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The failure of New Coke — and the success of Coca-Cola Classic — demonstrated with emphatic clarity the power and persistence of brand loyalty. Even with its sales in steep decline, even with a fresh and glamorous competitor seducing its customers, people still felt a great deal of affection for Coca-Cola. That affection hadn’t diminished, exactly. It simply took a sudden change for people to realize that they didn’t want their beloved Coca-Cola to go away. The reason that Coca-Cola Classic was so successful is that it reminded people why they loved Coca-Cola in the first place. And as Tim Hortons flails and languishes, it may be in its interest to do the same thing.

Sales are down at Tim Hortons. In the fall they fell 1.4 per cent — an alarming decline, for a restaurant chain of its size, particularly given that revenues of Restaurant Brands International Inc., its parent company, are up overall across the same period, owing to the continued success of Burger King and Popeyes. Its efforts at reinvention — attempts to attract a more youthful clientele, mainly — are evidently not working. The company elected to withdraw Beyond Meat from its menu just months after rolling them out at Tim Hortons restaurants across the country, at considerable expense. Last week, they announced that the president of Tim Hortons, Alex Macedo, would be stepping down from his role this March.

In the face of waning consumer interest, it seems, Tim Hortons has made many of the same decisions Coca-Cola made in a similar position 30 years ago — transformative decisions that reflect a failure to understand the value of the core brand. What might fix Tim Hortons, what might repair the damage to its reputation inflicted by novelties like its lattes and meat-alternative lunches, is a new emphasis on the fundamentals, a return to the very virtues which first made Canadians cherish the coffee and donut chain. There is wisdom in a back-to-basics approach, as Coca-Cola made clear.