CANADIAN TIRE CASE

CRITIQUE

SUBMITTED BY:

SUNDAS QASIM 10-5403

ANUM NAZ 10-….
ZESHAN ALI 08-0819
HASEEB HUSSAIN 08-0827
KHURRAM JAVAID 08-0819
ASMA HASSAN 10-….

SUBMITTED TO:
OSAMA J. BUTT

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 CANADIAN TIRE CASE CRITIQUE

This critique intends to critically analyze the solution which the earlier team has suggested for

the Canadian Tire. They have claimed that in order to be more competitive, CT has to adopt the

Family Foundation Strategy. The six reasons have been pragmatically examined to validate

their suggesting. We suggest, it should go for Community Foundation Strategy.

The core ideals of Supports Canadian Tire: Canadian Tire’s vision “to be a recognized

leader for active participation and caring community support.” explicitly focuses on the

community at large that includes families, youth, kids and environment concern. Its core values

also include community responsibility. Canadian tire being the socially responsible firm is

perusing prevention, waste minimization pollution and resource conservation. In addition there

has been many recent examples which suggest how actively Canadian tire is working to serve

society at large. It has served people during hurricanes Earl and Igor. CT has taken a step

forward to reduce green house gas emission. It’s working to grow its business profitably without

increasing footprint of net carbon the economy. It emphasizes on community involvement and

good corporate citizenship through community support that is core to the culture of company. 

Creates differentiation among its competitors: Brand longevity is possible when you

establish and deliver on a promise that is more meaningful beside just unique. Wal-Mart is a

"store of the community" which is helping by providing financial and volunteer support to more

than 100,000 organizations. It is focusing on four areas as shown in exhibit1. Home depot’s

major corporate contribution is devoted to families as shown in exhibit 2. So as obvious from

exhibits both of the major competitors are already focusing on families but beside this they are

covering many other aspects of the community. The competitors are contributing to larger

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segment of society and CT is targeting only half of its target market (families) the strategy would

not be successful. If you want to stand out, don't be just different; be outstanding. Your strategy

should be relevant and competitive according to your target market. Standing out from your

competitors in a meaningful way is how differentiation becomes memorable.

Relevant to its target customers or high value customers: In this segment company has

included customer of age 25 to 54 with high purchase pattern. It is good to target them but it is

risky to narrow your focus on such small scale. Youth has low current purchasing power but they

can be potential buyers in future with increase in their income. Old people also have high

purchase pattern of luxurious products so company should convert them to high value customer.

Canadian society is shifting from family culture to individual and in 2009 more than 51% of the

people with age of 15 or more were unmarried which was 38% 20 years earlier. This shows

diminishing interest towards family so it’s risky to base your marketing strategy on dying trend.

Just 68% earnings belongs to retail and mark’s segment and from them 27% and 42% are

commercial customer by focusing on families we are purely targeting on 47% of population. As

financial and auto mobile segments are different from home segment.

Influence the shopping behavior of the customers: Shopping behavior is not directly

related to marketing tools and techniques of the company. Their frequency and quantity might be

changed but it difficult to say that your behavior will be changed. Customers are of different

types and each customer group has its own preferences and priorities. In case of CT its customer

base can be divided in different and diverse groups based on its products. Customers can also be

divided on the basis of domestic and commercial or industrial customers. So by focusing on

families company can target just domestic customers of retail business and other segments of

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population are neglected. For example industrial or commercial customers who comprise 47% of

the total sales of CT so by targeting homes we are going to neglect them.

Improve perception in the eyes of target customers: It’s important for the company to

focus on the employees, suppliers and other stake holders while building their social marketing

strategies, as they all contribute in the progress of the company. Employees are the biggest asset

of the company and their motivation directly affects the performance and the revenues of the

company. If the company starts some free workshops to enhance the skills and provide training

session, this will be beneficial not only to motivate them and increase their skills but also

increase the socially responsible image of the company. Suppliers lie on the same page, the get

attracted and feel better by working with a company which works for a community as a whole

rather than just focusing on the families alone. There are other stake holders like banks,

insurance companies, stock holders etc that need proper attention for the company to outsmart

other competitors in the long run.

Canadian Tire’s product mix: It tends to have a broader description than just focusing only on

the family-oriented product line but also encouraging diversified business activities which

include automotive parts, accessories, sports and leisure products, apparel, financial services and

petroleum as well as family oriented products or services in Canada. Canadian Tire, together

with its dealers, franchisees and petroleum agents also operates 1,168 general merchandise and

apparel retail stores and gas bars that lead to the promotional activities of diversified target

market of corporate leaders as well as households. They modify their inventories to meet the

varying needs of customers in different communities, and have customary in-store promotions.

Its diversification of product mix also can be signified by looking at the segments of Tire

Corporation which is divided into four segments (Exhibit:2).

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 EXHIBIT 1

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SOCIAL MARKETING STATEGIES

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Exhibit: 2

Exhibit: 3

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Exhibit: 4

Exhibit: 5

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Exhibit: 7

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Bibliography
(2009). Canadian Tire Annual Report . Canadian Tire.

Statistics Canada. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 23, 2010, from www.statcan.gc.ca:

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/famil01-eng.htm

The Fact Book. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 25, 2010, from Centeral Intelligence Agency:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html