Social Media Monitoring Project: Part One
On September 25, 2018, Dunkin' Brands Group Inc. announced that they would be changing their name from Dunkin' Donuts to Dunkin'. This rebranding will take effect beginning January 2019 and will entail design changes on the website, in advertising, on all packaging and the remodeling of all U.S. stores in terms of new signage reflecting the new logo. Not only is Dunkin' dropping "Donuts" from their name, they are also getting rid of the iconic coffee cup in their logo. The only thing remaining is the familiar rounded font and pink and orange color scheme.
The reason for dropping "Donuts" from it's name was revealed, in a press release, to be part of an effort to position the company as "a beverage-led, on-the-go brand. While the tagline "America Runs on Dunkin'" has gained popularity over the years, Dunkin' is interested in being on a first-name basis with it's loyal customers." Dunkin' Brands CEO & Dunkin' U.S. President, David Hoffman stated, “Our new branding is one of many things we are doing as part of our blueprint for growth to modernize the Dunkin’ experience for our customers...We believe our efforts to transform Dunkin', while still embracing our incredible heritage, will keep our brand relevant for generations to come." To put it simply, Dunkin' is trying to connect with a younger generation and emphasize their vast beverage options, as well as new food items, as opposed to just coffee and donuts.
While many originally thought the name change meant they were going to stop selling donuts, Dunkin' stated in a press release, that they sell more than 2.9 billion donuts and Munchkins per year and they had no intention on stopping.Whether this will be a successful rebranding is yet to be seen due to mixed messages provided by the groundswell. We will talk more about that in the next section.
Social Media Following:
Dunkin' Donuts has a social media presences on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Each page has over a million followers, with Facebook taking the lead with over 15 million followers. Since the announcement of their name change, they have changed their profile name to Dunkin' and handles to: @dunkinUS, and @dunkin. Colorful posts announced the name change simultaneously on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and the groundswell was very quick to react positively and negatively to the change.
Twitter:
The following post was released on the day of the announcement on the Twitter feed:
Upon close review, it seems as if Dunkin' began replying to the tweets for a short while then stopped. They never address any of the negative tweets but only the first dozen that commented positively or asked if they would still have donuts available for purchase. As Li & Bernoff point out, the process of communicating with the groundswell is essential. The fact that they are only responding to the positive posts show that they are not embracing the groundswell and listening to their feedback.
Facebook:
The same thing occurs with their Facebook feed, in that they only responded to a handleful of comments and not the rest. The first two posts, one on September 25th and the other on September 26th, collectively gained 43k views, 410 comments, 177 shares, 1,194 likes, 137 loves, and 163 angry faces.
Instagram:
Analytics: Social Mention & Google Trends
Social Mention: The following screen shots were collected on October 8th, 21st, and 22nd. The keyword typed in was "Dunkin" and yielded the following results:
As we can see from the first example, there was very low percentages on October 8th, which is bizarre considering the name change announcement was released two weeks prior. Although there was buzz on social media, for some reason this wasn't picked up on Social Mention during this time. While it is difficult to draw any conclusions as to why the October 8th numbers are so low is it possible that the re-branding is not well-known to all customers. Although there was a reaction on the social media platforms, it is a possibility that customers that are not connected to social media might not know of the plans to change the name.
The percentages went up quite drastically, especially in regards to strength and reach on October 21st. There was a slight increase on strength and passion on October 22nd, with a slight decrease in reach. Upon revisiting the numbers on October 21st and 22nd, we are unsure as to what led to the dramatic rise in numbers. Whether it was a greater recognition of the rebranding or simply Dunkin's social push towards DIY Halloween costumes, it is yet to be determined. We are very interested to see what the following week will show.
Google Trends:
As we can see from the graph above, there was a major increase in interest the day of the re branding announcement. The rest of the time interest seemed to rise and fall throughout the remaining month. Geographically we see that the greatest interest in the question "Is Dunkin' Donuts changing their name?" lies within the United States; with the Philippines, New Zealand, Chile and the Netherlands making up the top five. Interestingly enough, the top five countries all are home to Dunkin' franchises, with the United States housing the majority.
The above graph also shows a generalized peak in interest following the days of the announcement. Geographically we can see that once again the United States demonstrates the most interest followed by the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and New Zealand--all homes to Dunkin' franchises.
When narrowed to the United States, all New England states, excluding Vermont, make it into the top 5 places that are most interested in the term "Dunkin' Donuts". This is no surprise considering New England contains the largest concentration of Dunkin' franchises.
Final Thoughts
The overall groundswell consensus on the name change for Dunkin' Donuts is quite mixed. There are the lovers, the haters and those that simply don't care. As Li & Bernoff state, "the groundswell can threaten institutions like companies and brands as customers draw strength from each other" (p. xi). They also emphasize the groundswell's power in defining your brand and making or breaking your company. While Dunkin' has made the poor decision to have low levels of interaction with the groundswell the reality is that Dunkin' is a multi-billion dollar company with franchises worldwide. It is yet to be seen if dropping Donuts from their brand name will have a real negative effect on their sales and overall success in the new year. While there was an initial peak of interest following the rebranding announcement, it seems as if things have begun to even out again--or at least until the rebranding actually begins in January 2019. One thing of interest will be what the cost of the rebranding will be to individual franchise owners and whether there will be a waiver in customer loyalty.
After all is said and done, will America still run on Dunkin'?
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