Corporate and Businesslevel Strategies - Research Paper Example

? Company Group number number: 04-75-100 Introduction to Business s submitted EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This article mainly evaluates the strategic dealings of Tim Hortons, a Canadian based coffee business. Corporate and business level strategies are highlighted in the discussion section. After having completed the whole analysis especially by taking into consideration the move of Tim Hortons to enter into US market and compete with industry giants of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, it would have been a disaster for Tim Horton, had they not introduced soups and sandwiches in their menu card. Currently, the market penetration of Tim Hortons is slow as it was expected due to presence of Dunkin Donuts. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTODUCTION………………………………………………………………. 4 CONTENT AND ANALYSIS……………………………………………….. 5 Company Issue………………………………………………………..... 5 Corporate Level Strategy………………………………………………. 6 Business Level Strategy………………………………………………... 10 Marketing Mix………………………………………………………….. 13 Strategic Business Models……………………………………………… 15 SWOT Analysis…………………………………………………………. 15 Internal Environment Analysis………………………………………….. 19 External Environment Analysis……………………………………….... 20 Competitive Analysis…………………………………………………… 20 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION………………………………………… 24 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………... 25 INTRODUCTION The guiding principle of Tim Horton is to deliver best quality products and services to its customers and communities through innovation, partnership, and leadership. The vision of the company is to acquire leadership in everything that they do. Tim Hortons is a service restaurant that provides a splendid yet casual dining experience to its customers. It was founded by Tim Horton (1930-1974) in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964. Tim Horton opened his first donut and coffee shop in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964. The menu included some of his own recipes. In 1965, Tim Hortons became partners with Ron Joyce. Ron Joyce, then, quickly initiated for company development and expansion. Unfortunately, soon after the establishment of his business, Tim Hortons lost his life in a car accident that occurred on 21 February 1974. After the death of Tim Hortons, Joyce took the sole responsibility and ownership of the company in 1974. In 1992, Tim Horton decided to open an outlet with Wendy’s featuring cross-branded products of both the companies. During the mid of 90s, the company expanded aggressively beyond Canadian Borders. It opened several outlets as donut shops in West Virginia, Ohio, and Detroit. Tim Horton is now publicly listed in Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and is considered as one of the most well known corporation of Canada. CONTENT AND ANALYSIS Company Issues There are number of issues that have influenced restaurants like Tim Horton. Some of them include: Demographic shifts Community Company Issues Environmental Issues These issues are briefly discussed in the subsequent paragraphs. Demographic shifts Demographic trends influence the business of restaurant largely. Some important variables of demographics that affect the company’s business include location, population, income of customers, age group, taste, preferences etc. They are some important factors that must be considered by a company. The population of Canada has increased from 19 million to 33 million. In order to accommodate the increased level of demand brought by increase in population, a company needs to incorporate new technologies into its business to enhance efficiency, hire more workers, and expand its outlets. Another factor that must be considered by a restaurant chain is diversity of generations. The company must take into account the different level of generations i.e. old customers, generation X, generation Y, baby boomers while promoting their products and services. In addition, gender also plays a vital role. While promoting, female customers must also be considered since they possess a prominent role in buying and consumption pattern of goods and services not only for themselves, but also for their families. Company Issues There has been some issue related to the company; approach towards incidents and accidents. Tim Horton does not possess any reported programs in order to support volunteerism and employee giving. Some controversies related to safety incidents and minor health issues have been occurred at Tim Horton. Environmental Issues Number of environmental issues affects Tim Horton and its operations. One of the most on-going controversies is related to the Drive-thru sales of the company. The company generates 50% of its sales through Drive-thru. People are highly concerned with the issues such as traffic congestion, exhaust fumes, noise, and pedestrian safety. Some Canadian municipalities are considering of implementing anti-idling laws on drive-thru on private and public lands. Tim Horton is fighting against it by stating that idling cars are less harmful as compared to that when engines are shut off and then restarted. Corporate Level Strategy Corporate level strategies help managers in deciding in what business to be in. corporate level strategy in simpler words, is called as, Market Definition. At this strategic level, a firm determines the types of products, which it wants to offer. Moreover, it also defines the geographic location of market where it wants to sell its products. Corporate Level Strategies are considered as the trunk of the strategic decision. All the other strategies and tactics are based upon corporate level strategies. The makers of corporate level strategy analyze the similarities of varying business units and then work to add value to all the business units as a whole along with individual growth of contributing in business units. Corporate Level Strategy of Tim Hortons Tim hortons has identified the type of product and geographic market where it wants to sell its products. Few years back, the company was operating within the boundaries of Canada with a limited number of products on its menu, which included primarily donuts and coffee. Tim Hortons, now has entered into the highly competitive market of US with wide range of products ranging from breakfast and lunch soups and sandwiches. In addition to that, Tim Horton has managed to acquire the position of market leader by implementing upon its corporate level strategy, which is to become the sole provider of quality donuts and coffee in the country. This was the foundation of Tim Horton’s Corporate Level Strategy but now the company has formulated some more relevant strategies pertaining to the area of Corporate Level Strategy. Some of the strategies include: Risk Avoidance Strategy Adjacent Growth Strategy Risk Avoidance Strategy The corporate level strategy of Tim Horton has helped the company in retaining its position as leading Donut and Coffee provider of Canada. In this regard, the company has established 2,711 donut outlets all over Canada. Out of the entire industry, Tim Horton possesses a 76% market share in baked goods and coffee. These entrenched successes indicate that Tim Horton has implemented upon Risk-avoidance strategy. In the past seven years, the company established as many outlets in Canada as it could. Moreover, it stretched its operations to US market, therefore has established several outlets in different states of US. Adjacent Growth Strategy Apart from the risk-avoidance strategy, Tim Hortons also implements upon the adjacent growth strategy by showing an interesting example. The company conducted a series of tests as well as research and development, and after performing these tests, the prominent Canadian organization identified some regions in mid west and north east of US. It identified these regions because they had the potential for profitable growth. Based upon the findings of these tests, the company is carefully investing in developing its unique position in the highly competitive markets of US. The company has come up with more range of products to offer while entering in its existing market i.e. Canada. It has developed a new product platform and has introduced sandwich and soup lunches as well as very popular breakfast sandwiches. The introduction of these products have significantly increased the revenue and thereby, profit of the company within its existing outlets in Canada. Organization Structure and Corporate Level Strategy The corporate strategy of a company also depends upon the organization structure of the company. The head office of Tim Horton is located in Oakville, Ontario. The company has several regional offices all over Canada and U.S. across North America, the company employs more than 1,800 people for working in its various departments. In order to achieve excellence and success, the corporate team has established experts and specialists in all sectors of its business including Training, Research and Development, Construction, Real Estate, Human Resource, Finance, IT, Franchising, Legal, Operation, Purchase and Marketing. Distribution Centers as part of Corporate Level Strategy The primary force that lies behind the success of Tim Horton is their distribution centers. The commitment to excellence, safety records, customer service, and emphasis on teamwork are considered as unmatchable in the industry. As a result, in 2006, Tim Horton has established its distribution centre in Guelph, Ontario. Relocation of this distribution centre has created many opportunities in the Transportation and Distribution areas of the company. Tim Horton Inc. also possesses distribution centers in Calgary, AB, Langley, BC, Kingston, ON and Debert, NS. Customer Satisfaction as part of Corporate Level Strategy For Tim Hortons, customer satisfaction is another key element of its corporate level strategy. The company has number of customers all over Canada and US. Tim Hortons provide a cultural fix to its customers since it is integrated in a Canadian Society. The customer range of Tim Hortons includes people from all age, ethnicity, gender, and races. They all come together under one roof to have a quality experience of baked goods and coffee of Tim Horton. The target class of Tim Horton is working class and blue collar people. The focus of Tim Horton is in morning since Canadian rush for coffee in morning i.e. before going to work. This focus has now started to shift to lunch hours and in this regard, lunch products are available at Tim Hortons. Business Level Strategy Business level strategy, also known as Industry Level Strategy helps manager in identifying how to sustain and compete in the existing industry. Business level strategies are essentially, positioning strategies whereby companies tend to secure a position and identity for themselves in the market place. The aim of business level strategies is to develop value for stakeholders and customers by increasing perceived value of customers and brand awareness. In order to increase the perceived customer value, this strategy focuses on product differentiation or pricing strategies. For business level strategies, porter’s generic models are widely utilized. Some of the models, which are implemented largely, include: 1. Cost leadership; cost leadership aims to produce goods and services at lower possible cost in industry. 2. Differentiation; it allows a firm to produce a unique perceived value within its market. 3. Focus Differentiation; under this strategy, a firm focuses on a particular niche of market. The above-mentioned generic strategies provide direction to business units in planning control procedures, incentive systems, interactions with buyers and suppliers, making other product decision and operations. Business Level Strategy of Tim Horton Despite of having number of competitors within is relevant industry, including Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts; Tim Horton has managed to retain its position due to its unique business level strategies. Both the other competitors offer products at higher prices as compared to Tim Horton. In this regard, Tim Horton has focused on acquiring Low Cost Differentiation strategy. As mentioned earlier, prices of Tim Horton are much affordable as compared to Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. When it comes to pricing strategy, Tim Horton has utilized Price Penetration Strategy. In Price penetration strategy, a firm sets a low price to avoid competitors from entering into the market. This strategy, therefore, leads to high sales volume. Tim Horton has successfully implemented the price penetration strategy, which has yield higher sales volume in Canada. As far as its competitors are concerned, Tim Horton has giant competitors in US, which are Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts. Starbucks is one of the most upscale coffee outlet having large variety and specialty of coffees. Krispy Kreme is finding it difficult to compete with other competitors in the market. Dunkin Donuts is as successful in US as Tim Hortons is in Canada. There is intense competition in among these competitors n United States whereas in Canada, Tim Horton holds a monopoly and therefore, the largest market share. The biggest mistake that the company did was that they believed that the same marketing strategies would attract millions of customer in United States as they did in Canada. They, however, forgot that Americans prefer their own franchises for coffee and donuts. Dunkin Donuts is the most popular donut and coffee shop in America. The increased competition in market has caused Tim Horton to select price penetration strategy. Before a entering a new market especially America, one must research the present wants and needs of its customers. Doing so would be imperative for assisting the company to gain some satisfying chunk of customers. Tim Horton has entered the US Market without any brand awareness among customers. The company must make awareness among customers by offering discounts. It would be the most efficient way to attract customers through coupons and discounts. By coming up with this strategy, there are some chances that he company dispel the brand loyalty of the American customers. Time Hortons has an advantage that it provides dine in experience to its customer whereas Dunkin Donuts is more towards a grab-and-go restaurant. This can provide competitive advantage to Tim Horton resulting in increased number of customers. Moreover, Tim Horton can aim to target potential markets of US. It can target customers from shopping malls, universities etc. Tim Horton serves different market segmentation. It is including more products into its menu whereas Dunkin Donut is only focusing on coffee and donuts. It can prove to be another competitive advantage for Tim Hortons. Tim Horton entered in Canadian culture by creating friendship with their consumers. If the same strategy is applied in American outlets, then it can work in favor of the company. The marketing campaign of ‘Roll up the rim to win’ became an instant success in Canada; it might also work in America. Therefore, this marketing campaign has been commenced in America as well. This promotion is intended to create the same brand awareness among customers and will help in building brand loyal customers in America, just like Canada. Tim Horton also provides online information regarding their beverages and food menu as well as nutritional calculator and nutritional facts. The website provides better customer service in convenient and fast manner. Marketing Mix of Tim Horton Products As far as perceived value of products is concerned, Tim Horton has positioned itself as the market leader in providing quality baked products and coffee. In addition to that, it provides always fresh and top quality bakery products i.e. donuts, Timbits, muffins, bagels, cookies, pastries as well as specializing in baked goods, coffee, home-style lunches and assorted beverages. The lunch items selection of companies include soup, wraps, and sandwiches. Pricing Pricing is an important factor since it is directly related to product positioning. The leading strategy of Tim Horton lies in its brand image, which says “Your Neighbourhood Tims” that further illustrates as ‘quality products at reasonable prices’. In contrast to other coffee companies in the market, the products of Tim Hortons are provided at very reasonable and lower prices. The company has adopted the Price Penetration Strategy in order to compete with the market. Comparing it with Starbucks, a large coffee at Tims is of $1.39 inclusive of all taxes whereas a ‘grande’ coffee at Starbucks cost around $2.01. Place After opening its first outlet back in 1964, Tim Hortons has expanded rapidly and now possesses more than 2,750 stores all over Canada. In addition to that, it possesses more than 350 stores across United States. Promotion The main source of promotion of Tim Horton is through media. The company advertises through radio, television, magazines, transit shelters, and billboards. Furthermore, they also utilize newspaper advertising. Tim Horton also promotes through a marketing campaign known as “Roll up the Rim to Win”. Tim Horton also promotes itself through local communities by sponsoring for various teams and by funding timbits hockey. Strategic Business Models SWOT Analysis Strengths Brand name Brand name of any product or company presents the image of that product or company in the eyes of customers and consumers. The brand “Tim Hortons” is so popular in Canada that even strangers roaming around in the streets of Canada ask for the nearest Tim Hortons’ outlet to have a coffee. The strong brand name not only increases the customer loyalty but also increases the popularity of Tim Hortons, that is why, the customer base for Tim Hornton is till on the expanding trend. Product Quality Not only the brand name of Tim Hortons, it is actually the quality of the product, which Tim Hortons produce. It is in fact the dedicated level of coffee quality which never let its consumers down in respect of their choice of Tim Hortons as their premium coffee provider in Canada. This strength of superior product quality is ensured by Tim Horton because of producing and selling the coffee to the consumers without any intermediary party. As a result of maintain their direct connections with the consumers they keep a close eye on the coffee quality which ensures the loyalty of highly satisfied customers. Corporate Image Tim Hortons has remained quite successful in establishing its brand name with its commitment and dedication towards the social responsibility. Tim Hortons has opened up a charity institution named as “Tim Hortons’ Foundation” which is exclusively providing the charity services to those children who are disabled, deprived, or reside in foster care. In order to reduce their inferiority complex and make them an equitable person like other people, Tim Hortons Foundation collects money from their own funds and utilize them on these children. Not only this, Tim Horton’s has recently opened up Tim Hortons University, in which the higher level of education is provided at a subsidized cost to those who cannot afford to bear their academic expenses. Weaknesses Limited Geographical Market Share The foremost weakness of Tim Hortons is that even though established a very strong market share of coffee in Canada, but it could not reach beyond the geographical boundaries of Canada, the way it could have. They tried to penetrate in the American coffee market but could not compete the giant in the name of Dunkin’ Donuts. Inability to switch Consumer Taste Tim Hortons has remained sluggish in switching the taste of American coffee consumers as the Americans generally like the black coffee. Tim Hortons still have the more varieties of coffee but still none of them could catch the attention of American consumers. Inability to broaden the product range Tim Hortons successfully exploited the Canadian market in the form of providing superior quality coffee however, unlike Dunkin’ Donuts, its fresh backed items and donuts could not become a better alternate choice to the consumers of Dunkin Donuts. This reason could not make Tim Hortons a cut throat competitor and Dunkin Donuts which provides the ultimate quality coffee, donuts and baked items to the American consumers. Opportunities New Geographical Locations Having achieved the premium market share of Canada, Tim Hortons has the scope of moving into new markets especially US and Europe. US market is currently dominated by the legacy of Dunkin’ Donut. Tim Horton has to implement an effective marketing strategy in order to offer its existing product range especially to the existing customers of Dunkin’ Donuts. Dunkin’ Donut has been the strongest market participant especially in providing coffee and donuts stores to its customers. Currently Dunkin’ Donuts is that brand name which is highly inspired by the coffee lovers of US. In such situation, it would be a very fruitful opportunity for Tim Hortons if it starts giving tough time to Dunkin’ Donuts. Threats Intense Competition Mainly the threat for Tim Hortons is the existing competition prevailing in the coffee as well as in the sandwich industry specifically in the US market. Dunkin’ Donuts and Subways are the considered as the most reliable brands of US. Competing in a coffee industry where Dunkin’ Donut is the king, would not easily lead Tim Hortons to penetrate deeper. Similarly, Subway is the most established sandwich brand of US and because of this, it would be much harder for Tim Hortons to give some competition to Subway. Pricing Pricing would be the main threat for Tim Hortons because their prices are higher than both of Dunkin’ Donut and Subway. For instance, Tim Hortons offer a sandwich at a price of around $9-10 whereas the similar quality sandwich offered by Subway would be around $6-8. Moreover, the customers also do not have much acceptance and acquaintance to the brand image of Tim Hortons in US market, the way they have for Dunkin’ Donut and Subway. Internal Environment Analysis Internally, Tim Hortons has to combat on various battlegrounds. In terms of pricing, the company is overcharging from the customers which even though the company is at its initial stage in the US coffee and baked items market. Since brand name of Dunkin’ Donut is not highly renowned, therefore consumers still prefer Dunkin Donut and Subways as their most preferred coffee and sandwich shops respectively. Tim Hortons prepares its specialty coffee named as iced cappuccino in which Starbucks is the only competitor of Tim Hortons, but the competition with Starbucks is not a serious threat for Tim Hontons. What exactly is deterring Tim Hortons to enter and penetrate into US market is the existing domination of Dunkin’ Donuts, which has substantially inspired the US population into aroma and taste of black coffee, which Americans love to have. Tim Hortons needs to bring out and come up with such marketing strategy that could also inspire the US population, which Dunkin’ Donut is currently doing effectively. If Tim Hortons remain successful in attracting the customer of Dunkin’ Donuts, sky is the limit for Tim Hortons as black coffee is the ultimate desire of Americans. External Environment Analysis If external environment of Tim Hortons is taken into consideration, it can be noted that a very wide market for coffee is at the doorstep of Tim Hortons. Even though Tim Hortons would have to face numerous challenges, but if it followed the taste and customs of Americans, it could easily maneuver in the US markets. As stated above, Tim Hortons would have to significantly make a change in its marketing communication to the coffee consumers, which can Tim Hortons lead towards better customer acceptance. The products that are more liked and inspired by the Americans should be more advertised and given a front cover space at the menu card of the products offered. In case of advertisement, Tim Hortons should use such marketing messages, which are highly appealing to the US customer. Tim Hortons would have to make shift in its both internal and external strategies in order to provide better quality products to Americans in America, not in Canada. Other external factors, which cannot be ignored, are the effects of inflation prevailing in the US food industry, differences in the currencies of US and Canada, different laws and litigations especially marketing laws etc. In Tim Hortons manages to surpass these factors, it will enjoy delightful times doing business in US. Competitive Analysis New market entry for any firm especially in a new region is always considered as a difficult task even though the brand name of the company is highly famous in the home country of that firm. Tim Hortons is the most famous brand of Canada, however, on Americans grounds, it has to compete with Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme. Starbucks is mainly popular to due to targeting the elite class of coffee consumer such that they mainly serve the specialty coffee to those customers. Conversely, Krispy Kreme is on the opposite pole of coffee industry, which is itself at its struggling stage. Krispy Kreme opened up around 18 coffee shops in Canada to compete with Tim Hortons, but it could not establish its brand name and product quality in Canadian market. Because of this, in just a period of four months, Krispy Kreme had to shut down around 12 coffee shops in the first stage and filed a bankruptcy. Dunkin’ Donut is the chief player of coffee industry in US as it provides those coffee products to the coffee lovers, which can exactly satisfy their needs, especially black coffee. Dunkin’ Donut has the same brand image and goodwill in US, which Tim Hortons has in Canada. Both of them are giants to their home countries and mainly target the “blue-collar” customers. As a result of Tim Hortons to snatch some of the market share of US coffee industry especially from Dunkin’ Donuts, it has to face serious challenges to unfreeze the customer base of Dunkin’ Donuts. The product range of both giants is almost similar i.e. coffee and baked items. Tim Hortons realized the need to put soups and sandwiches into its menu card whereas Dunkin’ Donuts is still more than willing to offer coffee and donuts to the consumers along with negligible sandwich meals. Tim Hortons exploited a weakness of Dunkin’ Donuts such that around two-third of the revenue of Dunkin’ Donuts is earned before the lunchtime. Tim Horton benefited from this weakness of Dunkin’ Donuts as it generated around 16% of their sales revenue be offering soups and sandwiches to the US customers. Briefly, the menu card of Tim Hortons has prevented Tim Hortons from a complete debacle in US as their coffee sales are still way far from that of Dunkin’ Donuts. Due to crafting a proper menu card and appropriate range of products, Tim Hortons not only managed to survive in US, but also it has started gaining some fame in coffee industry as well. Another significant difference between these two industry giants is the way of their servings. Tim Hortons provide an ambiance to enjoy the coffee, soups, sandwiches and other meals in a relax way whereas Dunkin’ Donuts has adopted the approach for those are rushing to their journeys i.e. a grab-and-go approach. There are people of both mindsets as some want their coffee and donuts to be served as quickly as possible, where as some people wants to stay out there in a pleasant coffee shop to release their stress. Dunkin Donut itself had to face loads of challenges when they moved to their northern borders, as Tim Hortons did not let them stand properly on their feet. Same strategy they are following to stop the increasing penetration of Tim Hortons in US market. New England is the main area of Dunkin Donuts such that it has around 2,100 stores in that area. Tim Hortons also tried to expand its existence in that area, and have opened up around 42 stores. Still, there is no match for Tim Hortons with Dunkin Donuts in New England. Tim Hortons should learn a lesson from the failure of Krispe Kreme as Tim Hortons has already lost around $4.8 million in New England region only. Those borders of US which meet with Canada i.e. Ohio, Maine, New York and other different states, the level of competition is gaining between Tim Hortons and Dunkin Donuts. However, sue to weaker brand image of Tim Hortons especially in the south and central states of US, Tim Hortons should work this out carefully as this even may lead them to wipe out from the coffee and baked item industry. There are some indirect competitors of Tim Hortons as well in the US market such that many people even do not go out to buy and have coffee early in the morning when they wake up. For those consumers, brands such as Folgers, Maxwell House are widely available in grocery stores, which provide ready-to-have coffee for home consumers. Having developed their mainstream presence in Canada, Tim Hortons serve their customers through a building with a drive thru. However, it requires significant amount of investment to build such premises. So, Tim Hortons implemented a simple strategy by contracting with Shell gas stations in order to prevent the increased level of investment. According to a gas station owner, the sales turnover of Tim Hortons at his gas station has increased to double in just a span of one year. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The above analysis has presented various kinds of facets especially in terms of performance of Tim Hortons in US against Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. Since the Tim Hortons wanted to expand its existing operations as it had reached to its maturity phase by gaining almost complete market share of Canadian market, therefore, Tim Hortons picked US as its next mission. Dunkin Donut had already been a dominant market participant of US, there was a serious danger to its entry into this market as the one of the previous coffee shop business like Krispy Kreme already collapsed. By carefully negotiating with the existing situation, Tim Hortons adopted such a marketing strategy in which it provided the customers of coffee something different than Dunkin Donuts provides. Tim Hortons introduced a dining facility for coffee lovers in a pleasant ambiance, increased its product line by adding soups and sandwiches. These smaller things did their best for the survival of Tim Hortons in US industry especially in the presence of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. On a concluding note, it can be noted that the progress of Tim Hortons is quite slow in US market, but besides that, Tim Hortons is creating its own unique brand image which can is perceived as not only the coffee shops but various kinds of other backed items, soups and sandwiches. 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Financial Post. Retrieved 25 November 2012 .http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=321722 Tim Hortons: About Us. (2008).“The Story of Tim Hortons. The TDL Group Corp. Wedny’s International Inc. Retrieved 25 November 2012.http://www.timhortons.com/en/about/index.html  Appendices Read More