A doughnut brand that "doesn't miss the job" can shake Starbucks in the United States?

If a fast-food brand clearly has the word donut in its name, but in fact doughnuts account for only 8% of sales-it sounds like it's over.

But now there is an exception called Donndole, Dunkin' Donuts.

With more than 12000 stores and sharing more than 60 per cent of the US coffee market share with Starbucks (feature Reading), it has gone on a rampage and even made Starbucks uncomfortable. It's not a doughnut chain anymore.

So, what we are talking about today is a story about selling dog meat with a sheep's head, and how a man who started selling doughnuts began to adjust slowly in the 1990s to become a beverage giant and a new power in coffee.

Donndole now earns more than 2% of its income from drinks, and sales of espresso-related drinks alone have grown by more than 70% since 2000. Everyone knows that drinks are highly profitable, but making money like Donndole, which raises profit margins to 95%, is also an eye-opener.

Don Doyle has come to this point, and I think he has made two very firm choices.

The first choice is to eat or drink.

Founded in the 1950s, Donndole's traditional image has always been a morning visit to the store, and it faces a choice of whether to cook food or drink. Such a route choice will further refine the brand image and refine the store experience.

The goal of focusing on a category is to attract sufficiently loyal customers and form a solid brand foundation, which Dawn has been happy to do with doughnuts for more than 60 years; now, in order to meet the needs of a new generation of customers, they need to refind the "doughnuts" of the 21st century (but that doesn't mean giving up their traditional category).

Choosing to be a coffee shop (Coffee/Cafe) or a bakery cafe (Bakery/Cafe) determines whether it will compete with Starbucks or Panera Bread ("Starbucks' biggest rival, an" empty "bakery"), as well as the specific clientele and marketing it faces.

This choice was made quietly as early as the 1990s.

When Starbucks opened its first store in Boston, the headquarters of Donndole, around 1995, Donndole jumped on the bandwagon and launched a range of seasoned coffee drinks. Whether angry or premeditated, the "history of struggle" between them is much longer and fiercer than that between Panera Bread and Starbucks.

Two years after Starbucks launched its famous Frappuccino line in 1995, Donndole also came out with its own version, Coolatta, which offers strawberry, orange and vanilla flavors in addition to a variety of coffee lines. This 20-year-old product will be replaced by the more coffee-flavored Frozen Coffee line this year, which basically reflects the brand's increasing emphasis on caffeine.

In 2000, Donndole began the self-styled "espresso revolution", launching Dunkaccino, a drink made of coffee, cocoa and cream, and embracing all kinds of espresso derivatives, and deep roasted coffee four years later.

Of course, in the past few years, thanks to the spread of Starbucks coffee culture, there has been a huge increase in the awareness of coffee in the American market, from Italian concentrate to latte, from cappuccino to Macchiato. So Downdole is also taking the opportunity to meet their needs with seemingly more professional ingredients.

Then in 2013, Paul Carbone, chief financial officer of Donndole, finally said in public: we are a beverage company, and he even calls coffee drinks the holy grail of brand business success.

In the same year, the storefronts of the franchise stores began to be fully renovated to match the company's new positioning. The group provides four templates for stores: original matching, cappuccino matching, deep baking and jazz baking. The coffee element appears in the interior paintings of many stores.

The seating layout weakens the sense of fast food and welcomes customers to sit down and have a rest, which helps to break through the shackles of the traditional image of the "breakfast restaurant" and increase sales during the afternoon tea period. In order to ensure quality, franchisees must be renovated every ten years.

In 2016, Donndole released another five-step strategy, the first step is to build a leading position in the coffee industry, with a market share of 21.9% in the same year, with only 39.8% of Starbucks ahead of them. this is a list of only two brands and "other brands". In the same year, they followed Starbucks' ice-brewed coffee craze and launched their own ice-brewed coffee.

More recently, they have set their sights on the booming market for bottled coffee drinks, and earlier this year they began working with Coca-Cola to take advantage of its advantages in production, transportation and distribution to break into the $1.5 billion market. With 80% of the market currently controlled by a combination of Starbucks and Pepsi, Downdole is going to fight another barefoot battle without fear of wearing shoes.

The second choice is what kind of coffee to make.

Now that you have chosen the drink path, the next choice arises: be Starbucks (feature reading) or be yourself. Judging from the above, it seems that it has always wanted to be a Starbucks, but the space is uglier than Starbucks, and the product can only play the role of a trend follower, so it is sometimes criticized as a Starbucks follower. So why is it different from Starbucks?

This is best reflected in the brand-new slogan of America Runs on Dunkin' Dole in 2006: the voyage to the United States depends on Dawn (Dawn).

With the overwhelming majority of beverage sales in the same year, the company released this new slogan, which is completely different from the old slogans such as "our American doughnut shop" and "it's time to make a doughnut." It sees itself as the "power fuel" of the United States, basic, fast and daily.

Especially during the financial crisis shortly after the slogan was sent out, people became more careful and dared not go to high-end restaurants often. spending an extra yuan or two for coffee can already be regarded as enjoyment in life. so those drinks with rich flavors have become the choice of many people.

As we all know, Starbucks' focus has always been on space creation. Especially in recent years, it has made a lot of moves in brand upgrading and category expansion. From Zhenxuan to bakery stores, from fully manual coffee machines to single-area coffee beans, it has created a range of medium-and high-end spaces and products; alcoholic drinks, lunches and desserts are frequent, and it also hopes to enrich the connotation of the third space. give people more reason to spend more time in the store. In short, it still places more emphasis on the use of brand characteristics and lifestyle to attract people.

Donndole, on the other hand, insists on "rolling in the world of mortals", which deals with people and their fast, immediate and rich needs. It pays more attention to the market for young people-real young people who have not yet entered society.

During breakfast time, people can buy a set meal at Dondole, and coffee or tea is free when buying individual food combinations. And such packages are usually cheaper than Starbucks' ready-packaged Panini sandwiches that are reheated in the oven.

The price of Starbucks medium latte is about $3.65, while the price of Donndole's similar product is $3.29. Apart from being a little cheaper, the key is that the latter does not need extra money to add any flavor syrup and cream. This is very attractive to "independent-minded" young people, who do not have to pay extra for personalization. As for their favorite iced coffee drinks, the ice cream brand Buzz Luofeng, which belongs to the same group, once provided them with a series of ice creams to increase the diversity of iced coffee flavors.

In terms of promotion, Donndole's strategy is foolish: send. There are all kinds of trial drinks for new products; on weekdays, you will find a QR code for an online questionnaire in the store, and you will get a free doughnut if you buy a medium drink the next time you buy a medium drink. Such strategies are also attractive to young people (with little income). This is how Chipotle conquered the Boston area more than a decade ago, and now Donndole chooses to "start with the dolls." when these young people are developed into spending habits, they will become living spokesmen for brands when they enter the workplace.

Officially located in the "honest with ordinary people" (Average Joe) temperament of Donndole, so hard to find a new way.

Looking back on the past 20 years, there is actually nothing wonderful about it. It all depends on the conviction. From strategic determination to indoor adjustment, from a large number of new products following the trend to friendly marketing for young people, it has really become a reality that a doughnut shop has become a coffee shop.