What online platform should you be active on and where are your prospective clients hanging out?
It’s hard for some of us to remember a time when we didn’t have a ‘pocket computer’ with us everywhere we go. A simple search or click can help you navigate throughout your day. These pocket computers, otherwise known as smartphones, have changed the landscape of how business owners can advertise. The latest app can…
Tim Hortons desperately needs to make its Roll Up The Rim campaign work. But the chain may have again missed the mark
After a disastrous campaign last year, Tim Hortons finally got the message and opted to change its 35-year-old Roll Up The Rim campaign. But its new approach is not that simple. The iconic contest is now much shorter and incredibly more complicated. Given its last quarter financial results showed same-store-sales dropping by more than four…
You need a clear marketing strategy, prepared staff, the correct giveaways, quick follow-up on leads and plenty of energy
If you aren’t including trade shows in your marketing mix, you may be missing out. Exhibiting at a trade show immediately levels the playing field between you and the other guys, no matter how much bigger, richer or more established they are. Every business pays the same square-footage rate to get in front of people…
A poorly-chosen menu and questionable marketing led to a leadership shakeup. Innovation through trial speeds up change. But successive failures cast doubt
Tim Hortons has had what is likely one of the strangest years in its history. Most of the iconic chain’s decisions in recent months have been inexplicable. Canadians have been left scratching their heads. Take the Beyond Meat burger as an example. Tim Hortons took this well-promoted plant-based item off its menu in September 2019,…
That a guy nicknamed Elvis the Pelvis had tackled sacred songs was offensive and sacrilegious to many. But it was perfect marketing
Teenagers in the 1950s couldn’t escape the music of their parents. Despite radio’s new-fangled Top 40 and the attendant infiltration of rock ’n’ roll, the sounds of the past were all around. This was particularly the case for Christmas songs. But things began to change in late October 1957, thanks to Elvis Presley announcing the…
Usain Bolt became the fastest human being ever by eating – wait for it – Chicken McNuggets, not following the latest health care fad
Kicking off her wonderful book from earlier this year, Christie Aschwanden asks a seven-word question that might help us recover some sanity for our hyper-affluent, marketing-mad society. “Do any of these products actually work?” Aschwanden asks in the introduction of Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn From the Strange…
Good advertising works to capture attention, elicit emotion and get responses, but most advertisers don't know how to go about achieving those goals
Advertising can stimulate desire. Not that any advertising I ever participated in when I was single resulted in crowds of female admirers. However, working in the health food industry, I would often strive to create in my customers a desire for better health. My ads would try to kindle a response that would generate traffic…
Unless you have a clear idea how to accomplish your goals, and what the goals are, you might just be chasing elusive dollars
Emily hit the golf ball and started running. Swinging her club mid-stride, she repeatedly hit the ball and kept sprinting toward the first hole. Our yelling and laughter confused her and finally she stopped. “What are you yelling about?” she turned to us defiantly. “You told me that the goal was to get the golf…
The great protein war is heating up as several major restaurant chains embrace the plant-based movement while others firmly position themselves as guardians of the mighty meat-eater. It’s getting hard to keep track. A&W, Canada’s first Beyond Meat ambassador, started it all a little over 12 months ago with its surprisingly successful campaign. Since then,…
Beyond Meat’s fixation on replicating the taste and texture of natural products like beef has become the company’s greatest weakness
Beyond Meat lost almost $10 million in its second quarter, but it beat expectations on revenues. Regardless, Beyond Meat is now worth US$14 billion U.S. and is Wall Street’s best-performing initial public offering (IPO) so far this year. But it does face challenges. Beyond Meat’s stock price has increased by more than 800 per cent…