Founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg, Dunkin’ Donuts has continued to supply its ever growing global markets with doughnuts, bagels, and other baked products. In addition to this, the company also makes and supplies a variety of hot and iced beverages around the world. Over the years, the company has seen some growth due to extension of services through partnerships with other service providers such as Walmart to add more stores and shops in the United States. Simple strategies like this have been a driving factor to the way that Dunkin’ Donuts grows and relates with its competitors. With time, Dunkin’ Donuts has developed its fair share of competitors in the same field (Hoffman, 2017). For instance, Starbucks has been a major competitor in the coffee and iced beverage business. The two companies have been in constant competition and Dunkin’ Donuts has been on losing side. This is attributed to the fact that Starbucks has a more aggressive approach to business. Therefore, Dunkin’ Donuts is in need of creating a working and reliable global strategy with which it could efficiently handle new markets and grow better in terms of sales and customer satisfaction.
The best global strategy that Dunkin’ Donut should adopt is the transnational strategy. Transnationalism would allow for the company to match the needs of the customers while checking for any changes in the way that the customers relate to the products they sell. The latter takes into account the desire for efficiency and balances it with customer needs; hence, manages to understand local market preferences. In this manner, the company would be able to compare different demands in various countries and make changes to any products if necessary (Rosenberg " Keener, 2001). This would mean that customer demands would be handled in a more specific approach and hence meet the required satisfaction standards. With partnerships and concessions with other service providers, the company should be able to come up with a more customer preferred menu around the world. Having a consistent menu with new branches coming up enhances uniformity in the way that they provide their services. Moreover, transnationalism would develop better comprehension of customer tastes. This would enable Dunkin’ Donuts to freely adjust to the desires of the customers. For instance, in a country that is known to be well vested in wine, the company would decide to start selling wine to the customers in that specific country. With branches in over 32 countries, Dunkin’ donuts has been able to work up quite a good number of customers (Hoffman, 2017). The number can be further increased by simple brand extension services, which would make the company more able to handle the ways of people and how to relate to the products that they present to the markets. All these international shops have been developed to match the countries requirements and needs. At times, the company would need to go to extents of experimenting with a new product, for instance, a new iced beverage, just to test the desires of the their customers. It is a good way to embrace a transnational business strategy.
With a growth potential such as the one for Dunkin’ Donut, it is recommended for the company to pose as a competitor to Starbucks in the international markets. One of the reasons to this claim is because of the ever-changing customer tastes that the company has started to pay more attention to. In previous years, the company only focused on donuts and coffee. This was a limitation to the full potential that could be achieved if it decided to diversify its services. However, even though they offered very limited products, there were first time customers who still managed to prefer the services provided (Rosenberg " Keener, 2001). With growing markets in the world, the demand for better and more reliable services has become essential to the success. For this reason, a competitive field for Dunkin’ Donut and Starbuck would be a motivation factor to the two companies. Dunkin’ Donuts would have a challenge of being better as compared to Starbucks. Additionally, a change of course to follow the needs of the customers would take on a new approach in which the company would need to compare the satisfaction rates between them and Starbucks. This would be a good way to measure growth in the company. An increase in customer satisfaction would mean that Dunkin’ Donut is doing a better job in handling customers as compared to Starbuck. In a competitive environment, both companies are bound to feel like they need to be on top. Challenging Starbucks’ service delivery to international markets would have a bold step to the bettering of the company.
Notably, Dunkin’ Donut has a good history of offering very simple and essential services to its customers. The trait has given them a good head start against Starbucks. For this reason, a competitive approach to creation of new international markets would mean that the company would have an upper hand. It is one of the factors that would motivate the success of Dunkin’ Donuts in global markets. Moreover, the success would be a complimentary achievement to the way that it has efficiently maintained consistency in the products that they deliver to their customers. According to Hoffman (2017), with a wide variety of store models provided by Dunkin’ Donut, there is a high possibility of making better customer experiences around the world. Consequently, the customers are more likely to prefer Dunkin’ Donut to Starbucks. The latter would largely increase the success of the business in international markets. With a planned upgrade to over 15000 locations in the near future, Dunkin’ Donuts is at a better position of creating viable competition against Starbucks in the international business scenario (Schermerhorn, 2009). At their position now, Dunkin’ Donut has enough time to come up with enough resources to match the business strategy that is needed to compete against Starbucks. All spending that would be done on development of a better company would guide the amount of power that they would have over the international market. Having better in the international markets means that they need to be able to provide high quality goods and services to customer to keep them more inclined to the notion that Dunkin’ Donuts is better than Starbucks.
If Dunkin’ Donut would be able to reach more consumers around the world in the future, they would need to keep those customers satisfied all through for them to stand a chance against Starbucks. This is because, over the years, Starbucks has gained a lot of customers and presence around the world due to the fact they are ever growing and presenting their customers with newer products. Keeping customers satisfied is a key determinant of the success of any company. However, extension of services comes with its own risks. For instance, introduction of a new flavor or beverage or coffee could fail greatly. The customer reception of the new product may fail to meet the standards that are required for its success. If this happens, the company may suffer great losses and, therefore, alter its position in the market. Such a situation could also cost the company their position in the competition with other brands. Specifically, positioning Dunkin’ Donuts as a competitor to Starbucks would motivate the company to strive and keep a constant resource allocation strategy that allows for flexibility in the ways that products are presented to the customers (Hoffman, 2017). In addition, competition would mean that the company should understand the customers’ views on the products that are presented and how they compare to products offered by Starbucks. In the end, all resources allocated into making the company better would enable for better interactions and developments from within and outside Dunkin’ Donuts. Finding the right amount of products to sell at a certain pricing according to customers’ preference is guided by the way that the company relates with its customers. For instance, finding the right balance between supply and demand of a certain beverage can be executed by comparing the same beverage as sold by Starbucks and finding incites on the way that it performed in terms of sales.
In conclusion, a competitive scenario between Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks would be a good driver for a better international market take over and increase in popularity of the company. Future projects should aim at developing better customer satisfaction strategies and service delivery. This would ensure success in the management of international markets.
References
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Hoffman, A. N. (2017). Dunkin’ Donuts: Global expansion through franchising.
Rosenberg, W., " Keener, J. B. (2001). Time to make the donuts. New York: Lebhar-Friedman Books.
Schermerhorn, J. R. (2009). Exploring management. Place of publication not identified: Wiley.
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