Staying Relevant in Today’s Marketplace

There are many big name stores in competition with Canadian Tire - Lowes, Home Depot and Rona to name a few. As consumers, we are inundated with TV advertising and paper flyers with retailers vying for our business.

 Here are some key facts about Canadian Tire Retail:

• Canadian Tire consistently ranks among the top 10 brands in Canada
• CTR stores are conveniently located to serve more than 90 per cent of the population
• 50–60 per cent of Canadians shop in CTR stores every month; 90 per cent every year
• 67 per cent of CTR’s 19 million sq. ft. of retail selling space is new or was retrofitted in the last five years

http://corp.canadiantire.ca/EN/NewsRoom/MediaKit/Pages/CompanyFacts.aspx

How is CT, as one of Canada’s oldest companies, staying relevant in in today’s marketplace?

Canadian Tire strives for differentiation in the marketplace. CT is the only mass retailer that carries the assortment depth and service in the Auto business. Also, CT offers a wide range of assortments from Tools and Hardware to Sports to Home to Auto. Where else can you buy a leaf blower, car oil and a kitchen Aid stand mixer all in one place!

Location, location, location! With over 90% of the Canadian population living within 10 minutes from a CT, it’s no wonder they can reach a wider audience than their competitors. They also have over 450 stores; that kind of presence is pretty powerful, especially in rural environments where they almost have a monopoly merely because they are the only ones there.

Brand recognition- A few years ago, CT took out the words Canadian Tire from the logo because it was found irrelevant - everyone knows the CT symbol at what it represents. That kind of brand recognition is something major US retailers (Home Depot, Lowes, etc) are striving for but still don’t have at the level CT does.

CT’s dealer based model allows each store to tailor their assortments to their regions.  When Home Depot and Lowes entered the market, one of the biggest challenges was going to be who would win the garden centre market share.  Because Home Depot and Lowes are “push” retailers, their assortments aren’t always best in all areas of Canada.  At Canadian tire the garden centre manager tailors their live goods selections to their zones.  So the garden centre manager is Halifax will sell to its customers the flowers that grow best with their weather patterns, and the garden centre manager is Sudbury will do the same, but could be entirely different from each other.

It’s obvious from their success and dominance of the market that Canadian Tire has stayed relevant and will continue to do so. Would CT be your first thought if you needed to buy a blender? What about a lawnmower? 

Many thanks to the Canadian Tire employees interviewed for this post.