innovative products ahead of
their competitors.The most notable
example of this happening was when they
released their “beyond meat” vegan
products months after A&W.Tims failed to
put a unique spin on their product, instead
simply offering what customers viewed as
a worse version of the A&W product.

6. How canTims
save their
reputation?
To put it mildly,Tim Hortons needs
to get it together and improve
their products.Tims can’t compete
with their biggest competitor,
McDonalds, on either a price or
service speed standpoint. IfTim
Hortons wants to create a valid
point of differentiation, they need
to go back to preparing their
pastries in store.

7. “But what do you
know aboutTim
Hortons
customers?”
As someone who has worked withTim
Hortons for over three years, I’ve heard the
same complaint time and time again from
customers; “If timmies wants to keep
my business, they need to bring the
old coffee back”. These comments first
started popping up afterTim Hortons
changed coffee suppliers in 2014. It should
be noted however, that these complaining
customer still return every morning for their
daily double-double.

8. So what willTim Hortons do?
While the idea of aTim Hortons
renaissance is exciting,Tim Hortons will
most likely continue to look for new
avenues to cut costs at the expense of
product quality, all while spending more
and more on Canadian stereotype themed
advertising. At presentTim Hortons
seems to have no real positioning strategy
beyond theming their ads like Canada
centric theme park attractions, and it’s
only a matter of time before the majority
of Canadians seeTim Hortons for the sub-
par pastry peddler that they really are.

9. Fin~

10. References
■ https://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/a-canadian-cup-half-empty-
tim-hortons-struggle-to-stay-relevant-to-a-new-generation#comments-area
■ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/future-of-tim-hortons-baking-
system-uncertain/article4189637/
■ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/09/tim-hortons-canada-coffee-brand-
popularity-downfall