Takin’ Time for Tim Horton’s

Review by Mike Gange

Tales from Under the Rim
by Ron Buist
Goose Lane Editions, $29.95, 218 pages

If you don’t live in Canada, or at least right next door to Canada, you might have never heard of Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts. Pity, because not only has Tim Horton’s been a huge marketing success, but thanks to its coffee, catch-phrases and ad campaigns, it has become a rich part of Canada’s unique culture.

Thirty years ago, if there was a Tim Horton’s in any town in Canada, it was likely the only one. It was located in a converted gas station, and when you entered through the double doors on a chilly night in February, the welcoming warmth would steam up your glasses. On many a late night the stools at the counter and most of the wobbly tables in Tim’s would be full of university students, party goers and usually a police officer or two on a break. Everyone who entered would be sniffing at the blended smells of strong coffee, stale tobacco smoke and freshly baked sweet doughnuts. In the mid-1970's there were only about a hundred franchises that carried the name of the popular professional hockey star, Tim Horton, who died in 1974 in a tragic single car crash. Most of the franchises were in Ontario, a few were in New Brunswick, one was in Quebec and none were west of Winnipeg.

Today there are more than two thousand Tim Horton’s smoke-free restaurants, located everywhere across Canada -- in newly constructed stand-alone restaurants, or in hospitals, office buildings, university campuses or brightly lit food courts at shopping malls. There are also a few in U.S. towns that are situated right near the Canadian border. The franchise chain has become a national success story in just one generation, partly because of its fresh coffee, donuts made on site and the attention to details like cleanliness and speedy service. The chain in now owned by the bigger Wendy’s Restaurants, but the much smaller Canadian branch accounts for nearly 35% of the revenue for the U.S. company.

Since 1977, Ron Buist has been the marketing director with the head office of Tim Horton’s restaurants, known by the corporate name TDL (Tim’s Donuts Limited). Buist has either personally created the ad campaigns for TDL or had a hand in their design. His book Tales from Under the Rim: the Marketing of Tim Hortons, published by Goose Lane Editions, is a series of breezy tales of some of the successful marketing events that have helped make the chain so popular.

Some of these stories add to the folklore surrounding the franchises. For example, one man put in his last will and testament that the whole funeral cortege was to pull into a nearby Tim Horton’s drive through and have a coffee on him. In another anecdote, Buist describes the development of the ever popular "Roll Up The Rim to Win" contest and sure enough, the tale makes mention of the call Buist fielded from a lawyer who said "So-and-so purchased six coffees for his crew of workmen, one of whom rolled up the rim for a big prize. Since my client purchased the coffee, we believe he is entitled to be declared the winner." Some of those stories have circulated for years, with many a disbeliever dismissing them as "urban legends."

Although this book is about a Canadian business success story, it will be worth reading for those who want to understand marketing and ad campaigns. Buist relates how the advertising changed from simply point of purchase (P.O.P.) ads that encouraged impromptu purchases by customers at the counter, to a campaign of national ads that included television time. On more than one occasion, Buist goes into details about the process behind developing an ad campaign and includes relevant story boards that will help students of media. And if something can go wrong in a TV shoot, it will, as Ron Buist will tell you.

Now, as you sit and read this book, can I get you a double-double and an old fashioned sugar donut?

 

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.