Popular Coffee Chain Might Rebrand: For Better or Worse

Dunkin’ Donuts is one of the most popular coffee and donut franchises in the nation. Their restaurants are synonymous with tasty morning snacks, but as many businesses do, this chain is thinking about changing and rebranding.

As is the case with all major rebrands, the rebrand of “Dunkin Donuts” would be a drastic change with both pros and cons.

The focus of the rebranding is to change their name from Dunkin’ Donuts to just “Dunkin.” On the positive side, the DD chain hasn’t had a lot of major sales increases over the last few years. All in all, the chain has only managed a 1.5% sales increase on an annual basis, so a hip new rebranding might just work to increase the customer base.

There are other reasons that a rebranding can be good for business. A rebrand could create a larger geographical focus, the new name could garner increased interest in an industry full of coffee selling competitors, and a hip new name could get people talking about the company again, and that could also lead to increased sales.

Of course, none of those outcomes are guaranteed, but you don’t know if you don’t try, right?

On the other hand, the past has proven that name changes do not always result in big business. Over the last decade, two major companies have opted to shorten their names with less than desirable results.

Back in 2009, Pizza Hut rebranded by shortening its name to “The Hut,” and Radio Shack tried shortening its name to “The Shack” for a brief spell. Neither story was a success and the companies soon changed their names back.

Sometimes major rebrands struggle because people are afraid of change. They like their brands as they are and if a company changes anything about their business, there is the potential that customers could stray.

Until we learn how to tell the future, the fate of any given rebrand is always left up to chance. All Dunkin Donuts can do is create a large enough sample size so that they can comfortably make the right choice.

At Imaginaria Creative, we are an independent and collaborative design agency creating visually-memorable brands and websites that get noticed. Call us at 972.423.1232 to learn more about what we can do for your business.