Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts

With billions in sales annually, coffee industry giants Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have demonstrated their ability to push their product in our caffeine-driven society. But when it comes to harnessing the power of the web to cultivate community around their brands, what are these two superstars doing to ensure that they keep and inspire loyalty among their followers, especially in the face of mounting competition between each other as well as increasing threats from newer players such as McDonald’s? Fame Foundry’s agents weigh in below:

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• The Architect

  Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts’ approaches to creating meaningful community around their brands and extending their companies beyond a typical retail website is as different as their stores. Both websites have menus, nutrition information, online stores, store locators and social links -- the bare necessities for brands of this nature. The similarities end there. Dunkin' Donuts' version of extending itself beyond the walls of its stores is reminiscent of old gimmicks and half-hearted community-building ploys. There's a healthy version of its menu, links to a running site, some promos and a contest, and then we’re done. Dunkin' Donuts provides no opportunity for its fans to be a part of its website in any meaningful way. Starbucks has done better in their attempts. Noteworthy is the idea of improving the company with your ideas -- something that speaks to core fans. If you love the green Starbucks splash stick, then you should know it was developed in this way. The website allows visitors to share ideas, vote on ideas submitted by others and see which ideas have received the strongest response. It promotes community by encouraging visitors to play a part in improving the brand they love through their own opinions and innovations. Second to this, there’s a blog that’s halfway worth subscribing to if you’re an ultra fan. And while it is not exactly groundbreaking, it has a genuine appeal and seems to keep a decent personal touch to it with little of the usual corporate interference on the surface. Introducing new conveniences, products and free offers allows the blog to be something worth subscribing to for core users and brand evangelists. In addition, Starbucks offers a place for those willing to contribute to their causes. It’s not terribly engaging, but having a directory of people bound to stores and allowing for conversation within each store is a worthwhile effort. It needs more work in order to truly establish the store as a gateway to the local community.

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• The Craftsman

  A website should not only be an extension of a retail store, but it should also be the gathering place for your brand's community of followers. It's important to give that community a great experience when they visit your site, and design plays an integral role in that experience. Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks handle this experience in very different ways, and both leave much to be desired. Let's start with Dunkin' Donuts. It is quite clear that the goal of this site is to push products. The first thing that I notice is the horrible Photoshop work on the home page. It's a collage of poorly photographed and cut out cups, beans and other products. It's obvious that none of the elements ever appeared together naturally. With coffee beans the size of walnuts and cups the size of buckets, the scale is so ridiculous that the whole thing comes off as cheesy and poorly produced. There is a lot of movement and visual stimulation on the home page, including pop-up menus, enlarging images and a hot pink drop-down menu. It seems that at any moment a man wanting to guess my weight or swallow a sword could jump out from behind that burlap sack. These elements are over the top and a detriment to the functionality, as the page takes several seconds to load. The navigation is passable, but there is a lot going on. First you have the main navigation with drop-down menus. Above that you have a secondary navigation that is one of the smallest I have ever seen at only six pixels. I would think that a store finder and franchising information warrants a larger size. And above in the upper right corner there are 4 graphics that appear to be buttons but do nothing when clicked or hovered over, creating confusion. Secondary pages on the site are cleaner, but there are still some alignment and spacing problems, and an overall lack of design consistency makes the site look thrown together. While some pages look pretty good, others look quite bad. On any given page there are several fonts and many colors, causing it to look very busy. Starbucks' website is in stark contrast to the Dunkin' Donuts site. It's clean and minimalist in a way that feels great on the home page, but once you dig into the site, the pages become bland and boring. The home page immediately gives you hierarchy with a large, interactive feature that is simple to navigate. Below that are three areas that funnel traffic with a minimal navigation system. The light background helps the warm, rich imagery pop, creating terrific contrast. Nothing is in your face or obtrusive. It's subtle and functional -- just what you'd expect from a brand like Starbucks. The secondary pages aren't nearly as strong as the home page. The primary and secondary navigation are minimal to the point of being boring. The leading on the navigation and body text is tight and should be expanded. The subtle drop shadow on the top of the canvas area makes that area appear as a frame and does nothing to enhance the page. Columns are narrow, and content feels cramped. There is wasted real estate under a poorly designed search bar which features a "go" button -- none of which feels like what you would expect from Starbucks. There is also a lot of inconsistency from page to page, especially in the way their products and offerings are displayed, which makes the browsing experience feel disjointed. Both sites have work to be done and leave me feeling disappointed. I expect better from these two captains of the coffee industry. While Dunkin' Donuts is over the top with its bright colors and flashy animation, Starbucks doesn't go far enough with its neutral colors and boring framework. Like a cup of coffee that's too strong or too weak, these sites need to find the perfect brew.

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• The Developer

  Anyone who has studied the metrics on their own website knows that getting people past the front page is a big deal, getting them to stay longer is even a bigger deal, and having someone feel that your site is worthwhile enough to come back is the ultimate score. Today's websites are as much about visitors consuming information, collaborating and interacting as a community as they are about selling a product or service.Interestingly, when comparing Dunkin' Donuts to Starbucks, it is clear that both companies have attempted to make their sites into something more than just a reproduction of their retail storefronts. They both have used various methods to try to capitalize on the enthusiasm of their customers. Dunkin' Donuts offers a feature that allows you to create your own donut, while Starbucks has launched a number of social websites that range from promoting specific product lines to advocating social change to soliciting suggestions to make your Starbucks better. Overall, Starbucks does a better job of providing compelling reasons to visit the site. However, both make the perplexing mistake of burying the content rather than bringing it to the forefront. Dunkin' buries these nuggets in favor of button graphics and forces visitors to hunt to find something interesting. Starbucks hides a single text link for each of their social sites below their Flash movie that gets in the way of finding something more useful. Both companies have very active Facebook pages with posts happening every few minutes -- not that you would know this by looking at the front page of their site. What's that you say? The goal is to sell product? Well, I have a question in return: Isn't it necessary to drive traffic to your site in order to sell products online? If there are 4.5 million fans on Starbucks' Facebook page posting every couple of minutes, you do the math. I'll just hold off on returning to these websites until either company gives me a reason to.

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New Year, New Ideas: 3 Smart Strategies to Jump Start Your Marketing

The beginning of a new year makes everyone feel like a fresh start is possible, and businesses are no exception. Plenty of opportunities exist online if your goals include making improvements or ramping up your marketing efforts in the new year. You know that maximizing your brand’s exposure is the key to gaining new customers or maintaining the base you already have, so when you make your company’s list of new year’s resolutions, make sure to include a commitment to exploring new avenues for marketing on the web. If you feel as though you’ve exhausted all possibilities for online promotion of your business, think again! Numerous options are available that you may not have considered.

1. Expand your social media efforts.

By now, if you don’t have a Facebook page that is frequently updated with new content, you’re way behind in the marketing game. It’s estimated that 15-25 million businesses – both large and small – have a presence on the social media giant. And with 500 million people worldwide using Facebook, a business would have to be crazy not to create a page. So, assuming you’ve already established a Facebook presence, it’s likely you’ve also connected with customers and potential customers through Twitter or LinkedIn, as well. But what about Google+? Or Pinterest? Instagram? In this tech-connected world, it’s essential to not only stay on top of the social marketing trends, it’s also imperative to spread your marketing efforts across many different platforms to reach as many potential customers as possible. So, where to begin? As with any marketing plan, it depends on what services and products you’re selling. It makes sense that a product that has visual appeal would benefit from marketing on a visual social media platform, such as Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, or Flickr. Establishing a following on any of these sites literally raises your company’s visibility via images and copy that can be shared and made viral instantly. To add more power to your visual message, establish a YouTube channel and upload short video presentations of what your product can do, or use the Vine app to create looping videos. If your company offers a service, Howcast is a great place to post how-to videos that can be shared across the other social media sites. Building your brand via social media is effective, but only if you update your content frequently; after all, the goal is to maintain your presence. If you find that constant updates are overwhelming or daunting, think about utilizing the services of a website like Hootsuite, which offers a bulk scheduler that can send out up to 350 pre-made messages to the social media sites your company uses. Not only will that free up your time, it can also prevent consumers from being bombarded by your messages – the scheduler can be used to space out your updates.

2. Publish, publish, publish.

If you haven’t already embraced content marketing, now is the time to do so. Content marketing is essentially targeted marketing that doesn’t scream “targeted marketing”. You create content in the form of articles or blog posts that your customers will be most interested in. It should be relevant, purposeful, and considerate of your audience’s needs and intellect. Content marketing takes a step back from in-your-face sales techniques, and instead informs your audience about what you have to offer. Content marketing is highly effective, and doesn’t feel pushy. If you’ve been using content marketing via blog posts, you might want to try to mix it up a little bit – especially if you’re running out of fresh content. One way to spice up your marketing efforts is to add a podcast to your website. A podcast can provide a weekly or bi-weekly bite-sized chunk of information to your customers that won’t require the time it might take to read content. Keeping the podcasts to about a minute in length is enough time to hook listeners, keep them engaged, and possibly leave them wanting to know more about what you have to offer. Perhaps the best aspect of podcasts is utilizing content you’ve already created, thereby opening an entirely new channel of exposure for your product. In recent years, the internet has exploded with blogs by “experts” in nearly every subject. To give additional exposure to your blog or podcast, employ the services of a blogging superstar in your field to provide a guest blog or an interview. You don’t have to limit yourself to bloggers, of course; finding other influencers in your field for “guest” opportunities will not only increase awareness of your company, but also provide an excellent opportunity for SEO leads to your website. The best part of utilizing guest bloggers is that more than likely, that guest blogger will post the blog on their site, which in turn drives even more visitors to your business blog. Cross-referencing is a great click-generator. Keeping your content visually inviting should also be a priority as you resolve to freshen up your marketing efforts. Web visitors love to see visual representations of information, and infographics add spice and interest to any online content. If you deal with technical or difficult-to-understand concepts, adding a visual element such as an infographic can be extremely beneficial. Several apps are available online to create interesting, colorful representations of complex information. Sites such as piktochart.com or infogr.am are easy to use, and free. And best of all, the designing is done for you.

3. Capture customers when they’re searching.

None of these suggestions will work very well if your company can’t be found online, and that’s why you may want to investigate cost-per-click, or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) advertising. One of the largest and most popular online advertising methods is Google AdWords. People worldwide search Google for information a billion times each day. If your business shows up at the top of Google’s search engine, you’re guaranteed to draw in new customers, or at the very least, get more exposure. The key, of course, is to come up with the right keywords to generate the most visits. The AdWords platform allows you to specify what keywords entered by searchers will generate your ad. You can be specific about services your business provides, or you can limit your ad to a particular geographic location. Customization is offered in varying degrees; you can even select your ad to appear on certain days of the week, during specific hours, or even whether the ad is shown on mobile devices only. Cost-per-click works based on what budgetary parameters you set; for example, you set a daily budget, and are only charged when someone clicks on your ad, not every time it is displayed. According to the AdWords website, you specify the maximum amount you're willing to pay for visits to your website. The bid you make determines how high up on the search results page your ad appears. Don’t just limit your efforts to Google, either. Facebook offers a cost-per-click service, as does the Bing search engine. Several other companies provide the service, as well.

Stay the course

No matter what new ideas for marketing your business and products you choose to explore in the new year, the most important element in your endeavor is to stay consistent. If you start out the year with a focus on making changes, stay committed to maintaining those changes. Your customers will expect you to follow through, and your success may depend on it.

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