Dunkin' Chairman Doesn't Like Donuts
The chairman of Dunkin’ Brands knows how to put at least one thing in his mouth. His foot. In an interview about the chairman’s family, college and friends, Franchise Times throws in this bombshell, and does so with a smile and a wink: Jon Luther, chairman of one of the largest doughnut chains in the world, stays away from Dunkin’s donuts.
It seems that Luther avoids the round doughy rituals that the chain is named after. They make you fat.
The interview was supposed to be about reviving the morning ritual of doughnuts and coffee. Here's how it started.
Jon Luther doesn’t look like the leader of a pack of doughnut and ice cream franchisees. Sweets aren’t part of his daily ritual—'My daughter is a fitness guru,' he explains—but that doesn’t mean the rest of the country should follow suit. Jon Luther may not be ingesting doughnuts on a regular basis, but Dunkin’ Donuts isn’t really a doughnut shop—it’s a coffee chain disguised as a doughnut shop, he claims. Beverages accounted for nearly 60 percent of Dunkin’s 2008 U.S. sales. - Ritual Leadership, FT
The doughnut chain's franchisees are hoping their customers do what Luther says - eat doughnuts - and not what he does.
A former franchise owner of another quick service chain said, “Luther epitomizes exactly what quick service restaurants are fighting against right now. He’s putting forth the idea that doughnuts are unhealthy and to be avoided, which just isn’t true. There’s nothing wrong with having doughnuts in moderation. And it should come natural for the chairman to accentuate that Dunkin’ has a wide variety of products that can also accommodate fitness gurus like his daughter. Even if you are a bean counter, you should at least try to show a certain amount of emotional connection with the product your company sells.”
“Like the country, Luther runs on Dunkin’,” the article ends. Actually, technically speaking, Luther runs only on part of Dunkin’ – the coffee, assuming that he is at least a Dunkin’ coffee fan. Reading the article, that is uncertain.
'There’s a Dunkin’ tribe,' Luther says. 'Blue collar (workers) are the soul of the brand…they love routine.' And they want their coffee simple, with no frills.
When white-collar worker Luther, dressed sveltely in a tailored suit as if he were ready for a Wall Street meeting, again talks about the morning ritual of coffee, it is only to make the point that the company knew best to sell coffee by the pound in grocery stores, a decision disliked by some of the franchise chain’s more plainly dressed franchise owners.
Eighteen-unit Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee Jim Allen, who is a leader of the chain’s Brand Advisory Council, states that Luther focuses on having franchisees “stay the course” and “stay on message.” But Allen admits, “Maybe they’re catch phrases."
One franchise owner told this observer that Luther should have heeded his own words of staying on message for the topic at hand of reviving the morning ritual of a coffee and a doughnut. Or at least an omelet. He comments, “With a chairman like this speaking for the brand in the media, who needs enemies?”
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