Tales from Under the Rim: The Marketing of Tim Hortons Hardcover - 2003

From the publisher

Want to know the secret recipe behind Canada's most popular coffee-and-donut chain? According to former marketing director RON BUIST, it tool 1 hockey player, 1 favourite barber shop, 1 former drummer, 1 police officer, plus the luck hard work brings to make Tim Hortons the phenomenal success it is today. In Tales from Under the Rim, the marketing genius who invented Roll Up the Rim to Win tells how a little donut shop grew into a Canadian institution. Beginning with his first day on the job, Buist recalls the lean years, when the company's tiny advertising budget made a creative, grass-roots strategy as much a necessity as an inspiration. He profiles the founders--Toronto Maple Leafs star defenseman Tim Horton, donut entrepreneur Jim Charade, and Nova Scotia-born franchise wizard Ron Joyce--as well as many of the franchisees on whom the chain's success rests. This engrossing business memoir tells the whole story of Roll Up the Rim, from the eureka moment in 1986 to the no-frills contest's status as a defining feature of Canadian life. Buist describes the genesis of the True Stories commercials, so engaging they've attracted their won devoted fans, and he tells humorous behind-the-scenes tales from these and other TV shoots.