Here’s what I love about restaurant marketing in 2024, EVEN YOU, the “little guy” can beat the BIG DOGS!

Yes, the mom & pop restaurants and small chains are on the exact level playing field as massive chains like Dunkin Donuts.

This week is my birthday and this morning I got a strange random email from Dunkin Donuts and it got me thinking

#1 – I’m a member of their loyalty program?  Since when and why don’t I recall seeing any past emails.

#2 – This is REALLY my birthday offer?  

#3 – If I am a member and I know it’s been at least 8-10 months since I visited, WHERE are my “win back” emails and texts? 

So that got me hunting for emails and I found 3 tied to this rewards program.  As you can see above from the screenshot of my gmail inbox I have 3.  The first was from 2019, the second on the day before my birthday last year and the third on the day before my birthday this year, TODAY!

Now I’m not here to slam Dunkin for their bad loyalty program, because once I logged into the portal, it looks like it’s really well thought out from a rewards stand point.  BUT who the hell is WATCHING?  Who’s paying attention to make sure it’s working.  And this is relatable to me since we are in the process of adding a brand new account analyzation team for Repeat Returns.  A team that looks for issues like this inside of restaurants programs to make sure they are running correctly and programs are optimized.  

You’d think Dunkin would have a MASSIVE client success team handling this.

Marketing isn’t always about wins or losses, it’s about if you’re even watching.  And in this case a member of Dunkin’s loyalty program is a GHOST, or a MINO….

 “Member In Name Only”

Meaning, my name is in there but nothing happening.  If I did in fact join in 2019 then there should have been at least 20-30 emails the past 4 years.  They have my birthday and they have that message programmed, where’s the rest?

NOW onto the lame ass Birthday offer.  

The offer they sent me was for 3x points for 2 days around my birthday.  Now there’s a few ways to look at this and honestly, no matter how you look at it, IT’S BAD!

First, I’ve not used ANY POINTS in 5+ years as a “member” so why would points even matter to me?  You should be working your butt off to simply drive a visit and a FREE DONUT is what’s going to make that happen.

SECON, let’s imagine I was a hard core Dunkin customer, then yes TRIPLE points is legit, or is it?  If I’m that loyal of a customer that I care that much about triple points, why in the hell would you not give me a FREAKING FREE DONUT!

My friends, the streets are lined WITH GOLD!  The big brands have no clue what they are doing and this levels the playing field for all of us.