Dunkin’ Brands is one of the world’s leading franchisors of quick service restaurants, operating under the banners Dunkin’ and Baskin- Robbins. Practically all of the 11,300 Dunkin’ restaurants and 7,300 Baskin-Robbins restaurants are franchised. Before partnering with Tango, many of the challenges that Dunkin’ Brands faced were centered on inefficiencies and redundancies in the real estate and store development processes.
One of the most significant challenges that Dunkin’ was dealing with was maintaining disparate systems to manage their real estate processes. In addition to two mapping platforms and a relationship with an analytics vendor, their large field team only had access to rudimentary tools to support their processes. They were also trying to cope with some resource challenges that needed to be addressed from a store development data perspective.
Also, they started to experience the limits of their existing sales forecast models and market optimization tools and required better analytic tools to support their growth.
Another concern was the company’s ability to track and manage franchise development in each market. Because nearly all Dunkin’s locations are franchised, they have to pay particular attention to the active management of those relationships – from franchisee recruitment to delivering on new store and remodel commitments in the right timeframe to hit overall company goals. Finding the right franchisee for their business was challenging, and was dependent on carving out the right territories and accurately assessing the ideal number of locations to make the opportunity both attractive and viable. Once they had a new agreement, the ongoing management was also unnecessarily complex and onerous.
“The application told us the demographics in this area had really shifted over time. People aren’t as likely to get out and have a cup of coffee in the morning here anymore. They’re getting it on the way to something else.”
Finally, they required a more efficient way to manage all their vendors to help support the real estate and store development process, including mapping and demographics providers and contractors
Faced with all these inefficiencies, redundancies and siloed information, Dunkin’ recognized they had a problem that needed a broader solution. They had to look at something beyond their current disparate solutions – something that would provide an integrated approach to their real estate and store development.
They turned to Tango for both the expertise and the solution they required to identify and fix their issues, and implemented Tango’s Predictive Analytics, Transactions, and Franchisee Lifecycle Management solutions.
There are a number of concrete, material ways that Dunkin’ Brands benefitted from the adoption of Tango’s solution. Let’s start with the time savings. Previously, it took the company an hour to run a sales forecast. After implementing Tango, the process now takes 30 seconds, resulting in a 5,000-hour annual savings for Dunkin’.
The efficiencies don’t stop there. In 2014, Dunkin’ ran almost 4,000 site report packages, taking between 2-5 hours per package. Now it takes them one to two minutes, resulting in a 12,000 hour productivity improvement. The company continues to open 500 stores a year – which means they look at 2,000 to 3,000 sites, and run at least that many packages and forecasts – so the time savings continue.
The inefficiencies previously experienced by the field team have been remedied by their ability to evaluate the market plan using Tango’s iPad app. Plans can be assessed on the fly, rather than spending hours after the fact going over the information. Completing site surveys, taking photos, planning market rides, running sales forecasts and demographics, etc. are now at the field real estate manager’s fingertips.
Most importantly, Dunkin’ no longer has to deal with disparate systems and multiple vendors. They have one solution that helps them open more profitable stores, faster. In one example, they used Tango to help them relocate a Dunkin’ Donut from one end of a tiny strip mall to another, and increased sales by 50%. When trade areas change, Tango’s analytic models adapt to reflect the change. This will affect decisions such as where to build a store, what type of store to build and the impact of remodels. It was having this logic that enabled Dunkin’ to make the decision to move their location.
As their VP of Franchising, Grant Benson explained: “The application told us the demographics in the area had really shifted over time. People aren’t as likely to get out and have a cup of coffee in the morning here anymore. They’re getting it on the way to something else.”
A change in their consumer profile had a definite impact on what type of location would yield the best sales results. Dunkin’ Brands has opened more than 1,000 locations using Tango’s models.
On the franchisee management side, partnering with Tango and utilizing sophisticated predictive analytics and franchisee management functionality has helped Dunkin’ Donut grow their franchisee base and increase brand penetration and equity, as well as streamlined the management of their franchisee agreements. Tango helped them find the right territories in previously unexplored markets, including evaluating markets not only from a unit capacity perspective, but also from the standpoint of the franchisee. In turn, this helped them find new franchise partners and expand their franchisee base in those new markets.