There comes a point in the devolution of a political campaign, or a party, when every bit of news seems dreadful. So we must take Tim Hortons’ sotto-vocce bombshell that it will soon offer lattes — lattes, for heaven’s sake — with a pinch of salt. Firmly left- or right-leaning Canadians must not, as CBC commentator Rex Murphy did on TV the other night, blow a gasket.
Certainly Liberal leader Bob Rae was working hard in Victoria Saturday and again online Sunday to shore up some venerable old brand distinctions between left and right. But Timmy’s, selling lattes?
If Tim’s can sell fancy coffee, then none of our most prized cliches — or political brands, which are just glorified cliches — mean a damn. We will have lions lying down with lambs; knock-kneed, reedy poets breaking Timbits alongside self-employed pipefitters from Fort McMurray, Alta.; Don Cherry sharing office space with David Suzuki, the two of them taking turns to water their potted ferns on alternating days.
In effect, any horror at all becomes possible.
Curiously, exit-polling data from the recent federal election suggest such a conflation is, in fact, underway — and that it underlies the Conservative win. Ipsos culled responses from 40,000 voters. The core take-away, according to pollster Darrell Bricker, is that traditional political brands are morphing into something new. Whereas the old PC party was deemed an organ of Bay Street, the new CPC voter is solidly Main Street. “These are people who are middle-class taxpayers and homeowners,” Bricker said. “The hockey-night in Canada crowd.” Double-double, anyone?
Here’s what should send a chill running down the spine of every grizzled Trudeau Liberal: Though the new Conservative base includes working-class folks, it has grown beyond that. “They’re more free-trade, anti-union, pro-business. What they aren’t is right-wing born-again Christian, Republican types. They have college educations. They’re entrepreneurial — running their own businesses.”
These are Tim Hortons’ kind of people, in other words — but they may also be latte drinkers.
This being Canada, quite a bit of hard research has been done on the political leanings of Timmy’s devotees. A Decima-Harris survey in 2009 found that about half of Conservative, Liberal and NDP voters, give or take a couple of percentage points, were regular Tim’s clients. They crossed all lines of age, class, gender or political philosophy. Likewise, a 2008 analysis by the Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor found that Tory-held ridings at that time actually contained slightly more Starbucks outlets than Tim’s.
Fascinating but moot, it seems to me. Tim Hortons currently has a staggering 2,800 Canadian stores, compared with Starbucks’ 800. (Coincidentally, the ratio of Starbucks to Tim’s stores, 28 per cent, is not overly dissimilar to the ratio of Liberal to Conservative seats in the current Parliament, 20 per cent.) Based on numbers alone Timmy’s is king, and will be for the foreseeable future. Brand identity-wise, it seems to be slipping inexorably into the Conservative column.
Tim’s scholars — yes, Canada has those too, and they are brilliant — are sanguine about the foray into lattes. St. Francis Xavier University sociologist Patricia Cormack says she expects the new coffees will emerge without fanfare. She notes Tim’s already sells some “specialty” concoctions but that your basic java still dominates the chain’s website. “It’s not the same thing as those drinks you get at Starbucks where you need an undergraduate degree in classics to order them.” Nicely put.
Carleton University political scientist Richard Nimijean intimates it may be a tempest in a teapot: “Is it not possible that Tim’s is simply making a business decision in light of the changing dynamics of the coffee market, and that it says nothing at all about the political landscape?”
Um, as if? This is Tim’s.
Toronto ad man Paul Wales, whose team at JWT Canada created the groundbreaking Tim’s “true stories” TV ads — which made the gold-plated brand what it is — gives no hint that the chain’s down-home image is in any way at risk. “Where else would you go to be with ordinary Canadians,” he said of our politicians’ oft-noted penchant for Tim’s photo ops. “If it were the U.K., it would be a pub. It’s a meeting place for people, one we all know.” Fair enough.
But the question remains: If Tim’s can break into lattes, however it finesses the revolution to mollify diehards like Rex, can Starbucks not sell double-doubles? And if both those things are true, can’t a dog be a cat, or a Liberal a New Democrat — or a Conservative for that matter?
On this one, seems to me, the polling data is ahead of the curve. Liberals, beware.
mdentandt@postmedia.com
Tim Hortons selling lattes, hmmm, could the marketing plan contain more marketing mimicry? Could this me a futile attempt to merge the classes?
Tims is definitely the majority in the retail java business here in Canada for both the old and young, but come on, doesn’t it take long enough to get through the drive-through, and God help you if someone asks the barista at Tim Hortons to “burn my bagel” should you decide to go in, to enjoy your respite. Yea, I’m going to wait, so I can wait… and breathe some second hand bagel smoke. David Suzuki would call them “polluters” and Don Cherry would tell him, “Stop whining about it and not to waste the water on his fern because there are lots of ferns in the world.” Perhaps we are ‘mixing dirty oil with purified water?’
A ‘grizzled Trudeau Liberal would probably go to Starbucks and ask for a double-double and wonder why he gets a funny look from a pimple-faced apprentice barista. After the puzzled look the apprentice would ask what kind of coffee he wanted. The bewildered customer would respond, “Real coffee, a strong one.” “Oh, you want Arabian,” “nope, I want Canadian,” “but sir we have a menu.” “Just COFFEE, THAT’S ALL.” I truly believe that there are fewer than ten ‘grizzled liberals’ left in our country anyway, so the chances of that scenario happening are… slim to none.
I’m not quite sure how the Christian Conservatives are making any money if they are self-employed… oh, perhaps they got government grants to set up in the beginning – free stuff. They won’t be in business long if they are true Christian Conservatives anyway. Chances are they were just temporary Conservatives for the grants. They will be eventually living off the Liberal ‘Tax and Spend.’ Perhaps they will end up working for an NDP unionized company when the money runs out because they just don’t know how to make money. I can’t see them breaking bagels with the Liberals and the NDP constituents at Tim’s. I can however see them serving the Libs and the NDP while working in the coffee establishment, where most middle class and lower middle class workers will end up.
What’s the world coming to when Tim’s scholars, University sociologists and Carleton University political scientists get involved in the coffee culture? What’s next, a PHD in Barista?
No, all kidding aside, being in one of the largest cultural and iconic businesses in the country can be very complex when it comes to staying ahead of the marketing curve. Innovation is key and scientific data, market searches and studies from marketing teams is crucial, but in the language of a ‘grizzled Trudeau Liberal’ “they need to make lots of #$%^&*% money, to make lots of money.” If changing our culture is possible and necessary, more power to them, but may God help our society because thinking for ourselves is becoming a thing of the past. Oh, wait… we should have expected it from our elected PMO. At least with communism we would know what to expect because it would be called “a dictatorship.”
“If you want coffee go to Tim’s, but if you want to look like you’ve got it goin’ on, go elsewhere.”