Like a doughnut the survey in Canadian Business magazine that placed Tim Hortons as Canada’s Top Brand is enjoyable. That said, it is not necessarily the most nutritious thing in the world. What do we know about Canada’s Top Brands In 2014?
Loving Tim Hortons
We find out that Canadian’s love Tim Hortons’ coffee and doughnuts which seems about right. I don’t entirely get loving the coffee. Perhaps the new Dark Roast will make the affection less puzzling to foreigners like me. (Note from 2021, the Dark Roast was certainly a major improvement. It tasted like coffee.)
There is nothing wrong with the survey that established Canada’s Top Brands. I have no doubt that the Reputation Institute did a good job in their sampling of 5,000 Canadians. They almost certainly constructed the questions well. It is also likely that they conducted the math professionally. The problem is that I am not really sure what the results are supposed to tell us. There is no clear statement of what brand means to Canadian Business. Without this and a detailed explanation of the methodology, any ranking is merely an interesting trifle. (Rogers own Canadian Business. Rogers do not feature on the list of top brands. This is despite doing very well in other brand rankings, e.g. Interbrand. At least we know that Rogers are not choosing the methodology to make themselves look good.)
Measuring Canada’s Top Brands Is Hard
Canadian Business calls the top Canadian and International brands those that score highest on a weighted combination of “opinions on aspects of a company’s reputation ranging from product quality to governance, citizenship, and workplace culture, among others.” (Canadian Business, 2014, page 47)
Even if we accept that the headings the surveys examines are the key things that influence brand strength, we are not given any reason to think the weightings are correct. Is citizenship more important than workplace culture for a brand? I can’t tell. The weighting will change the ranking. Furthermore, the relative importance of aspects should theoretically change between industries. The value of a general weighting between say workplace culture and citizenship is debatable.
Measures of brand which are based purely upon opinion surveys, even if well done, don’t reflect issues that seem important to me. Most obviously whether the brand drives cash inflow. For example, Campbell’s Soup is rated the best international brand. Campbell’s Soup is a strong brand, I believe that. That said, I’d be surprised if people thought it the most valuable brand. It is just hard for a soup to shift enough units to be that. (To be fair Canadian Business surveys the “top brands” but doesn’t claim they are the most valuable).
The conclusion I took from the survey is that the journalists at Canadian Business magazine think Tim Horton’s is the top brand in Canada. Great, but other people may think differently. I’m not sure we can conclude Canadian Business’ view is much better than anyone else’s.
For more on brand measurement see here.
Read: Canadian Business, May 2014, 87 (4), Canada’s Top Brands 2014