But nowhere is the difference as stark as in Tims advertising. Even the signs outside the stores are different where, in the U.S., they feel the need to note the company sells “Coffee and baked goods.”
“You have to make a connection with a new market. Because there is no emotional connection,” says Paul Wales, the creative director at J. Walter Thompson Canada who is responsible for developing the Tim Hortons campaigns on both sides of the border. So it's like: ‘What are you offering me?' You have to be clearer.”
“We built up over 40 years a connection with Tim Hortons in this country. Up here it's like a ritual, go to Tims, people go more than once a day,” he adds.
The cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken has noted that Tims occupies a unique place in Canadian society that allows everyone on the socio-economic spectrum, from CEOs to the unemployed, to feel comfortable carrying one of the company's coffee cups. There is no analogue in the more stratified American market.
So, in the U.S., the company is trying to brand itself as the place offering the freshest value-priced food and coffee available in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) category.
“It's a bit of a formula for the ads,” admits Mr. Wales. “How we shoot something: Let's make sure we portray it in the best light, whether it's a muffin breaking open, or whatever – but also round it off with a value story.”
He also notes a different tone is necessary in the U.S. “In Canada, we might see [the U.S. spots] as a little bit more boastful type of advertising, whereas in the United States, you've got to have confidence. Your brand or company – Americans like to know you stand for something. ‘Hey, just keep showing us – quality meets value. Great. Prove it to me every time, and don't be shy about it.'“ “In the States, they talk in those terms,” he adds. “People look for companies that have a point of view.”
Last summer, the company made a big splash when it took over 12 stores in New York City after Dunkin Donuts, its Massachusetts-based archrival, pulled out of an agreement with a local landlord. “New York gave us an amazing amount of media exposure and presence, and I think that was well worth the effort,” said Bill Moir, the chief marketing officer of Tim Hortons. “You need those kinds of things in the U.S. It created buzz and lots of activity.”
In the past few months, though, the store on Manhattan's Upper West Side was closed, a victim of what some New Yorkers said was a lack of a unique identity in the crowded marketplace. But the company has taken steps to repeat its success in Canada. In an echo of its placement of a store serving members of the Canadian armed forces in Kandahar, Tims recently opened stores at Fort Knox and the naval base at Norfolk, Va.
In the end, if Tims is to be a success in the U.S., it will be because it built its brand from the ground up, insinuating its way into American society one step at a time. Company executives are fond of saying Tims is a 45-year overnight success story. “It's kind of like the rock band or country singer who travels to all those small markets,” said Mr. Moir, “and then, after years, becomes a star.”
An earlier online version of this story and the original newspaper version incorrectly referred to an analysis by Robert Seiler as appearing in the American Journal of Canadian Studies. This online version has been corrected.
