Dunkin Run- Coffee Lovers Are Served

June 22, 2009 · Comments

dunkinrunlogo I just love apps that are useful instead of pure marketing. Maybe this has happened to you: you announce to your office mates that you’re heading out for coffee, and you volunteer to pick them up something. Now, you’re the easiest order in there: ‘large black coffee,’ and so you presume they’ll be the same. Only not. They want a medium iced french vanilla with one splenda and two squirts of applesauce or whatever, and suddenly, you’re grinding your teeth for offering to go.

Dunkin Donuts just built a site and an iPhone app to make it easier. Introducing Dunkin Run. (By the way, I’m not working with Dunkin Donuts at all. I just like this kind of useful-but-simple tech.) The tool is just a simple ordering and setup tool that lets you email or text your friends, tell them when you’re leaving, and give them the option of ordering stuff from Dunkin Donuts.

dunkin run app

Simple, eh? And useful, and a clever move by Dunkin’s, as it means that people will order appropriately, and maybe even a bit more than they normally would order.

I just love simple apps that add value to an interaction with an offline company.

What’s your take?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tagged as: , , , , ,

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • Your first sentence says it all, friend - although if you had stopped there you would have had a tweet instead of a post. Mobile marketing should never never never (did I say "never"?) actually be about marketing. It should always be about utility.

    I haven't tried this app - and I'm not even a huge Dunkin fan (oh, and I work from home so coffee runs are probably out of the question) - but it seems like they've built a win/win/win here: the gang hoping for coffee wins, the person making the run wins (I love my coffee with two squirts of applesauce) and of course the company wins anytime it makes it easier for people to buy (in bulk no less, in the case of this app.)

    Nice find.
  • ron_miller
    I love this Greg. Marketers should paste this comment to their monitors, especially:

    "Mobile marketing should never never never (did I say "never"?) actually be about marketing. It should always be about utility."

    Nicely said.

    Ron Miller
    Co-Founder, www.socmedia101.com
  • i totally agree. respect ppl personal spaces even when its virtual. Mobile products need to have a simple USP!! it should be useful; save ppl time .. make life a lil easy

    sathyan
  • Cool. My company wrote exactly this application back in 2006, but without a Dunkin' Donuts behind it we didn't really do anything with it expect for internal use. I always thought it was a great idea, though. Glad to see someone "ran" with it.
  • This is a great way to built interactivity around their brand, and the "run" concept is right in line with their branding. I say brilliant. Even if I have no use for it...
  • check out gomobo.com - it's only in nyc right now but they do something similar at a ton of eateries including fast food like dunkin, mcds, subway, etc. you order online, and when you go to pick up the food it's waiting for you.
  • MindyD
    Very cool idea. Wonder how long it will be before Starbux does something similar.
  • The user interface needs a permalinked URL so you can send it to people on your own mailing list instead of having to key in email addresses.
  • Simple, simple, simple. A big step for Hill Holliday, and big change from some of their earlier convoluted online efforts for Dunkin. Looks like they had a bumpy launch...a lot of people giving the app only one star. complaining about the app not working.
  • Mawa
    Max, FYI the online work was done by Studiocom.
  • Yes I should have stated it was a joint venture, thanks! Here's the press release excerpt:

    "Dunkin' Run was a joint collaboration between Dunkin' Donuts and its advertising and digital agencies of record, Hill Holliday and Studiocom, respectively."

    http://bit.ly/dunksapp
  • So useful it hurts my brain. This will cause me to spend far more money at Dunkin Donuts as a direct result.
  • Hmmm, minor fail here - you need to already have an account set up to login to the app, but there's no way to sign up for an account within the app.

    Also, your blog post currently outranks the Dunkin Donuts site for the term "Dunkin' Run" - SEO Fail! (SEO Win for you!)
  • jeffcutler
    As the founder of Donut Tuesday at no fewer than three companies, I love this app. It would definitely help me decide on what far to bring to the office on my regular Tuesday appearance.

    And good commentary.

    Thanks, Chris.
  • Genius...and Starbucks should have this! Dunkin' doesn't have quite as many varieties and options.
  • this reminds me of http://www.teabuddy.com/ - a great way to share and build up points with co-workers!
  • I love iPhone apps but I love Krispy Kreme donuts better. Nothing gets me to turn into Krispy Kreme faster than the red glow of the Hot Donuts Now sign and nothing gets me to buy more than I intended that those sweet grandma types who work at the drivd through line who I instead a buy a dozen or two instead of just one or two donuts!
  • What an awesome idea! And I totally agree: utility is what separates the great apps from the space-occupiers. Here's a clever idea, well orchestrated, that is just about guaranteed to deliver more customers to Dunkin Donuts more often.

    Hell, I want a donut just thinking about it!
  • I dunno. Its a simple application for a really gross product. I'm not sure its a good thing to create apps that make it easier for us to do things that we really need to avoid in our lives. Are we going to get the Marlboro app for when we want to alert coworkers that we are headed out for a smoke break?

    I guess I would say its a win for Dunkin', but a total lose for the consumer. It truly is a marketing tool that hooks people in to their product. And their product is not good for people.
  • Seems slightly more productive than the Krispy Kreme Run (aka Challenge) where you run 2 miles while consuming a dozen donuts at the halfway mark. http://www.wral.com/news/local/noteworthy/story...
  • Nice move on the part of Dunkin Donuts. It looks like they understand that you must offer something of value to your customers. This app. is a great way to do so.
  • clarabela
    Cool app. I am surprised that Starbucks didn't think of it first. They are the king of muliti-ingredient coffee drinks.
  • Nice. One step further than Charmin's sponsorship of the "Sit or Squat" bathroom finder app a year or so ago. Would have been better if they'd created one themselves...although I don't imagine people would have asked their friends if they wanted to come with. ;)
  • I love it, too bad there is no Dunkin close to me. I can't wait to try a latte with applesauce.
  • I'm a usability freak, and that just made my day.
  • This could speed things up a bit.
  • I don't think there are any Dunkin' Donuts in Los Angeles, so it would be fun to use this app for the store locator before a trip to NYC and then pop that information in.

    :-)
  • pcPaulClarke
    Gone will be the spiral piece of notepaper with cryptic writings of orders. Thanks you so much for this blog. I will await a post on how to battle my caffeine addiction soon. Two squirts of applesause - was riduculously brilliant.
  • swag
    Genius. Could you imagine if pizza places started taking orders through telephones? Who knows what could happen next...
  • Waiting for the SBUX hack.
  • cooollll ....
  • When my company wrote an app like this for internal use, we also included a feature that tallied the costs for everyone. In our case, there was a cash box that everyone contributed to and the app deducted the cost of their coffee from their balance so that the guy making the run could just grab the cash box and go. It might be a nice feature for this app to at least tally the cash contribution for each person in a list to make it easy to collect money for the run.
  • Dunkin Donuts - Gets "it". Brilliant - anytime it is a win for everyone it works this is one of those and a very marketing tool to boot. Thanks for pointing this out to us.
  • Brilliant thinking by Dunkin' Doughnuts! Just goes to show you how putting your customer's agenda before your own can lead to great things.
  • bencurnett
    Hey Chris,

    RE: the first sentence

    My feeling is that useful = pure marketing.

    Thanks
    Ben
  • You've got me there. The best marketing in the world is being useful to your customers. : )
  • uhm ... INgenious! ... i mean, i'm more of a Starbucks or stronger coffee-like person myself ... prefer the local coffeehouse atmosphere + products than what ya get at a DD or The SB, but wow ... i think this sort of iPhone experience makes complete sense + is actually helpful ... sure, they're not gonna save the world or anything w/ this app, but in the end they realized that the audience using this amazing little device is most likely living 12 hours a day in or near an office + that more often than not someone is going to need to take a break + pick up a little DD for the team ... niceness! ... i love it ... thanks for posting this Chris ...
  • FrankReed
    I love Dunkin' Donuts coffee and I have experienced the 'issues' around offering to get coffee for a group of office workers. It rarely goes perfectly. This is such a ridiculously great idea that I have to just chuckle. It really doesn't take much to be top of mind. We live in a world where everyone seems to be trying to out talk each other when all it requires for success is providing something that helps someone get what they need with less aggravation. Dunkin' Donuts doesn't need to say anything else here. Thanks for pointing this out, Chris.
  • The sooner this concept reaches England the better!

    Having said that, Dunkin Donuts is non-existent over here!

    Dang nabbit!

    Karl
  • hell no - its safer for our wasteline to admire the iPhone app and no more....
  • Just brilliant. Brands usually work (too) hard at overt selling. Or to entertain. Most of it push and most of it interruptive. And based on a view that consumer relationships are merely transactional. Rather than about a two-way relationship based on relevance. Then comes something of authentic and intrinsic value. This may seem like a small thing, but I think speaks volumes about the brand minders at Dunkin and their innate sense of what constitutes engagement in the era of consumer control.
  • Jan
    That's the kind of app that will motivate me to upgrade my Razor. I am a fan of the Dunkin. Of course while this makes it easy to order, my question is what about the pick up. Are those utilizing these technologies to order our coffees and donuts in advance actually expected to wait in line to pick up? The horror, to be forced to wait in line with people ordering at the counter! We had a brief discussion here about that and think there should be an "EZ Pass" line for these advanced iPhone app orders.
  • It's things like this that make me wish I drank coffee.
  • Meghan
    Interesting idea, but the site doesn't WORK! Registration fails, runs don't go, and the buttons on the main page don't do anything. It would also be nice if it could call my people in the field and let them opt in to a run. Lots of people aren't running smart phones with data plans, you know.
  • Ahhh hahahahaha!

    "Two Squirts of Applesauce..."

    Brogan, you are a master of providing useful information in a light, humorous manner.

    Joe Mescher
    Social Media Commando
  • andy65
    I think this is a great app, let me try this one. :)

    Speaking of iPhone apps, I recently downloaded CoffeeSpot. It lists 20 closest coffee shops to your current location. How cool is that? :D Here's the site : http://aclevertwist.com/iphone-apps/app/coffeespot
  • Thanks for such a lovely post :)
  • Very good post. It really helped me a lot, will be referring a lot of friends about this.I really enjoy reading your blog.Keep it up.Thanks for sharing with us.Keep posting.
  • Maria Tamis
    Do you know anything about the Cold Stone ice cream signs that have cropped up on Dunkin Donuts? Am wondering if DD bought Cold Stone, if the reverse is true, or is Cold Stone part of the DD family? Thanks!

    micro m2 2gb
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: