Helping Dunkin’ Donuts
discover Coffee

Situation
Dunkin' Donuts hired Starfish to conduct a brand experience audit in order to help
them uncover key drivers to their success in New England. It was hoped that this
learning might fuel momentum for Dunkin' in other markets.

75 site audits and hundreds of consumer and employee interviews later, Starfish
discovered that New Englanders were addicted to Dunkin', not because of the donuts
— but because of the coffee!

New Englanders had known for years that the coffee at Dunkin' was deliciously
addictive due to its flawless consistency from location to location. But in expansion
markets, where a new customer base wasn't familiar with the merits of Dunkin's
coffee, Starfish found that there were virtually no coffee cues in-store to help new
customers discover and appreciate Dunkin’s exceptional coffee.

Dunkin' needed to tell the world about its coffee.

Solution
In order to sell itself to the outside world as a coffee company, Dunkin' first needed
to sell itself internally as a coffee company. To do this, a genuine coffee culture
needed to be established at both the corporate and store levels. Starfish conceived,
developed and executed a Coffee Culture Program that included a variety of initiatives
designed to cultivate the genuine coffee commitment that had been uncovered as
a latent strength of the organization. The initiatives Starfish conceived of and
designed included:

         -An Internal "Trade Show": A launch event that was held at corporate
          headquarters where "stations" were displayed in the lobby to explain each
          step "from tree to cup" that goes into making "America’s best coffee"

         -A Corporate Headquarters Coffee Visibility Program: Initiatives to infuse
          a coffee culture into the Randolph, MA corporate offices included a visitors
          coffee station, coffee trees in the lobby, re-naming of conference rooms
          ("Arabica"), and a coffee-oriented "on-hold" recording within their
          phone system

         -A Coffee Excellence Launch Kit: This kit was distributed to every employee
          and included a glossary of coffee terms, Dunkin' coffee beans, a guide to
          Coffee Excellence Launch activities and a Squeeze CD including their hit
          single "Black Coffee in Bed"

         -Executive Education: Starfish proposed a series of Executive trips to
          Guatemala so that key Dunkin' personnel could experience coffee farming,
          harvesting and production first hand. Other employees were exposed to a
          documentary film presentation of the Guatemalan experience

         -Employee Coffee Distribution: A pound of ground coffee was distributed
          monthly to each employee. Packaging consisted of an internal coffee
          newsletter printed on the bag

         -In-store Employee Training: Starfish designed a "Coffee Masters" program
          to motivate store workers around a deeper understanding of what goes into
          making high-quality coffee. An intensive, higher education component allowed           some employees to be certified as "Master Brewers"

Results
These initiatives helped stimulate a repositioning of the Dunkin' brand to more convincingly compete in the fast growing and highly profitable coffee segment.
The coffee cup has been incorporated into their logo, innovative coffee-based products
are now part of their regular offering, visible coffee theater and rituals have been built
into the stores, and Dunkin' has a new tag line "American Runs on Dunkin". In a
recent national independent taste test, a majority of participants preferred Dunkin'
coffee over Starbucks.