Something’s Brewin’ at Dunkin’
Written by Cynthia Stephens (contact - e-mail) -- November 10th, 2008 |
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Dunkin’ Donuts took the gloves off in its battle against rival Starbucks with the October 21 launch of its “Dunkin Beat Starbucks” campaign featuring a national blind taste test where Dunkin’ coffee was preferred over Starbucks. Has the campaign resonated with coffee drinkers?
*Daily reach is the number of people that visit a website on a given day
as a percentage of all U.S. Internet users online that day.
- 45,516 people visited the dedicated microsite dunkinbeatstarbucks.com the week ending October 25
- Weekly traffic to dunkindonuts.com jumped 61% to more than 196,000 the week after the initial media launch
- The daily reach of dunkindonuts.com saw a temporary increase on October 26 & 27
So, will the battles for coffee drinkers continue? Starbucks has already launched a new media campaign with a TV ad during Saturday Night Live offering free coffee to voters on Election Day. Daily reach to Starbucks.com the day before the Election skyrocketed. Coincidence? Not likely.
Below is some advice from one coffee drinker.
Taste matters. So does staying top of mind with coffee enthusiasts. Creative marketing campaigns that break through the media clutter and reach coffee enthusiasts regardless of their brand preference may help to grow the overall market, even if only temporarily. Consumers who visited both Dunkin Donuts’ and Starbucks’ sites last week jumped to more than 485,000, its highest level since mid-September.
Stay true to your brand promise. Make sure your brand strikes a chord with the coffee drinkers that are core to the brand’s identity. Go beyond demographic-inspired or comparison pricing messages to see how the behavior of your coffee drinkers differs from your rival’s. Find out what we’re searching for, our attitudes, and where we spend time online versus (hint – I have been known to spend time on hsus.org versus either Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks despite my love for and daily cup of, coffee!). How would you reach and engage me?
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November 10th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Normally I LOVE the insights and data you guys share on the Compete blog. But this is a bit crazy. A national TV ad campaign for a coffee shop cannot be measured in web traffic - that’s not the goal. The goal is to SELL more fresh brewed coffee (which cannot be sold online). The Starbucks promotion was heavliy promoted online and in social media and the blogosphere, and drove people to the site to verify if it was true before they went outside to get their coffee. But the Dunkin ads are really about getting peopel to think differently about Dunkin coffee and that it is high quality, not low price/class.
The big question is which chain is driving more SALES of coffee. I think this is one of those cases where web traffic is not that useful in measuring business results. You need to measure sales in stores to know who is winning this battle.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
As far as coffee is concerned, loyalty is probably the holy grail. Once you get used to one of them, its difficult to make the switch. And anything which enhances that, on or off the web, is going to help their sales.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:00 am
For man years Dunkin did not stand a chance to compete against Starbucks but I think now the playing field has been leveled so they are really showing their teeth. Go get em Dunks!
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