Question

Conduct the social media audit of Dunkin Donuts in China

Answer 1

The market of China is a very tricky market for many international brands. But as the market has a huge potential, it is also a very lucrative market. Dunkin Donuts, which is a global brand for donuts and coffee, has also tried to enter the Chinese market but has failed on three occasions to be successful. One of the main reasons that Dunkin Donuts has not been able to find its feet in Chinese market is because it has not been able to utilize the social media marketing potential of China as its rival Starbucks has successfully done.

Dunkin Donuts started its social media campaign way back in 2008, but in China, it failed to understand that people of China do not use the conventional Social media platforms like the rest of the world. They have their own version of Twitter, Facebook ad we as WhatsApp.

Dunkin Donuts on WeChat

WeChat is to china “WhatsApp” is to the world. Dunkin donuts has used the potential of WeChat at all in China. The various features of WeChat like digital payment, gifts through WeChat, which were very successful in driving the sales of Starbucks, were never utilized by the brand.

Dunkin Donuts on Weibo

Weibo is to China what Twitter is to the world. Dunkin donuts used Weibo in its initial days in China and launched several campaigns such as

1.      Take a photo with the Dunkin Donuts Ad and post it with their handle on Weibo would get a cup of coffee free.

2.      Refer friends using the handle and get a free cup of coffee etc

These campaigns helped register an increase in the footfall at their stores and ran for several days. But it could not generate returns that the company was hoping for.

Dunkin Donuts needs to revitalize its social media strategy in China and learn from its competitor Starbucks, in order to be successful in that market.