Tim Hortons | Whitespace Partners

Tim Hortons

BRINGING A CANADA FAVOURITE TO THAILAND

Tim Hortons- the beloved Canadian cafe chain partnered with Whitespace based on our creativity, expertise in Food & Drink and a proven track record of success introducing global brands to Southeast Asia. We worked together to develop upscale positioning and a new branded environment prototype celebrating the brand’s Canadian heritage to take on the fiercely competitive cafe market in Thailand.

Our designers used woods and lighting to create an inviting environment with a range of seating types to serve the ‘third space / co-working’ community. The signature Canadian maple leaf identity is creatively integrated into wood wall panelling, the goose-hockey player mascot, along with brand images presented gallery-style bring the brand and its heritage to life, creating a homely environment for guests.

Our highly modular, adaptable prototype design has facilitated the rapid expansion to 8 locations all within 2020- with more to follow in the coming years.

Whitespace are working with global, regional and national brands as they develop their retail channels into multiple locations in the region. Our work ranges from the more technical architectural and retail planning services to the highly creative brand design and marketing campaign services.

Whitespace got its start in 2004, working with Apple’s retail partners to create a brand and environment for Thai consumers whose knowledge of the brand was limited to the iPod. With the insights of our American founder, who happens to be a lifelong Apple user, and knowledge of the local market and consumer behaviour, we created iStudio- a branded environment with targeted accommodation for Thai consumers – a workshop/training space right up at the storefront, an unboxing and product set-up and testing space, and a concierge desk for friendly information and assistance. The environment was spacious, warm and friendly- supported by our brand launch campaign welcoming customs to come in a ‘please play’! We helped Apple partners expand nationally and in the Southeast Asian region, with more than 100 locations.

Honda Motorcycles took note of our work for Apple and invited us to work with them to introduce their line of ‘big bikes’ to the Thai market for the first time in 2008. Together with Honda, the strategy to create a national showroom brand with some positioning distance from their low-cost commuter bikes, already in the market for many years. The result was the Honda Big Wing showroom- with an emotion-based approach aimed at a slightly older and more affluent rider who may be considering the Italian or German competitors already established in the market. We’ve helped Honda expand nationally with more than 20 locations in select markets.

With our depth of expertise and in-house capabilities in retail and food & drink, we meet the full range of service demanding requirements of international brands. From prototype stores like INCASE, technical architectural services for UniQlo, localisation and implementing of the MYKITA global flagship concept store our comprehensive capabilities are unique in the region.