When the Competition Runs a Marketing Promo for you...

Tim Horton's has once again rolled out their popular “Roll Up the Rim to Win” promotion. But this year, there's a twist - and it's not something the people at Tim's had planned on.

First a quick history lesson for those south of the border. Tim Hortons is the 800 pound gorilla of the coffee business in Canada. It's a cultural icon. Part of its rise to the dominant market position in the market was a clever promo the chain first rolled out in 1986. After drinking your coffee, you could "roll up the rim" for a chance to win a prize, ranging from a free coffee to cars and cash. It was an instant hit and remains the company's number one promotional campaign each year.

Meanwhile, second fiddle Country Style (actually third behind Starbucks)has struggled to chip away at the mighty Tim's empire. They even came up with a promo of their own – called “Turn up a Winner”. It's the very same promo as Tim's – you roll up the rim of the cup to win a prize. The copycat promo hasn't helped Country Style – in fact Tim's handily expanded their lead over rival coffee and donut chains in recent years.

So what do you do when you're the number 3 player in the market, and can't find a winning promo even when you copy a successful promo run by the market leader?

How about hijacking the market leader's promo...literally.

Country Style's latest promotion offers Canadians with a losing Roll up the Rim cup from Tim Horton's the chance to exchange that loser for a free coffee at Country Style. (Imagine a promotion where an empty Coke bottle got you a free bottle of Pepsi.)

I think Country Style made a brilliant move here, for a few reasons:

• - As the number 3 player, Country Style promotes the high quality of their coffee when compared against other coffee chains. This cleverly devised promotion will give many first time customers a chance to sample their product and experience Country Style's higher quality for themselves.

  
  

• Even better, because of the nature of the promotion, they are guaranteed to attract Tim's drinkers and their losing cups. That avoids the common problem of many promotions – offering discounts to your existing customers (coupons, etc) while trying to attract new business.

• The timing is great – in recent years, many Canadians have noticed an appreciable drop off in winning cups at Tim's. By making a losing Tim's cup the centre of the offer, Country Style is taking a subtle jab at their larger competitor.

• The price for the promo is right – direct promotional costs are next to nothing (no promo cups!) outside of some free coffees.

• It's buzzworthy – the promotion has already made news and is getting postive word of mouth.

Will it change the face of the coffee chain wars in Canada? Hardly.

But when you're a number 3 player without the money or resources of the market leader, you've got to pick your spots and concentrate your marketing efforts in areas where you can have an impact.

This is a clever example of taking a competitor's promo and using it to draw attention to your own brand message. We'll see how it goes for Country Style...