Dunkin’ Donuts is sneaky good and everywhere. While rival Starbucks may own the coffee sector in the consumer consciousness, Dunkin’ Donuts owns their hearts. And it’s got dibs on their wallets, too. As a result Wall Street loves Dunkin’ almost as much as Simon Cowell and his pals over at American Idol love it, where the Dunkin’ Donuts sponsorship has been fantastically successful. America — and American Idol — runs on Dunkin’ indeed.
Look there’s plenty of coffee business to go around — with room in the sector even for artisanal plays like Blue Bottle to raise millions. But Dunkin’ Donuts massive appeal to millions of customers — with its brilliant coupon strategy, top-tier loyalty program, and exceptional real estate penetration (11,300 stores) — locks the Dunkin customer in and makes them happy. That’s how a stock goes up — lots of locked-in, happy customers. And while the coupons are great, anybody who put $1000 into Dunkin’ shares (DNKN) last year would have earned about enough for a free donut every day from the investment.
