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Consumer Behavior Report

ABSTRACT
Over the course of this report, Starbucks,
Dunkin’ Donuts, and McDonald’s will be
compared and contrasted based on different
concepts. It will look at brand loyalty, brand
personality, the sensual shopper, and time. It
will explain which company is the best in each
of the component and how they complete it.
Harris, Danya (harr4576@vandals.uidaho.edu)
Marketing 324

Consumer Behavior Research Report

Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, & McDonald’s
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Consumer Behavior Report

Introduction

What does brand loyalty, brand personality, the sensual shopper, and time have to do with the

success of a business? Brand loyalty helps a business build a consistent group of consumers who will be

loyal. It also creates a group of regulars who come in based on how they are being treated and the quality

of the coffee they are being serviced. Brand personality allows customers to connect with the traits the

business represents. It is the same way we make connections with friends. Time is a tricky aspect

because, if you make customers wait too long, they can become annoyed and not want to come back.

However, there are ways to make time go by faster and speed up the wait time. Starbucks, Dunkin’

Donuts, and McDonald’s work similar and different ways to achieve all of these and to grow their

business.

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty occurs when customers consciously pick a company’s product/s because customers

prefer it compared to other brands. Many factors can lead someone to have brand loyalty. A few are costs,

satisfactions and quality of the service and/or product. According to Kumar, Starbucks creates brand

loyalty through perceived quality, non-monetary costs, transactional costs, situational factors (physical

surroundings, social surroundings), status, satisfaction, trust, and commitment. Starbucks achieves these

because of the rewards system it has, the environment and experience one has when enjoying a cup of

coffee inside, the way in which Starbucks baristas communicate with customers, and the quality of coffee

served.

Next, Dunkin’ Donuts works to keep its brand loyalty by meeting and/or exceeding customers’

expectations. It strives to exceed expectations for taste, quality, service, and constate brand value.

Dunkin’ Donuts is in the top brands for customer engagement. Dunkin’ Donuts has been the coffee leader

for the last 12 years for its excellent customer experience. Dunkin’ Donut’s Vice President said that

Dunkin’ Donuts keeps its customers loyal by giving consumers a great experience, making the menu
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Consumer Behavior Report

available all day, using mobile ordering and delivery available for customers who don’t have much time,

and growing its rewards program.

Last, McDonald’s focus is about creating a family-oriented, friendly, and happy place where

anyone is welcomed to come in and find something to drink or eat. McDonald’s doesn’t want to just fight

for new customers, but to build the brand loyalty from already existing consumers. Aymar Raduzzi and

Joseph Eric Massey say, “Many other empirical studies found that customer satisfaction influences brand

loyalty” (2019, p. 24). They wanted to see how the marketing mix affected the customer satisfaction,

which overall affects brand loyalty. They looked at price, food and drink quality, service quality, and the

physical environment. Through the testing they completed they found that when the prices are fair for the

product and service, when the food/drinks are prepared well, when the customer service is good, and the

physical environment is clean and comfortable the customer satisfaction rises. This helps to create brand

loyalty and make customers more likely to talk about it with other people.

Brand Personality

People are not the only ones with personalities. Brands can have personality traits that describe

the attribute of the product and how the product makes one feel. Personality traits for brands are just like

the ones for people. People find the traits they like and connect with and stay with those for the most part.

Starbucks’ personality traits are sophisticated, outgoing, friendly, and sincerity. Starbucks focuses on the

way it markets based on the traits people think of when they think about Starbucks. According to the

article Dunkin’ Donuts taps ‘brand personality’ Costello, the President of Global marketing said,

“Dunkin' is really driven by people who view themselves as down to earth, proud to have things to do,

really authentic, and not driven by status. So part of our target is authenticity" (2016 pp. 5). Dunkin’

Donuts uses its brand personality to advertise based on what customers see and what to see. It is proud to

be seen as hard working, and down to earth because that is also who its customers are. McDonald’s top

brand personalities are family-oriented, friendly, cheerful, and confident. Cui, Albanese, Jewell, and Hu

discuss how “The trait of family-oriented may have come from the happy meal on McDonald’s menu and
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Consumer Behavior Report

the playground for children. Friendly and cheerful may be associated with the spokesperson, Ronald

McDonald. The confident trait is consistent with McDonald’s character as a successful corporate leader.”

(2008, p. 536)

The Sensual Shopper

Senses can play a vital role in how the customer feels about the product and/or service being

given. When customers experience different sensory inputs, they change their behavior. Different senses

can amplify each other or cancel each other out. It is all about how one uses them. Dunkin’ Donuts has

started a new marketing strategy with releasing the smell of coffee while playing the company’s jingle. It

has increased sales in those locations by 29%. The company jingle is now associated with the coffee

smell, so when people are wanting coffee they think of Dunkin’ Donuts. The smell can now bring one

back to how they felt drinking the cup of coffee.

Starbucks uses almost all the senses to create a memory of a pleasant experience when the

customer gets that nice hot cup of coffee. Starbucks makes sure that the coffee aroma is present. It’s

already trying to convey that one has the best coffee. The company uses sight by decorating with its

known green color. According to the Harvard Business Review, “Owning a colour improves brand

recognition by up to 75 percent” (2015 pp. 5). The baristas at Starbucks are trained to remember

customers names. If someone is a regular, they normally have that name and order memorized. When the

barista greets a customer by saying his/her name, they use sound in a way to makes the customer feel

known and comfortable. The stores are also supposed to have a low volume of music playing in the

background to make customers feel relaxed. Last, is taste. Starbucks’ goal is to have a strong, bitter taste.

It roasts its coffee beans at a high temperature to achieve it.

McDonald’s has turned its focus on scent due to the ability it has over people Kelso said, “…The

American Marketing Association reports that an attractive scent can entice customers to stay up to 44%

longer in a business” (2020 pp. 8). McDonald’s isn’t focusing on the coffee smell. However, it is focusing

on the smell of its Quarter Pounders and French fries. French fries are the most frequently bought item.
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Consumer Behavior Report

The Quarter Pounders are the more expensive items. McDonald’s uses the smell so that when customers

are buying food, they will add fries to their order, or will upgrade a cheeseburger to a Quarter Pounder

based on what they smell.

Time

Time can be good or bad. If customers wait too long, they can become unsatisfied with the

product or the service being provided. The time people wait can have a huge factor on how they feel

about the service they are receiving. If they have to wait long enough, they might not come back.

However, there are ways to make customers feel better about waiting or make them feel like they didn’t

wait every long. Businesses can use some form of interaction, orderliness, companionship, and/or

diversion. According to Chicago Tribune, “In a survey last year by market-research firm Mintel

International Group Ltd., 64 percent of Americans said they pick a restaurant based on how much time

they have.” (2005 pp. 3)

Starbucks’ customers wait about an average of 3 minutes in line from start to finish. The

company has made changes over the years to cut the wait time down. It has cut off about 30 seconds over

the last 5 years. Starbucks’ time engineers have changed from having bigger ice scoop, so baristas don’t

have to scoop the ice twice to stop requiring signature for credit card purchases under $25. Starbucks still

saw a need, so it created a position called a “floater,” who will run in the back to grab supplies that are

needed, take orders from people in line, and total those orders before the customer reaches the cash

register. The “floater” costs the company more because they have another person on each shift, but

Starbucks said it was worth it because they are able to help more people. Chicago Tribune says, “Efforts

like these have helped Starbucks outlets increase their average yearly volume by nearly $200,000, to

roughly $940,000, since 1999, executives say” (2005 pp. 7).

Dunkin’ Donuts wait time for orders is about as long as Starbucks. It is only a few seconds

longer. It has improved the wait time by having a drive-thru and a mobile app. Its drive through is not just

one lane but two. One lane is a regular drive-thru where the customer orders and wait their turn to get
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coffee and/or a donut. However, Dunkin’ Donuts has added an “On-the-Go drive-thru lane.” This lane

allows customers to skip the line to get their coffee and donut, but customers do have to get the mobile

app, so they can order their drink before they get to the drive thru. The “On-the-Go” saves each customer

about 90 seconds in line.

McDonald’s is actually the slowest of them all at about 4 minutes on average. According to

Taylor, “Ten years ago, average wait time was 167.1, according to QSR's 2006 study — nearly 25%

faster.” (2017 pp. 3) There are a few reasons that the wait time has become longer. McDonald’s has added

new items to the menu and changed that breakfast is severed all day. The digital kiosk to order can cause

people to take longer to order since there is no pressure to hurry and order. However, McDonald’s is

working with new technology to try to speed up the whole process from ordering to receiving food. The

technology allows it to simplify the menus based on the time, the weather, and what is being ordered the

most that day. McDonald’s is also working on simplifying the menu while still keeping newer premium

products that take longer to make. Littman says, “Long lines can negatively impact overall traffic, which

has been down for McDonald's U.S. during the last few quarters, with customers preferring to go

elsewhere.” (2019 pp. 9)

Conclusion

Each of these businesses use these different concepts to help them service their customers the best

they can to overall improve their companies’ profits. Starbucks takes these marketing strategies to stay in

a higher price range, create a strong customer base with existing and new customers, keeping positive

customer experience, and servicing high quality products. Dunkin’ Donuts focuses on making customers

happy by being a stop on their way to work to get their coffee and donut needs taken care. It has worked

to improve the time customers wait and draw people in by the aroma of coffee. McDonald’s provides

people with a place where they can get a fast, cheap meal. It is a place where customers can get food for

anyone in the family. They have different ways of achieving the same purpose servicing their customers

to the best of their ability.

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