Social Media Monitoring Project: Part Two

Recap 🍩

As one of the world's largest coffee conglomerate, Dunkin' Donuts continues to be one of the most well-known coffee spots in the United States, selling approximately 1.9 billion cups of coffee a year. Despite its popularity, Dunkin' Donuts does not effectively communicate with the groundswell, and receives a lot of negative feedback for this and a very poor review.  On September 25, 2018, Dunkin' Donuts caused a stir with an announcement that they would officially be changing their name to Dunkin', forever changing the iconic name and logo. As seen in the first part of this Social Media Monitoring project,while most customers saw the change as either positive or neutral, there were many that had nothing but bad things to say about the change--which resulted in negative comments and posts on the Dunkin' social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The second part of this analysis will review recent analytics and provide suggestions for best practices. 

Recent Analytics

Social Mention

The following screenshots were collected on October 25th, 28th and 31st, respectively. The keyword typed in was "Dunkin." 

In comparison to last week's final screenshot, strength has remained in the 80's. While the sentiment has fluctuated, the ratio of positive comments has grown, while the negative comments have decreased. While there hasn't been any posts regarding the name change, the increase in numbers might be attributed to the Halloween costume campaign and the Red Sox winning the World Championship, as pictured below. 

Google Trends

The following Google Trends screenshot was taken on October 31st to examine any changes in interest over the past week. Keyword was: Dunkin'

In comparison to last week's Google Trends analysis, interest has remained pretty high, with intermittent fluctuations. As stated previously, the reason for this spike in interest could be attributed to the hype caused by the Red Sox win. 

Geographically the following states showed the highest level of interests. As opposed to the previous geographical chart, it seems as if other states have become more interested in the brand. 

Interestingly enough, related queries included:

Goals & Recommendations

The following are our recommendations to Dunkin' for improving their current marketing strategy regarding their name change.

Goal (1) Engage with the entire groundswell, regardless if the feedback is negative or positive. 

• One of the most important guidelines when communicating and engaging with the groundswell is to keep the doors of communication open by following the steps of talking to, listening to, energizing and supporting your groundswell.If Dunkin' only engages with individuals who leave positive comments on a post, they are demonstrating that they do not value all the feedback that the groundswell has to offer. By not responding to negative comments, this will anger the groundswell further and cause a greater problem and as we all know, the groundswell has the power to make or break your company. 
• If Dunkin' wants to engage with their customers better, they should designate a group of employees who solely handle social media monitoring and who engage with either all feedback or none at all--its all or nothing. 
• Dunkin' could work to create an engaging blog that allows its customers to comment and provide feedback. By doing this, Dunkin' could devote a team to handling this blog in a positive and constructive way.

Goal (2) Acknowledge those who are against the name change and take steps to raise their morale. 

• Since many cite the fear of change as being a major factor in rebelling against the name change, it is crucial to make sure those customers are heard and responded to, otherwise you might lose them as customers. It is important to realize it is challenging to collaborate with your customers, however Dunkin' should work towards finding a way to make ease their customer's concerns. 
• This could be done by either offering a coupon or a special promotion to celebrate the changing of the name in order to appease their customers. 


• Dunkin' must also ensure their fan base that they will work hard to preserve and still incorporate their history and heritage as Dunkin' Donuts.

Goal (3) Develop Trust and Brand Ambassadors

• Since this change will entail a complete rebranding, Dunkin' should be working to develop a stronger relationship with not only its customers but also its individual franchises. 
• One can assume that  it will cost the individual franchises a chunk of change to remodel their stores and change out their merchandise, so Dunkin' needs to work on making them their biggest cheerleaders towards this change. The individual owners must be on board with the change and emulate that to their customers. If a customer has a good experience, they might be prompted to return to Dunkin' regardless of their feelings regarding the name change.

Concluding Thoughts

In moving forward with the name changing and rebranding, Dunkin' should use caution in engaging with the groundwell. While it is easy to respond to positive feedback, it is important to also respond to those who have questions, comments and concerns. Although Dunkin' is a multi billion dollar company, it can still be reduced to a shell, if it doesn't handle the rebranding well. It must form trust will all its loyal customers while staying true to its roots of coffee and donuts--the two things that made it so popular and that keeps many coming back for more. While the world may "Run on Dunkin", if not given enough time and effort, America (and the rest of the world), may decide they run on something else.