Dunkin' Donuts is an international doughnut and coffeeretailer founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts; it is now headquartered in Canton. While the company originally focused on doughnuts and other baked goods, over half of its business today is in coffee sales, making it more of a competitor to Starbucks than to more traditional competitors such as Krispy Kreme.

 

The company has opened more than 10,000 locations in 32 countries worldwide , which include more than 6,700 Dunkin’ Donuts locations throughout the United States and more than 3000 international locations. This figure compares with the 17,009 stores of coffee chain Starbucks, whose baked goods are usually prepared out of shop. Nearly all of Dunkin' Donuts locations are franchisee owned and operated. Only 75 franchisees exist west of the Mississippi River, mostly in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. Within their Northeast home base, however, Dunkin' Donuts is particularly dominant and can be found in many gas stations, supermarkets, mall and airport food courts, and Walmart stores across the region.

 

Dunkin' Donuts, along with Baskin-Robbins, is co-owned by Dunkin' Brands Inc. (previously known as Allied Domecq Quick Service Restaurants, when it was a part of Allied Domecq). Dunkin' Brands used to own the Togo's chain, but sold this in late 2007 to a private equity firm. Dunkin' Brands was owned by French beverage company Pernod Ricard S.A. after it purchased Allied Domecq. They reached an agreement in December 2005 to sell the brand to a consortium of three private-equity firms, Bain Capital Partners, the Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

 

In the United States, Dunkin' Donuts is sometimes paired with Baskin-Robbins ice cream shops. While such locations usually have two counters set up for each chain (much like the Wendy's/Tim Hortonsco-branded locations), depending on business that day, both products can be bought at the same counter (usually the Dunkin' counter), much like the Yum! Brands stores.

 

The company's largest competitors include Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks, as well as small locally owned donut shops. In Canada and parts of the northern United States, Tim Hortons is a major competitor. In ColombiaDonut Factory had been its local rival, although Dunkin' still is preferred and has encouraged this desire by adapting their donut selection to local tastes. Mister Donut had been its largest competitor in the United States before the company was bought by Dunkin' Donuts' parent company. The Mister Donut stores were rebranded as Dunkin' Donuts. Dunkin still controls the trademark rights to the Mister Donut trademark through various new and amended older trademark registrations with the USPTO.

 

In 2005, Dunkin’ Donuts named four-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee Stan Frankenthaler as its first Executive Chef / Director of Culinary Development.

 

On December 10, 2008, Nigel Travis was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Dunkin’ Brands. He also assumed the role of Dunkin’ Donuts President at the end of 2009.

 

In 2008, Dunkin' Donuts opened its first "green" store, in St. Petersburg, Florida. The restaurant is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified and includes programs like worm-casting, water-efficient plumbing fixtures, and the use of well water rather than potable water for all irrigation.

 

In 2010, Dunkin' Donuts' global system-wide sales were $6 billion.

 

In 2011, Dunkin' Donuts earned the No. 1 ranking for customer loyalty in the coffee category by Brand Keys for the fifth year in a row.

 

One of the last remaining Dunkin' Donuts locations in Canada at Montreal's Place Ville-Marie.

 

In April 2012, Dunkin' Donuts switched its beverage products back to The Coca-Cola Company having formerly served Pepsi products in response to similar rivals expanding PepsiCo products to the United States in 2011. The only exception was PepsiCo's Gatorade. Locations in Canada were unaffected by the switch, although a location in Montreal's Eaton Centre serves Nestea along with mostly PepsiCo products.

 

Dietary concerns

In August 2007, Dunkin' Donuts announced plans to greatly reduce trans fats from its menu items by switching to a blend of palm, soybean, and cottonseed oils. In addition to 400 U.S. stores that took part in a four-month blind test, the low trans fat menu is available nationwide since October 18, 2007. International locations are expected to begin using the new oil within the next few years.

 

Dunkin’ Donuts has launched DDSMART, a healthy new menu. The new items are reduced in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar or sodium by at least 25 percent.

 

Advertising

Dunkin' Donuts advertising memes have become popular culturereferences, especially in their home region of the northeastern United States. As well as being featured in many films, the company has a close relationship with major sports teams, such as the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots, and makes new commercials at the start of each team's season for promotions. Dunkin’ Donuts also sponsors many other professional sports teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Tampa Bay Rays and others.

 

Dunkin' Donuts's slogan is "America Runs On Dunkin'," despite the fact that most of its stores are concentrated on the east coast, with only two west-coast locations-- (Portland, Oregon), and a new location (as of May 2012) on the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton, with slightly limited public accessibility . In March 2009, the company unveiled an alternate slogan, "You 'Kin Do It!", and launched a $100+ million ad campaign to promote it. The campaign, slated to run through 2009, includes radio, print and outdoor advertising, in addition to in-store point-of-purchase, special events, and sports marketing. Online marketing, often leveraging the Boston Red Sox and other New England icons, is also a significant campaign component.

 

The original Dunkin' Donuts slogan was Sounds Good, Tastes Even Better.

 

Commercials

•Dunkin' Donuts' "It's Worth the Trip" campaign, starring sleepy-eyed "Fred the Baker" and featuring the catchphrase "Time to make the donuts", won honors from the Television Bureau of Advertising as one of the five best commercials of the 1980s. Fred the Baker was played by actor Michael Vale for over 15 years until his retirement in 1997.

 

•Since Dunkin' Donuts changed their slogan in 2006 to "America Runs on Dunkin'," They Might Be Giants songs have been featured in an ongoing series of advertisements of Dunkin' Donuts new products to boost summer sales. In 2007, a series of Dunkin' Donuts commercials referred to the fictional language Fritalian (sometimes incorrectly spelled Fretalian) which would be a portmanteau of French and Italian: "Is it French? Or is it Italian?" sings a chorus of customers in an unnamed coffee shop with a long menu of non-English terms. "Perhaps Fritalian?" created by Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos with the express intent to "poke fun at pretentious Starbucks-style coffee chains, with patrons attempting to order hard-to-pronounce lattes." The whole commercial was interpreted as a deliberate mocking of Starbucks. The commercials' punchline, "Delicious lattes from Dunkin' Donuts. You order them in English," has been a point of discussion with respect to the fact that lattes, cappuccinos, and espresso are borrowed words from Italian which have no equivalency in English; the commercials, however, refer to the Starbucks ordering language itself, poking fun at words such as grande and venti."

 

•Further commercials in 2007 more directly mocked Starbucks, with a customer ordering a "Large" and being chastised to use the term "Dieci;" with dieci being Italian for the number 10 while Starbucks' venti is Italian for the number 20.
 

•In 2007, John Goodman began doing voice over work for Dunkin' Donuts commercials.
 

•Rachael Ray has starred in commercials for Dunkin Donuts since 2007. In May 2008, Dunkin Donuts removed a commercial from their website featuring Ray wearing a scarf with a black and white paisley floral design, in response to right-wing blogger / columnist Michelle Malkin's claims that the scarf resembled the keffiyeh worn by Yasser Arafat and therefore a sign of support for terrorists. Dunkin Donuts pulled that commercial off the air, leading to more criticism of the company's perceived kowtowing to special interests.
 

•Since 2005, Joey De Leon started endorsing Dunkin' Donuts Philippines starring in funny commercials.
 

•In January 2009, Dunkin' Donuts launched its "You Kin' Do It" campaign.
 

•A radio advertisement in 2010 featured fictional lawyer Bob "The Bulldozer" Phillips in a direct parody of real-life lawyer Jim "The Hammer" Shapiro.

 

Promotions

In early 2007, Dunkin' Donuts b Score! that featured tear-off game pieces on their coffee cups.

 

Easy Bake Oven, which is a product of Hasbro, created product recipes based on Dunkin' Donuts products.

 

In 2007, Dunkin' created a promotional campaign centered around a coffee cup named Joe Dunkin. Videos were created for the Yankees and Mets in which he tried out for the team, the New York football Giants in which he was the kicker, the Jets in which he played a Joe Namath parody named Off Broadway Joe Dunkin, and the Nets in which he played a potential draft pick who performed rap solos about Dunkin products.

 

In 2008, as a response to Starbucks closing their stores for three hours on February 26, Dunkin' Donuts locations offered a 99 cent latte, cappuccino, and espresso promotion from 1–10 pm.

 

In 2009 and 2010, there was a campaign for people to "Create Dunkin's Next Donut". In 2009, Jeff Hager of Hoover, Alabama was selected for his glazed sour cream cake donut, topped with chopped Heath Bar, titled "Toffee For Your Coffee". The 2010 winner was Rachel Davis of Sharon, Massachusetts, selected for “Monkey See Monkey Donut,” a bananas foster-filled donut with chocolate icing, topped with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups shavings. Both won a check for $12,000 and their donuts were available in Dunkin’ Donuts locations for a limited time.

 

In 2010, Dunkin' Donuts launched a campaign called "Caught Cold" starring NBA All-Star spokesman Ray Allen, which awarded game tickets to Boston Celtics fans caught drinking Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee.

 

In April 2011, Dunkin' Donuts launched a new donut and special cake in honor of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in England on April 29, 2011.

In July 2012, Dunkin' Donuts produced a new donut and a new Coolatta to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the Oreo cookie. They have added an oreo cream filled donut and a vanilla and coffee coolata with Oreo in it as part of the promotion.

 

Website

In April 2011, Dunkin' Donuts added a feature to their website which allows travelers to find Dunkin' Donuts stores along the routes of their road trips.

 

Sponsorship

•The Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island is the former Providence Civic Center. It is the home arena for the American Hockey LeagueProvidence Bruins and the home basketball court for the Big East ConferenceProvidence College Friars.

 

Slogans

•Only at Dunkin' Donuts (1950 – March 31, 1991)

•The Place for Donuts and Coffee (1950–1964, secondary)

•America's Favorite Donut and Coffee Shoppe (1964–1967, secondary)

•America's Favorite Donut Shoppe (1967–1968, secondary)

•America's Donut Shoppe (1968–1973, secondary)

•America's Dunkin' (1973–1976, secondary)

•Always Dunkin' (1976–1979, secondary)

•It's Worth the Trip (1979–1990, secondary) (1997–1999, primary)

•You Can't Get Better Tasting Coffee (date uncertain)

•You're Dunkin' (1980–1993, secondary)

•You're Still Dunkin' (1993–1997, secondary)

•Loosen Up a Little (2000)

•Just the Thing (2000s)

•America Runs on Dunkin' (since 2007)

 

Logos

One early logo that Dunkin' Donuts registered with the USPTO was for a drawing and word logo depicting what can be described as a "doughnut man", a figure with a doughnut for a head holding a coffee cup and wearing an apron with the company name emblazoned on it. According to the Trademark Office TESS data base, the logo was first applied for on June 23, 1958 and was registered on May 23, 1961 and put into use on July 1, 1954.

 

Before that a script version of their name, Dunkin' Donuts was filed on March 31, 1955 and registered on February 2, 1960. It was subsequently cancelled because of Section 8. It was later reinstated, as a trademark upon Section 8 was acceptance on July 3, 2001. The stylized word mark is owned by DD IP Holder LLC