It’s time to look at the shortlist for Marketer of the Year, which appears in Marketing’s Nov. 28 issue. We’ll be featuring each one online as a lead-up to our January 2012 issue, where you’ll find out which marketer will reign supreme.
Canadian Tire
The retailing icon may be facing tough new competition from the U.S., but in 2011 Canadian Tire challenged them to “bring it on”
The brand masters at Canadian Tire spent 2011 making an iconic brand top of mind again. It started with “Bring It On,” a new tagline aimed at positioning Canadian Tire as the place to help Canadians with the little jobs and joys of the seasons, from winterizing the car and clearing snow from the driveway to bike-riding and fertilizing the lawn.
Rob Shields, senior vice-president of marketing and customer for Canadian Tire, says the bold positioning aims to distinguish his company from increasing competition, including the imminent arrival of U.S.-based retailer Target. “We are up against Walmart, Home Depot, Active Green + Ross—you name it, depending on the department, we have a different competitive set,” he says. “We needed a unique point of difference.”
The beauty is in how Canadian Tire has communicated that point of difference, which Shields credits for raising such key performance indicators as brand recall and likelihood to recommend. The retailer has significantly reduced its TV advertising spend, with 26 spots produced this year versus 46 in 2007. Instead, more marketing dollars have been devoted to fully integrated campaigns with strong online components, guerrilla-style advertising tactics, and PR.
“It is not easy to change your image when you’re an iconic brand because people think they know you,” says Maureen Atkinson, senior partner at retail consultancy J.C. Williams Group. “They have done a good job of reaching out and becoming more relevant to Canadians.”
One way Canadian Tire has connected is through the “House of Innovation” program, in which it bought a suburban Toronto home in need of a little TLC. Online, the company posts videos of how it made improvements to the house using store products—72 have been shot so far. Shields calls the campaign Canadian Tire’s most integrated to date, leveraging everything from its weekly flyer to a homepage takeover of YouTube.
“An idea like that—which is really outside a client’s comfort zone—takes a lot of work,” says Steve Mykolyn, chief creative officer at Taxi, Canadian Tire’s agency of record. “But they weren’t afraid to take a leap of faith.”
There’s more! Check out the Nov. 28 issue of Marketing for the full profile, and subscribe to find out who will be named the Marketer of the Year for 2011.
