Dunkin'
Dunkin' Donuts, owned by Dunkin' Brands, is a prominent American coffee and doughnut chain known for its wide array of beverages and baked goods. Established in 1946 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts, the brand has grown to operate over 11,300 locations worldwide, serving around three million customers daily. Dunkin' Donuts offers more than fifty-two varieties of doughnuts, along with coffee, bagels, breakfast sandwiches, and the popular Munchkins (doughnut holes). The chain differentiates itself through a diverse product range and has actively adapted its offerings in international markets to resonate with local tastes, such as integrating unique flavors in countries like Thailand and China.
Dunkin' Donuts competes with major brands like Starbucks and Krispy Kreme, and has implemented various strategies over the years, including the launch of mobile ordering apps and a rebranding effort to focus more on coffee products. The company emphasizes health-conscious options and sustainability, introducing a smart menu and "green stores" aimed at reducing environmental impact. Despite facing some controversies, Dunkin' Donuts remains a significant player in the breakfast market, with a reputation for innovation and adaptability in its product offerings and marketing strategies.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Dunkin'
- Date Founded: 1948
- Industry: Retail food specializing in coffee and bakery products
- Corporate Headquarters: Canton, Massachusetts
- Type: Public
Dunkin’, formerly known as Dunkin' Donuts until 2019, is an American coffee-and-doughnut chain. It sells over a dozen kinds of hot, iced coffees and other beverages, along with more than fifty-two varieties of doughnuts and other baked products such as bagels, breakfast sandwiches, cookies, and the popular Munchkins, or doughnut holes. Dunkin’, which is a competitor of chains such as Starbucks and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, advertises with the tagline "America runs on Dunkin.’" It operates in over thirty countries, selling to about three million customers every day.
Dunkin’ operates through franchises, selling its coffee and bakery products to more than 13,000 franchisees in 2024. More than nine thousand of these establishments are located in the United States, and the rest are spread across the world.
Given that the company owns the rights to a popular brand name and relies on a business model that is based on a product category (coffee and doughnut) with an inelastic demand and pricing that undercuts competition, Dunkin’ was initially listed on NASDAQ in 2011. Its initial public offer was received with great enthusiasm from investors. In contrast to other doughnut shops, the company has grown by innovating and experimenting widely with its product offerings. This strategy has especially paid off in its international operations, particularly in locations where Dunkin’ Donuts has adjusted its standardized offerings to reflect local tastes and ingredients.
History
In 1946, the founder of Dunkin’ Donuts, William Rosenberg, started selling coffee, sandwiches, and desserts to workers at construction sites in Boston, Massachusetts. He started the business with $2,500, which he got from selling war bonds and securing a loan. Soon, Rosenberg realized that coffee and doughnuts were the most popular items sold to the workers who were his customers. He then started The Open Kettle doughnut shop in Quincy, Massachusetts. The company was renamed Dunkin’ Donuts in 1948.
Although doughnut stores were not uncommon, most stores sold three to four kinds. Rosenberg differentiated his business from the others by selling an extensive variety of doughnuts. Some of the varieties (the Munchkins, French crullers, jelly doughnuts, and glazed sour cream doughnuts) have been popular with customers, whereas others (maple frosted pumpkin doughnuts or croissant doughnuts) have proven to be less successful. In its attempt to cater to foreign taste buds, Dunkin’ integrated local raw materials and popular flavors into its doughnuts and other baked goods. For example, it sold a shredded chicken-and-chili-paste doughnut in Thailand, pork and seaweed pastry in China, and black rice doughnuts and jalapeño sausage pie doughnuts in South Korea.
In a fiercely competitive breakfast market, where it is up against competitors like Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Starbucks, Dunkin’ has taken a number of strategic steps over the years to maintain its market share. The Dunkin’ brand reworked its delivery system in the 1980s to give more independence to customers, especially those looking to grab coffee on the go in the morning. The company did away with china cups and instead introduced a self-service system and paper cups. It also eliminated the question-mark counters that were clearly marked help desks, places in the store that were set aside for customers in need of some sort of assistance. In 1995, the company adjusted its focus from exclusively pushing its doughnut offerings to promoting its coffee brands as well.
In order to compete in such international markets as Asia—especially in South Korea and China, where demand for coffee has been growing—Dunkin’ aggressively marketed itself using innovative advertising and celebrity endorsements. The tagline "America runs on Dunkin’," which was introduced in 2006, has helped draw in coffee lovers to Dunkin’ shops in South Korea and China. Dunkin’ also got star American basketball player LeBron James to endorse its products in China, where Dunkin’ lagged far behind such companies as Starbucks in terms of market share. Yet, international markets constitute a relatively small chunk of the total revenues for the company.
Impact
Dunkin’ has taken steps to create an image of itself as a health conscious, fast-food chain for the masses that is also concerned about the environment. In 2008, it opened its first so-called green store, one in which the biodegradable waste from the store was recycled and reused as fertilizer in nearby farms. In 2008, the company also introduced a smart menu for the health conscious consumer, with calories and fat reduced by 25 percent in all of its products. Dunkin’ introduced a multigrain bagel and reduced-fat blueberry muffins, among other new and healthier items. In 2015, in response to concerns being raised by a nongovernment organization about the harmful use of titanium dioxide in the white sugar used by Dunkin’, the company decided to use white sugar that is free of titanium dioxide. Use of more than 1 percent of titanium dioxide as a preservative can be dangerous to health.
After 2014, Dunkin’ rethought its strategy about its current locations and the number of stores across the United States, and it tapped into mobile technology for the first time to increase its presence in the marketplace. In 2015, Dunkin’ decided to shut one hundred outlets run by convenience store Speedway across the United States because the increased cost of labor cut into franchisees’ profitability. Largely active on the East Coast, Dunkin’ set up sixty-two stores in newer locations, expanding to the West Coast in 2015. The West Coast expansion gave the company three stores in California (one each at Los Angeles International Airport and also at the Naval Medical Center and the Marine Corps Air Station, both in San Diego). It also added stores to some other locations. In September 2015, Dunkin’ launched its mobile application, one that allowed its customers to preorder for pickup and delivery. But the app ran into operational problems and crashed frequently when order volumes rose.
As part of a rebranding effort that was planned to include more advanced ordering technology and a new look for stores, beginning in 2017, the company slowly started to introduce a change to its iconic name by dropping the "Donuts." With one new store built just as Dunkin' in 2017, the company announced in 2018 that it would be continuing to phase out the second part of its name, including on merchandise; while stores would still sell doughnuts, it was reported that its other products, particularly coffee, have increasingly made up a bigger portion of sales. It officially rebranded as Dunkin' in 2019.
Dunkin’ has had its share of controversies, which affected the brand. In 2009, it had to temporarily recall two of its popular brands—Dunkaccino and hot chocolate—for possible salmonella poisoning at one of its supplier’s facilities in Minnesota. In 2013, Dunkin’ was criticized for using the face of a Black person to promote its signature line of charcoal donuts as a part of its social media campaign in Thailand. The company later apologized for its insensitivity. In 2019, Dunkin' was accused of mishandling a series of cyberattacks in 2015 that led to thousands of Dunkin' mobile app users' usernames and passwords to be stolen.
In 2020, Dunkin' Brands, which owned not only Dunkin', but also Baskin-Robbins, was acquired by Inspired Brands for $11.3 billion.
Bibliography
Banjo, Shelly. "Dunkin’ Donuts Is Digging Its Own Hole." Bloomberg.com, 5 Feb. 2016, www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-02-04/dunkin-donuts-earnings-expansion-plans-may-be-too-fast. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
"Dunkin’ Donuts Franchisee Closing 100 Stores." Fox News, 25 Nov. 2016, www.foxnews.com/food-drink/dunkin-donuts-franchisee-closing-100-stores. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
"Start a Dunkin' Donuts Franchise | Costs and Requirements." Entrepreneur, 12 Dec. 2022, www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/dunkindonuts/282304. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
"Inspire Brands Completes Acquisition of Dunkin’ Brands." Inspire, 15 Dec. 2020, inspirebrands.com/inspire-brands-completes-acquisition-of-dunkin-brands/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Nieto, Phillip. "Why Did Dunkin' Donuts Change Its Name? Find Out Why Dunkin's Coffee Is Cheaper Than Starbucks." Fox Business, 24 Oct. 2022, www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/dunkin-donuts-change-name-find-out-dunkins-coffee-cheaper-starbucks. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Patton, Leslie. "Dunkin’ Donuts Tests Mobile Ordering in Bid to Catch Up with Starbucks." Bloomberg, 18 Nov. 2015, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-18/dunkin-donuts-plays-catch-up-to-starbucks-with-mobile-ordering. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Rosenberg, William, and Jessica Brilliant Keener. Time to Make the Donuts. Lebhar-Friedman, 2001.
Satow, Julie. "Dunkin’ Donuts’ Salmonella Scare." HuffPost, 25 May 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/01/dunkin-donuts-salmonella-‗n‗223723.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Spiegel, Alison. "Dunkin’ Donuts Flavors, In Order of Greatness." HuffPost, 5 Jan. 2015, www.huffpost.com/entry/dunkin-donuts-ranked‗n‗6417658. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Stanley, T. L. "Dunkin’ Donuts Apologizes for Blackface Ad, But Not Everyone Is Sorry." AdWeek, 3 Sept. 2013, www.adweek.com/creativity/dunkin-donuts-apologizes-blackface-ad-not-everyone-sorry-152172/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Toppa, Sabrina. "Dunkin’ Donuts Is Getting Rid of Titanium Dioxide in Its Food." Time, 10 Mar. 2015, time.com/3738521/dunkin-donuts-titanium-dioxide/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Viser, Matt. "From Massachusetts to Seoul, Dunkin’ Donuts Finds New Markets as Coffee Craze Sweeps Asia." The Boston Globe, 30 Mar. 2014, www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/03/29/from-massachusetts-seoul-dunkin-donuts-finds-new-markets-coffee-craze-sweeps-asia/aykwWhGnFNjG85ahVxJIFL/story.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2016.
"William Rosenberg, 86, Founder of Dunkin' Donuts." The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2002, www.nytimes.com/2002/09/23/business/william-rosenberg-86-founder-of-dunkin-donuts.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2016.