Canadian Tire’s beloved “Bob” has passed away.

In the Globe this morning they talk about how Canadian Tire built stores, catalogues and service strategies around their customer base of “Bobs”. They have now come to realize that “Bob”– their high value customer is dead and they are faced with the task of reinventing themselves to appeal to their new high value customer set.

The old Bob was 40-60 years old, lived in the suburbs, had three kids and a double garage, had 7-8 projects on the go at all times, spend more time in a store than anyone else and finally was predictably reached by traditional media.

Today’s new “Bob” or perhaps we should use a name like “Alex” that is commonly used for both male and female alike. “Alex” is male or female and culturally diverse. Shops in a store every two weeks or more, spends 5 times more than the average CT customer, are busy with 7-8 home projects on the go, are self sufficient and finally shop on-line and look to the internet for help.

As I read the article I was instantly faced with the question “are credit unions still catering to their own “Bob” when they should be looking to change to appeal to a new and changing market place?

What do you think?