Brand Loyalty: Starbucks vs. Tim Hortons

Source: complaintsoffice.com

When I think of Brand loyalty I think of Coke vs. Pepsi or Starbucks vs. Tim Hortons. In this case I am personally not that loyal to Coke, as when I'm in a restaurant and am told that they only have Pepsi, yes I pause and contemplate whether I want to go to the dark side of cola, but I most always say yes and just accept the Pepsi. When it comes to my coffee on the other hand, as a student it is like gold. Keeps me going and is an essential part of each of my days. So when it comes to deciding where to get my coffee, I am quite picky. 

Source: crasholablog.blogspot.com

Tim Hortons really doesn't cut it for me, their quality and service are so unreliable, and I have no interest in buying anything other than an everything bagel with cream cheese from them. They have tried to improve their restaurants atmosphere by adding nicer booths and some gas fireplaces at some locations, but I still don't feel at home when I am there. The only thing that Tim Hortons has over Starbucks in my opinion, is the Roll Up The Rim to Win contest. That's a weak point of mine...it's the only time I will buy anything from them. Who doesn't want to take their chances and win a prize!

Starbucks is my go to coffee location. The staff is always very kind, and the products always taste like I ordered. You won't get a burnt cup of coffee at Starbucks like you will at Tim Hortons. Not only is Starbucks the perfect location to get coffee, but it is also great for studying and meeting friends, as there are comfy chairs and a warm atmosphere. Starbucks actually works at making their locations more like a lounge in order to try to get customers to stay a while and buy multiple drinks while visiting. I've never heard anyone say "Ewww Starbucks coffee is gross", the only complaint ever is that they are expensive. But really nowadays, you really get what you pay for. If you want a quality coffee, Starbucks is your place, but if you don't care then anywhere else would do I suppose. 

Cold drinks in the Summer

Hot drinks in the Winter

In chapter 9 of Consumer behaviour we learn about brand loyalty, and so I can see that I am loyal to Starbucks as I repeatedly purchase Starbucks drinks year round, and I have always had a positive attitude towards the Starbucks brand after my visits. There is definitely no problem of brand parity with these two brands, most consumers know that they are very different, or know them as affordable vs. expensive. That is good at least, as both companies are distinguished from each other and can target different markets.

Brand loyalty is a very important for the continued success of any brand. Having repeat customers whom have a positive attitude towards the brand is the best kind of advertisement, and it's free! I always tell my friends about stuff that I liked and didn't like. Usually if one friend in a group hits on a good brand, the rest of the group will follow, and this is amazing for business. 

Brand loyalty is a powerful force, depending on if a customer thinks positively or negatively about a brand, will both have huge implications towards a brands' success or demise. I never really thought of how my coffee buying habits would affect a business, but consumers really do have the power to decide which businesses do well, and which will not. 

The Self: How I feel about myself

In our society, there is a lot of pressure on women to be fit and pretty. Our self-concept is very important, as that is how we can channel our confidence and feel good about ourselves. Girls highly compete against other girls with makeup and hairstyles. That is why I decided to add blonde highlights into my hair, because I though that this would give myself a boost of confidence as many other girls my age were doing it too.

It really did work, I was more confident and felt good about myself. Everyone would compliment me on my new hairdo and it felt good to be noticed. My self-esteem improved, and I found that I was comparing myself to others less as I didn't need the ego boost as I was already feeling good.

I found that my ideal self of being confident, happy and feeling pretty wasn't far off from my actual self, except for the fact that I'd had to change up my hair to find my confidence. As a girl, everyday is a constant struggle, we constantly use the looking glass self to go about our days by thinking of what others will think of us. We are constantly self-conscious about ourselves, when we do things a little differently or don't want to do what everyone else wants to do, we feel bad about it, but really isn't that what we should do, just do what makes us happy and not worry about what others think?

That got me thinking, does changing my hair really fill the void of increasing my self confidence and make me happier? Or is it just how I presented myself and acted that really made the difference. To see I dyed my hair back to its natural colour, and I've never been happier. I feel more mature and stable as myself, and ever since I dyed my hair back I have been caring less about what others think and doing more to make myself happy. It's all mind over matter, all it took was for me to realize what I liked about myself and to accept me for me.

We learnt all about this in chapter 5 of Consumer Behaviour. This shows that the concept of the self is quite complicated and varies from person to person. Whether it be through product consumption, or changing body image, we all seek to find a form of self in our own ways. Now that I know more about this, I look at the world differently. I worry less about the little things and focus more on what's important to me.

If there's one thing I've learnt from all of this, it's to always be true to yourself. Don't change just for others, do what makes you happy and that's what will make you the most happy.

The Rink of Dreams: Approach-Approach Conflict

In day to day life we are all faced with decisions, whether they are approach-approach, approach-avoidance, avoidance-avoidance decisions. Over the past few years I've heard that there was a skating rink in Ottawa called the Rink of Dreams at City Hall, but never had the chance to go and check it out. So this evening I went to check it out, and was not disappointed. The whole atmosphere of the rink is very nice, there is upbeat music playing in the background when you are skating and the edges of the entire rink light up and changes like a rainbow. All that mixed with the christmas lights around the rink and the lights from all the buildings downtown, make this location a magical place to go for a skate. It is ideal for right now while the canal is not yet open. This video gives a little bit of an idea of the atmosphere and pull of this downtown Rink of Dreams. 

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcghAkmjwPs

My first Approach-Approach decision of the night had been to either go all the way downtown to the Rink of Dreams at City Hall, or just go to the public outdoor skating rink in Centrepointe. Both were a good option as I would get to skate no matter which one I went to, but there was an indescribable pull to come to the downtown rink. Downtown is magical, especially in the winter with all the beautiful lights outdoors. I felt like I needed to try out the downtown rink at least once, it was something I had to do. I can go to a public rink in my neighbourhood some other time, I knew that I would enjoy the Rink of Dreams more. 

Source: ottawaphotography365.com

Another decision in this situation, is that there was a beaver tails stand right beside the rink, but I'd already planned on using McDonalds coupons and go for dinner after the skate. So this is where I reach another approach-approach decision. On one hand getting a beaver tail would be delicious, but not the best dinner food. And on the other hand getting McDonalds using my coupons would be cheap and be a good dinner food. So both options were appealing, it was very hard to decide which to do, especially since the beaver tail stand was right there and I could smell them the entire time that I was skating.

In the end I decided to stick with the plans that I had made and went to get dinner after skating at McDonalds. By learning about the different motivational conflicts in chapter 4 of Consumer behaviour, I am better able to understand why I make certain decisions. The textbook says that once a person makes a decision between two good or bad things, they can experience post-decision dissonance, and then try to make the decision that they did not choose seems worse. So when I went to the Rink of Dreams rather than the Centrepointe rink I said that the downtown rink was better because of the atmosphere, cool lights, and overall appeal, but to reduce my post-decision dissonance I could also say that the ice quality of the Rink of Dreams is better than that of the Centrepointe rink as well. I realize that when I make decisions that these ideas do go through my head, I back up my decision and make it out to have been a no brainer of a choice.

So next time you want to go out for a skate, check out the Rink of dreams at:

Marion Dewar Plaza,Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West

Perception: The Cupcake Approach

Source: www.lesglaceurs.ca

Everyone who knows me well would know that I have this odd obsessions with cupcakes, but not just any kind of cupcakes, it has to be red velvet cupcakes from the store Les Glaceurs in Montreal. This obsession started fresh out of high school when a friend and I were roaming around downtown the Old Port in Montreal and stumbled upon this small bake shop right in the midst of the magical historical part of my beautiful home town. At first we were just hungry and decided to stop and try a cupcake. Once was all it took, and now I am hooked for life, no visit to Montreal is complete without a trip down to Les Glaceurs. So this Christmas break I decided to introduce my boyfriend to my favourite place, and lets just say now he understands why I love it so much.

Source: www.lesglaceurs.ca

First off when you see the store it is very quaint and welcoming, it's also very colourful and looks like a fun place to go spend some time with friends. They also play up to date music so the whole atmosphere of the store is appealing. The smell as you enter the building is what really grabs your attention, the smell of freshly baked cupcakes is a smell that I could never get tired of. They have lots of choice of different cupcake flavours to meet everyones tastes. I highly recommend this place to all my friends and I've gotten many other people hooked on it.

Many people ask me why I don't just get cupcakes from The Cupcake Lounge in Ottawa since I now live there, instead of having to get them in Montreal. My answer is always that it's just not the same, I don't have the same connection to the Cupcake Lounge brand and stores. So maybe the cupcakes are of equal quality and taste, but to me there is a huge difference. 

Source: alumni.uottawa.ca

Source: www.christinachamoun.com

My perception (Ch. 2 of Consumer behaviour) of the Les Glaceurs brand and products has a huge part to play in my loyalty and positivity towards this brand over others. I love the colours of the cupcake lounge (lime green and pink) whereas the cupcake lounge is only brown and white....which is quite boring and not very visually appealing.

As you can see in the picture, the exterior of the cupcake lounge isn't super eye catching or interesting, so many people will walk by and not even notice it. I have many friends that live in Ottawa and spend quite a bit of time in the Byward market, yet they have never heard of the cupcake lounge and it's in the heart of the market. Therefore they are not doing a very good job with their marketing, if they changed it up a little bit they could bring in a lot more business. 

All in all a consumers perspective of a given brand or product is very important in terms of loyalty and satisfaction. In learning about this in class, it has made me understand why I prefer certain products over others, and why I have favourite places and things in general. My understanding of why consumers will prefer one product over another is defined, and I believe this is very important aspect to know about, if I were to ever open my own business in the future.  

My guilty pleasure will forever be confined to this little pink box of cupcakes. Mmmm go ahead, next time you are in Montreal there are multiple locations of Les Glaceurs, go check it out and see if you like them as much as I do!

I even challenge you to try both The Cupcake lounge cupcakes and Les Glaceurs cupcakes and compare them both. Let me know what you think!

http://www.lesglaceurs.ca/index.php?langue=2
http://thecupcakelounge.com/

Gift Receiving: What Goes Through our Minds when Receiving a Gift?

Source: casketnice.com

The gift-giving ritual is one that is very exciting and rewarding, but when you give a gift, you often receive one in return, and that can be stressful and unpleasant. When you give a gift it is out of true selflessness, it should be given because you want to give it, not because you have to. When it comes to receiving a gift, you don't have a choice to get it or not, to not accept a gift would be considered rude. Most people when they receive a gift will then in return gift one back to the sender, because it is part of our cultures reciprocity norm (chapter 14, Consumer Behaviour). As Christmas just passed, opening gifts was weighing heavy on me the days leading up to Christmas morning. I tend to get ideas in my head of items that I would like, they're usually quite unrealistic gifts, but it's hard not to show disappointment when your gift giver has not gotten you what you had in mind. I almost thinking not getting any gifts would be easier on ourselves. We have made gift giving into such a big deal in our society, we take a lot of the fun out of the whole exchange process.

Source: ***

This is a really difficult economic time of year, and I find lots of people spend more than they can afford on gifts for loved ones. When I open up an expensive gift, I can't help but feel guilty that I am putting my loved one into debt for me. Is that really fair to them? Not at all, but returning a gift that you really love would be really hard to do, because yes of course everyone else has the latest brands and gadgets and we all want to have them. So when I received Michael Kors boots for Christmas I was overjoyed, but that is a lot of money for my mother to spend on a gift, and I think, we spend so much to just get a name brand...is it really worth it? Of course the answer to us young people is yes, it makes us feel special and gives us confidence among our peers to be wearing high end brands. It is part of our human competitive nature to try to feel superior to others, and by wearing expensive brands we achieve a small part of that.

Also, depending on the gift that you receive, your relationship with that person can improve or be ruined. Although gift cards are meant to be a good way to diminish concerns from a buyers perspective of buying the wrong gift for someone, a gift card is really impersonal and can be taken as the giver does not know or care much about the person they are giving the gift to. To me that is a worse offence than not giving any gift at all, it has to either be thoughtful or be nothing at all.

Source: www.popsugar.com

When opening a gift, hiding our facial expressions is near impossible. Our facial cues say exactly what we are thinking and they tattle on us when we are not feeling the same levels of happiness about a present as we say we are. We have so many different expressions that our facial expression may not actually be saying what we feel, so people should not just jump to conclusions by a persons reaction to a gift, let them process the gift and tell you how they are feeling. This happens so often at my house at Christmas, people get offended that the recipient doesn't like their gift and it turns into mayhem over a misunderstanding.

After reading the gift-giving section of chapter 14 of Consumer behaviour, it has really gotten me thinking as to how much is really involved with gift giving. The process is extremely complicated if you start to over think it. I believe that this really affected me this Christmas, as I never used to worry so much as to what to give and receive over the holidays, I didn't want to give the wrong gift, or react the wrong way and negatively affect the celebrations. I never knew the implications of gift-giving,  but now that I do, finding the right gifts for others is that much harder, and I'm starting to think of non materialistic/consumer things to give to people as gifts instead.

My suggestion to all is that you give a gift that you believe is nice for someone else, and if they do not like it, don't take offence and get mad, life is too short to worry about that. It also ruins all the fun of the holiday season! When it comes to a gift, the important thing is that it's the thought that counts most.

“The best gifts come from the heart, not the store.” ― Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key

***http://www.brownsshoes.com/HAYLEY-FLAT-BOOT/216122,default,pd.html?dwvar_216122_color=013&cgid=13#prefn1=siteAssignment-text&prefv1=brown&prefn2=siteAssignment-text&prefv2=brown&refinement=true&scrollTo=6&start=6

Gift Giving: The Christmas Phenomenon

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Christmas presents ready to be opened

When Christmas rolls around each year, the malls are busy, and the rush to purchased gifts for loved ones is at an all time high. Christmas is a traditional holiday to which people annually perform rituals of gift exchanging and giving. 

Gift giving has many meanings, the gifts that you give say a lot about your relationship to the people that you are giving them to, if you give the wrong gift to someone, it can really hurt your relationship. 

One of the most difficult gifts to choose is that of which to give to your significant other. If you are going to give a gift, it must be thoughtful and show that you know the persons interests and care about them. If you give an impersonal gift or disappoint them, it could really hurt your relationship. So then less is more, don't just buy something for the sake of buying it, buy something special that you know they wouldn't buy themselves and would really like. 

So many presents, so many possibilities

Presents have a magical power, the wonder and mystery that is attached to them is so powerful. A christmas tree in itself is so beautiful, but all the presents underneath is enough to revert anybody back to their childhood memories and feel the magic once again. This holiday is both a sad and happy time, happy as we get so spend time with family, but sad as we also remember those who are gone. The act of gift-giving promotes happiness and cheer among all. 

Everybody who buys a gift for a friend or loved one will undergo the gift-giving ritual (Chapter 14 of Consumer Behaviour). We all know the feeling of wandering the malls with a special someone in mind, looking for just the right gift. we spend hours and days searching and we are very proud once we finally find the right gift. Once we have a gift we have to wrap them up and make them a surprise for when we will give the gift. So all tags come off, because really who wants to know the value of a gift, that ruins the fun as for both too little or too much money can have a bad effect on the reaction to a gift. We are a very materialistic culture, and sometime we can't help but be disappointed for receiving average or below average gifts and brands. The best part about the gift-giving ritual is putting it under the christmas tree for the friend or loved one to find and open on christmas day. 

The most difficult thing about gift giving is trying to match up the value of your gifts, to those that you will be receiving. It is alright to have given an expensive gift and received one back of lesser value. But giving a gift of lesser value and receiving an expensive gift in return, I believe makes me feel guilty and I regret not having given more. The guilt and pit in your stomach that you get from that is one to which we all try really hard to avoid. We won't know until we open the gifts, so until then, the magic and wonder of the gifts are upon us. 

Enjoy the magic holiday season full of gift anticipation!

This add by Booster Juice for their gift cards gave a me a good chuckle, good luck with the gift-giving ritual and Happy Christmas Eve to all!!!

Lokai Bracelets: What's the Appeal?

Source: mylokai.com

I recently came across this product on the internet, and it caught my attention. These past few months have been tough due to the tragic loss of my cousin, and this product really spoke to me. The bracelet is not overly beautiful, but the fact that it has such deep meaning is what made me buy one.

The company says that in the white bead there is water from Mount Everest, and in that there is mud from the Dead Sea in the black bead. These two locations are the highest and lowest points in the world.

The idea behind this is that in life we have good days and bad days, highs and low. This bracelet is something that can serve as a reminder, that yes there are the good and bad days, but life goes on and life is what you make of it. If we were to sit around and dwell on the bad days, we wouldn't get to see the good days again. 

The company has a saying that goes along with their bracelet, it is:

                                                                                                  Source: mylokai.com                                                                                                                                      "Sometimes you're on top of the world, stay humble.                                                                                                              Sometimes you've hit a low, stay hopeful.                                                                      Find your balance"

I found this to be truly inspirational, and it has really been helping me. Wearing a small bracelet on my wrist allows for subtle reminders of how lucky I am and to appreciate all the good things that happen, but also helps me through the bad times, when seeing the good in the world is blocked.

The Lokai bracelet is actually quite popular right now, as people are curious to if the product is true to what they say. In the white bead is there really water from Mount Everest, and in the black bead mud from the Dead Sea? Many youtube users have cut the bracelets open and discovered this to all be true! Plus the company is creating authenticity videos for the water and mud components, as the water one is up above and the mud collection video is currently being filmed.

Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HouhZdWcMI

I decided to write a blog entry about this experience as I believe it links quite well with Consumer Behaviour (Chapter 1: An introduction to Consumer Behaviour, p.10). They state that consumers are not only driven to buy products for what they do, but can also be swayed to invest in a product for what it means. The fact that this bracelet has a deeper meaning than other rubber bracelets sets it apart in the market. Although the bracelet won't physically do anything to help a person manage their emotions, it makes them believe in themselves.

The meaning that we put behind a product has very powerful effects on our opinion towards it, and will ultimately determine the length of the products life and usefulness.

For more information regarding the Lokai bracelets, visit: http://mylokai.com/