Dunkin' Donuts to become a UK ritual says marketing boss Chiariotti as Drum Network Awards nominations revealed

And while Chiariotti was busy judging in London, her US-based CEO Nigel Travis was also in the UK to spearhead the PR push for brand’s re-emergence in the UK, which he says is going to be lower key than the last time they tried to bring donuts to the UK masses.

Last December the UK’s first new Dunkin’ store opened in Harrow, North London and four more have opened since around the capital. Ultimately there are plans to open a significant number of Dunkin’ Donuts stores across Europe in the coming years.

Chiariotti, who herself is based in Barcelona, is part of the team tasked with making the Dunkin’ Donuts brand a UK success story this time around, so how is she going to get Brits loving donuts in the same way as our American cousins?

“As far as Europe goes we are still very much building our brand,” says Chiariotti. “We are aiming for consistency and want to be very clear and almost go back to basics with what the brand stands for and what the Dunkin’ brand has to offer consumers here in the UK.

“We are very much an American brand and that is part of our DNA, so in the UK we need to make sure that we are relevant and that we resonate with consumers at a local level. Our vision is to be number one in each market and we know that we will need to adapt and be flexible. We will need to adapt our strategies to become a relevant local brand in markets across the UK and Europe.

“In the US we are a brand that keeps America running, the brand that gets people going in the morning and keeps them going throughout the day. To support our growth in the UK we want to promote this concept of ‘all day Dunkin’.

“We have a wide range of products that can fulfil our consumers’ needs right through the day, so we have coffee to get them going in the morning, we have our donuts and we have sandwiches and other bakery items as well. We want to become part of their ‘rituals’ throughout the day in the UK.”

“We love the idea of ‘ritual’, which goes above and beyond the products. Competitors can offer a similar range of products, great quality coffee, great bakery and sandwiches, but what the Dunkin’ Donuts brand means and how our customers engage with it is what we want to really connect with. The idea of how we connect emotionally with consumers, sharing our products, spending time in our stores and enjoying those moments is something that we want to stand for.”

While the concept of dunking a donut into a steaming mug of coffee may not sit as comfortably with UK consumers as it has done for many years in the US, that is also a concept that Chiariotti will be working hard to spread as more Dunkin’ stores and franchises appear across the nation.

She says: “We are working hard to tell the story of why our coffee loves our donuts and really bringing the heritage of people dunking their donuts into their coffee to really enjoy them. We are very proud of our 100% arabica coffee, which is mostly Fairtrade and it is how we become a part of the daily ritual of consumers that is the challenge we face.

“In the US we have a beautiful social media campaign, which is #mydunkin, and it uses our real customers to tell how they use our products in real life. We have chosen some real stories from our Facebook and Twitter pages and we have made them the stars of our viral videos, all talking about how they use our products as part of their daily life and what Dunkin’ Donuts means to them.”

Naturally, social media is going to play an important part in Dunkin’ building a relationship with European consumers as Chiariotti explains: “Social media is the future for us and we are investing a lot of resource in that area. We have a great team in the US and can call on some remarkable people back there.

“At the moment our social media in Europe is very much about engagement and conversation. We love to engage with our customers, we have passion for our customers and they are ultimately the superstars on our social media platforms. What the brand means for them, what the products mean for them, what are the benefits from an emotional point of view and how Dunkin’ Donuts is becoming part of their daily ritual.

“We are on Facebook globally and have 12million fans and all our local pages are integrated with our global presence. We are also on Twitter and Instagram. We have blogs and we are quite active and we have a very successful App , which is performing very well in the US.

“Each country is responsible for the national Facebook page, which is connected to our global site. We do audit the local pages, but we share our content strategy and we are always sharing what we do, so it is a team effort. But we do believe that the global brand needs to be relevant for the local consumer, so the experts in the local markets are the local agencies and the local franchises. We own the brand, but they own the businesses.”

And Chiariotti’s involvement with The Drum Network awards may also pay dividends as she admits after judging the reports: “The entries that I had the chance to review were very inspiring, a great level of strategy and execution. They were very diverse, which is what I love about marketing.

“It is very difficult to keep re-inventing the wheel, so we are always open to learning, There were some very tactical campaigns with small budgets, but which delivered some excellent results that we could try to adapt in the future. Then there were lovely turn around stories and things that I wish I had the huge budgets to do.”

The nominations for The Drum Network Awards are now available to view on the awards website. The gala dinner takes place at The Emirates Stadium on Thursday 6th November. For details and tickets contact Nikki Gillies on 0141 559 6076.