With the addition of more espresso drinks to its menu, Dunkin' Donuts might look like it's trying to be another Starbucks Corp.
Well, it's true that Dunkin' Donuts is experimenting with WiFi access in a few Chicago shops and considering music in more of its stores ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù two features of Starbucks outlets. But although its espresso launch has boosted its competitive position against Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts says it is content to maintain its distance from the upscale Seattle coffee giant and stick to its workaday, on-the-go niche.
There's no broad campaign encouraging customers to linger awhile at Dunkin' Donuts' pink and orange-themed shops ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù and there are no plans to switch from Dunkin Donuts' "small-medium-large" cup size hierarchy to something akin to Starbucks' oft-mocked sizes of tall, grande and venti.
"People say you're taking on Starbucks, but we're really not," CEO Jon Luther said in a recent interview. "All we want to do is share some space with the coffee consumer."
What the franchise chain is planning is to share that space by expanding westward ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù only 70 of its stores are currently located west of the Mississippi River. The company, a subsidiary of the British wine and spirits firm Allied Domecq, has its heaviest concentration of locations in New England, where there are 1,700.