Time to Make the Donuts

My favorite brand is Dunkin Donuts, simply because their products are great! Although I cannot say for sure if Dunkin Donuts advertising is what got me into their stores, I cant rule it out either. In my opinion the Dunkin Donuts brand always created excellent advertising campaigns. Who does not remember Fred Vale as the baker who let us know it was “time to make the donuts” to their present day campaign that “America runs on Dunkin.” Dunkin Donuts advertising has always been memorable and effective. As a loyal consumer of their products I can personally certify that the coffees, teas, lattes and of course, donuts will live up to any customer’s expectation. One can find a Dunkin Donuts (DD) retail store on just about on every corner, they offer friendly service, fast food making it hard not to be a fan. One needs not even say the word “donuts” after the Dunkin name, as name recognition for Dunkin has been winning awards for years.

A short history

In 1998, Dunkin’ Donuts was a regional bakery shop represented by “Fred the Baker” and his call to action of “it’s time to make the donuts.” Time marched on and it was the Hill Holliday agency, that decided it was time to transform the brand into a national powerhouse that could successfully challenge breakfast heavyweights like Starbucks and McDonald’s — no small task.
“America Runs on Dunkin’” became much bigger than an ad campaign. It’s a rallying cry for the brand, at headquarters, with franchisees, and in-store. And the results have been astonishing: Dunkin’ Donuts eclipsed Starbucks as #1 in customer loyalty in the coffee category for five years running. And Dunkin’ is now the #1 retailer of hot and iced regular coffee-by-the-cup in the United States. Dunkin’ was voted the 2007 “Marketer of the Year” by Restaurant News, and received the 2009 “Marketer of the Year” award by Brandweek. Not bad for a tagline!
As a novice on-line researcher for the brand I found a Dunkin Donuts (DD) presence just about everywhere. There is merchandise, cups, mugs, t-shirts, coffee and teas, and a book by it’s founder, William Rosenberg, entitled what else, but “ “It’s time to make the Donuts”.

DD has an extensive website, a Blog, and of course DD has their own Twitter and Facebook pages. Consumer and fans can find DD on YouTube, Instagram, Vine and Foursquare. One can even play an on-line game in the world of Sims with DD products that can be won and used as gifts to continue play.The immense on-line digital presence coupled with television, bill board and in-store point of purchase elements, exemplify the DD way is to consumer engagement–which can certainly be considered media-neutral.
DD is successfully reaching all touch-points from one on one, to experiential, word of mouth, point of purchase and point of consumption. In fact their Facebook page highlights a DD “fan of the week”, which demonstrates their understanding of both relationship building and advocacy.
 
Dunkin Facts
• Dunkin’ Donuts is owned by Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. (Nasal: DNKN), one of the world’s leading franchisors of quick service restaurants. Dunkin’ Brands is the parent company of both Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins.
• Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. is headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts.
• At the end of 2013, Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. had franchisee-reported sales of approximately $9.3 billion.
• Dunkin’ Brands, the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins is one of the largest QSR (quick service restaurant) companies in the world with more than 18,000 points of distribution in nearly 60 countries worldwide.
• Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. has a nearly 100 percent franchised model.
• There are nearly 11,000 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in 33 countries.
• Dunkin’ Donuts sells more than 1.8 billion cups of hot &iced coffee globally every year.

Industry Recognition:
• #1 in iced regular/decaf/flavored coffee
• #1 in hot regular/decaf/flavored coffee
• #1 in donut category
• #1 in bagel and muffin category
• #2 in breakfast sandwich servings
• #1 in customer loyalty in the coffee category since 2007, according to Brand Key.

Let’s take a quick closer look at some of Dunkin Donuts social media strategies to give us some insight into how and why they have achieved such success:
There is a lot going on at Dunkin Donuts.com from celebrity endorsements, to a consumer contest, to product highlights, to featured products, to links to most of their social media sites. At the website customers can sign up for DD bonus points, find the store closest to them and upload the Dunkin Donut app. One can watch current commercials featuring the #mydunkin promotion, click to the blog, click on social sharing buttons and read about the companies corporate social responsibility policies. In my opinion this is a terrific website, informative, interactive and fits the needs of those who have purchased, want to build a relationship and be an advocate for the brand. Folks visiting the Dunkin Donuts website most likely have already tried the brand and are an active advocate of DD.

Facebook

Dunkin’ Donuts DD Logo

The DD Facebook page has 11 million likes as of June 1st and on it any fan of the Dunkin brand can proudly claim their love/like of the brand. On the Facebook page they feature the “fan of the week” where folks who love the product can tell the world by sharing their love instantly on FB with easy to use share buttons. The main FB features include 1) Fan of the week, 2)Providence which is a calendar of events and 3) A link to their Instagram account.
The DD facebook page post for today, let’s all the fans know that June is “Iced Tea month!” This is fabulous news for me, and I “liked” the post. Now my personal Facebook page shows that I am a fan too! Searching around I also found that I could view videos and view images via sharing buttons to DD Instagram, Vine and YouTube accounts.

Behind the Beans

Best Cup of Coffee! Dunkin’

The Dunkin Blog—“Behind the Beans” must also be mentioned in this recap. The title is so cute and the blog is informative, provides recipes, history, recaps advertisments and keeps the message clear that this company wants to know what is your favorite Dunkin Donuts drink is? Here, as with all their social media channels we are asked to answer the question; on social media in such an organic and unprecedented way.

Twitter, must be mentioned in this recap of as DD is tweeting to us from the mother ship, posting at least twice an day and has 599 milion followers. A quick visit and one can see that there are thousands re-tweeting and favorite”ing”every post.

The #mydunkin campaign continues the evolution of America Runs on Dunkin’, with people sharing their unique, personal stories around how and why they are drinking Dunkin’ Donuts coffee across all social media platforms, successfully and superbly.

In concluding this long post…Dunkin Donuts has got a winning consumer engagement strategy through traditional media channels such as TV and Billboards, an and also through social media and mobile. They seem to be right on time with everything they are doing and for myself? I will continue to be a loyal, loyal fan of Dunkin’ Donuts!

#mydunkin: Unsweet Ice Tea with lemon!

Resources
http://www.dunkindonuts.com/content/dunkindonuts/en.html

Tweets by dunkindonuts

https://www.facebook.com/DunkinDonutsUS?brand_redir=
http://www.dunkindonuts.com/content/DDBlog.html#sthash.TZbtsZr3.dpbs
http://instagram.com/dunkindonuts
https://vine.co/search/+Dunkin+Donuts
https://foursquare.com/explore?mode=url&ne=40.721762%2C-74.015923&q=dunkin&sw=40.301%2C-74.855003
Dunkin’s Newsroom
http://news.dunkinbrands.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&Subjects=60

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