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/