DUNKIN': FROM DONUTS FOR OFFICE WORKERS TO A GEN Z LIFESTYLE BRAND

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2000s: Dunkin' Donuts is a coffee shop where retirees would get their daily coffee. 2022: Dunkin is an all-out consumer brand that Gen Z lives and breathes.What in the world happened?

A subtle rebrand and some exceptional marketing.Here's the story...

Company Overview

Valuation: $11.3 billion (Source)

Revenue: $1.37 billion (Source)

Dunkin' Donuts, also known as Dunkin', is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company. Or at least it was...Today, Dunkin' is about much more than coffee. Yes, people love Dunkin' coffee, but more importantly, they love their brand.Forget the iced teas and vanilla frappe's for a second, this is about how Dunkin' became a global megastar BRAND!

Breaking Down The Strategy

Back in 2006, Dunkin Donuts was a doughnut shop for the workers of America. They had just coined the slogan “America runs on Dunkin” (a huge hit in its day) to really symbolise that Dunkin' is the office workers' choice for a mid-day snack and a coffee.

The brand was nothing special. Just a simple coffee shop that people 30-55 loved to grab a snack from on the go. Market research from Nielsen actually found that, between 2015 and 2017, a Dunkin’ customer was more likely to be over 55 than under thirty. (Source)

But Dunkin' had a problem...

Whilst Starbucks was becoming a global megastar Dunkin's customers were “The same retirees who literally every single day of the week get their coffee, get their donut and sit there for literally hours” (Peter Kochanek, 26, who used to work at Dunkin’ in Westfield, Massachusetts).

So in 2018, Dunkin' took it upon themselves to completely rebrand. They wanted to change who Dunkin' Donuts was. Which actually started with them cutting the 'Donut's' part out of their name.

This wasn't just a quick name change though. Their CEO came out and let us know exactly why he opted for the name change:

This wasn't just an easy change to make either. Dunkin' had to rebrand all 12,000 of their stores worldwide, it was going to take a huge amount of money and effort to make it happen.

But they had to.

This was a symbol that a new Dunkin' was emerging. No longer would Dunkin' be the fuel for American office workers, it would be the go-to store for Gen Z to get their iced coffee.

Which brings me on to another revolutionary change that Dunkin' made for its brand identity. They scrapped all their old packaging and brought in new aesthetic packaging.

Why did the new packaging matter?Because now it was "Instagramable".

No one wants to post a photo of a cardboard cup with a bland logo on it. But give them a transparent cup with a bunch of colours, a fun logo and a bright orange straw and well... you'll quickly see your brand all over socials. That was exactly the case for Dunkin'. They began to see people posting with their Dunkin' drinks just like people did with Starbucks. They went from a company that was falling off to suddenly seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.There was another key factor at play in all this though. Whilst Dunkin' was going through the rebrand they didn't just rely on people organically falling in love with the new branding. Instead, they delved heavily into the influencer marketing world. Starting off by taking on the biggest TikTok star on the planet, Charli D'Amelio, as a brand ambassador.

This wasn't just because Charli had a huge following, it was huge because Charli had a following of the exact target audience they were going after - Gen Z.

They even gave Charli her own Dunkin' drink named "The Charli" and let me tell you, it was an absolute rocket ship!

The day “The Charli” was launched, Dunkin’s app saw a 57% increase in downloads. Within five days, Dunkin' sold hundreds of thousands of “The Charli” and increased cold brew sales by 20%. (Source)

At this point, Dunkin' had the customer base and they'd taken the world of Gen Z by storm. They had tonnes of people posting with their drinks and brand awareness was through the roof. But they weren't done yet. The last cherry on the cake for Dunkin' would be taking themselves from a coffee shop to a full-scale brand. Luckily for them, they now had one of the biggest influencers on the planet to help make this a reality. Including a $65 Dunkin' onesie now coined "The Famous Dunkin' Onesie" after it went viral on TikTok when Charli posted wearing it.

Now in 2022, Dunkin' sits in a position where people don't just stop by Dunkin' for a quick coffee, they live and die by the Dunkin' brand. There are people out there with Dunkin' bedsheets, bottles, bags and yes, even onesies. They also now sit in the No.2 spot on the list of largest coffee chains in the US.

That's a fairly successful rebrand if you ask me!

But let's be honest, my opinion isn't enough to convince you. So, of course, I brought the stats to back myself up:

- Within 24 hours of the rebrand Dunkin' had 1 billion impressions and was trending on Twitter (Source)

- A survey revealed that 32% of people were drawn to Dunkin's new logo after their rebrand (Source)

- Dunkin' saw a 5% growth in sales the year post rebrand (Source)

- Amassed 3M followers on TikTok, 2.2M on Instagram, 1.2M on Twitter (notice TikTok is their largest social platform - Gen Z audience)

From a standard coffee shop for OAPs to an all-out consumer brand that Gen Z and Millenials love...Top 10 rebrands ever? It's a yes from me!

How To Implement It

Replicating what Dunkin' did doesn't mean you gave jump on the "lifestyle brand" bandwagon. Instead, what you need to do, is analyse your current market and ask yourself is there another target audience that we can target?

Let's say for this example you are selling lightweight gloves (first thing that came to my head).Step 1: Nail The Demographic

- Use TikTok to test out the Gen Z/Millenial market

- Use newsletter ads to test it with educated 25-50 year olds.

- Use newspapers to expose the product to people 50+.

Once you have exposed the product to all those age groups you can quickly see which demographics are interested in your products. Step 2: Nail The IndustryYou already know what demographics you are targeting so now it's about narrowing down the industry. For this example, let's say the newsletter ads had a huge response. - Run ads in a snowboarding newsletter

- Run ads in a newsletter about parenthood

- Run ads in a walking newsletterYou will then see the click rate in each newsletter and see which industry and demographic is interested in your product.

You might have thought that your gloves would be perfect for 12-18 year old football players, yet the demand for your gloves comes from 25-50 year olds who enjoy walking.A simple, effective, cheap and quick way to see what markets demand your product.

This has been a breakdown of Dunkin's marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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I’ll see you next Sunday!