Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

When it comes to sales promotion, Dunkin Donuts knows it all too well. From keeping loyal consumers coming back for more to persuading new consumers to join their team, Dunkin Donuts is the prime example of sales promotion. Dunkin Donuts started DD Perks Rewards Card in the middle of 2011 which is a loyalty program that gives you a free medium beverage of your choice when you join. The DD Perks reward card allows you to earn “Dunkin Dollars” which is a form of coupons that a consumer can use to purchase any beverage, donut, snack, and/or breakfast sandwich. The consumer gets these “Dunkin Dollars” based on how much they spend in the Dunkin Donuts restaurant each month and there is no limit as to how many “Dunkin Dollars” the consumer’s reward card can accumulate each month. The DD Perks card is a great way to show appreciation to loyal consumers.  

On March 5, 2012 in the Philadelphia area, Dunkin Donuts was giving away free small iced lattes to everyone. This strategy is good for persuading consumers to start being a regular Dunkin Donuts consumer. Moreover, this sample of the iced latte draws people in and can make them start to wonder how everything else taste which results in more purchasing which is great for business. 

On March 15, 2012 in Canton, MA, Dunkin Donuts staff was looking for a consumer who was drinking iced coffee on that cold morning for a chance to win Boston Celtics tickets. You can imagine how many people went and bought iced coffee for a chance to win those tickets. This was a way to boost iced coffee sales and to make these purchases immediate which is the whole point of sales promotion.

At the Dunkin Donuts I go to on a regular basis, their staff is very friendly to the consumers. This friendliness leads to persuading the consumers to buying other items that they were not intended to purchase. I have witnessed this being done time after time and it has even been done to me a few times. This is called relationship selling. You get close enough to these people to the point that when they tell you a new product is good and worth the purchase, you go on and purchase it based the consumer/retailer relationship that was established.

Dunkin Donuts is just good at what is does in all aspects. 

Advertising and Public Relations

Dunkin Donuts launched a brand new multi-million dollar advertising and marketing campaign late last year. This new campaign has “everyday Joes” and has a simple question/answer phrase which is: “What are you drinking?” “I’m drinking Dunkin”. This campaign will be integrated across television, radio, internet, social media, public relations and in restaurant activities to ensure that consumers are aware at all times. The campaigns main goal is to build on Dunkin Donuts leadership in developed markets, create credentials in new markets and to keep letting the consumers know that Dunkin Donuts is the best place to go for a great cup of coffee. 

Retailing

Dunkin Donuts is all about making sure their consumers are happy with their products and/or getting them to buy and/or try new products. I am a regular customer at Dunkin Donuts so the employees there practically know me at a specific location. As soon as I walked in there was a big poster on the wall advertising their new product “cake bites”. The employees know my usual purchase but they always try to persuade me in purchasing something new.  8 times out of 10 it works. They make the new products sound so delicious and looking at the advertisements all around you cannot help but to purchase it to see if it is too your liking. That to me is good retailing because this employee could just give me my usual and let me be on my way. However, I am informed and kept up to date of the latest products which lead me to spread the word to my peers about it. This would, in result, make Dunkin Donuts a destination store because I plan to go there at a minimum of 2 times in a week and I am sure many others do the same. This franchise is established in a way where you just have to go in and buy something. Dunkin Donuts atmosphere is very homey in my opinion. Their layout pulls you in and not to mention the smells of coffee, fresh donuts and bagels cooking. This retail strategy is a perfect way to get consumers to buy their products. Overall visit was to go in there, get my tea, and leave. However, I left with two cake bites and a mint hot chocolate. Their product offering skills really pay off.

Consumer Decision Making

When it comes to making a decision about where consumers want to buy your coffee, tea and hot chocolate, Dunkin Donuts wants to be their first and only choice. This company pays close attention to their consumers and they come up with a menu to reflect their observations. In 1950 when Dunkin Donuts first started, they were strictly coffee and donuts. However, as time progressed, their menu has flourished due to close consumer observations. They used various external stimuli to get consumers to buy their products. When walking past a Dunkin Donuts restaurant, you cannot help but to smell the various aromas of coffee being brewed and fresh baked donuts that are ready to be served. That in result hauls in consumers to buy their products. Moreover, this company has paid attention how consumer decision making has also evolved over time. For example, due to the obesity rates increasing in America, Dunkin Donuts created a DD SMART Better-For-You Choices menu that gives consumers healthier options to choose from rather than just finding another restaurant to go to. Another example is when consumers started to drink a lot of espresso drinks in the early 2000’s. With this observation, Dunkin Donuts opened up a brand new line of espresso drinks so they could keep their consumers and possibly get more. These examples show how well Dunkin Donuts are in tuned with their consumers’ needs and/or wants. Monitoring consumer behavior is what keeps this company on the road to on going success.