The new drinks show how competitive the coffee wars have gotten as chains that have increasingly tried to one-up one another attempt to take advantage of coffee drinkers’ growing affinity for having the beverage served over ice.

While iced coffee is nowhere near to surpassing hot coffee as Americans’ drink of choice, its market share is growing steadily. Thirty percent of coffee drinkers had at least one iced, frozen, or blended coffee drink in 2009, up from 27 percent in 2008, according to the National Coffee Association, a New York-based trade group. And iced coffee is particularly popular in the Northeast: 30 percent of all cold coffee drinks in the country were purchased in the region in 2008, the most recent data available, according to market research firm the NPD Group.

Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of WD Partners, a restaurant and retail design and development consultancy in Ohio, said the iced coffee segment is a good one for chains to target because consumer interest in iced java drinks has been skyrocketing, and the majority of its fans are women and teenage girls who are willing to spend more on indulgences.

Lombardi said Canton-based Dunkin’ Donuts’ addition of a bolder, stronger-flavored dark roast iced coffee could appeal to men and help the company stand out from inexpensive coffee chains and convenience stores, which he said tend to make weaker coffee. If Dunkin’ can corner the dark roast market, he said, it could draw customers away from more expensive chains.

Consumers have been asking Dunkin’ Donuts to make a stronger, bolder iced coffee brew for a few years, said Scott Hudler, vice president of brand marketing for Canton-based Dunkin’ Brands. Like other Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffees, the dark roast is double-brewed so the ice, cream, and sugar in the drink don’t mute the flavor. Consumers can choose among eight flavored syrups to add to the coffee, from coconut to chocolate.

“Coffee is like wine; people have different taste profiles that they like,’’ Hudler said.

Ric Rhinehart, executive director of Long Beach, Calif., industry group Specialty Coffee Association of America, said Dunkin’ Brands is following a broader trend of consumers who want their iced java drinks to taste more like coffee, not fruit, milk, or sugar.

“Consumer taste has evolved away from super-sweetened drinks to coffee-flavored beverages,’’ he said. “I think it’s a combination of the introducing of a younger demographic into coffee drinking and a broadening of offering of coffee beverages that are cold drinks.’’

Victor Carvalho, who co-owns a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise location in Quincy with his brother, Octavio, said his employees have gotten positive feedback about the brew. “There’s a segment of the population that likes the bolder taste,’’ he said.

Read more at: The Boston Globe

NEW LOOK: A TV ad shows two men at a basketball game. The one with Dunkin’ iced coffee says, ‘This was made just for me.’

Donna Goodison of the Boston Herald writes that Dunkin’ Donuts hopes to convince energy drink consumers to get their daily jolts of caffeine from its iced java.

A new ad campaign suggests energy drink fans should “kick the can” and drink freshly brewed Dunkin’ iced coffee instead of “mass-produced” energy drinks.

The TV commercial depicts two young men watching a hoop game at a gym, one with a Dunkin’ iced coffee and the other with an energy drink in a thin can resembling that of market leader Red Bull. The iced coffee drinker lifts up his cup and says, “This was made just for me.”

Created by Boston’s Hill Holliday, the commercial marks the first time that Canton-based Dunkin’ has targeted the growing energy drink market in its continued effort to promote iced coffee as a year-round beverage, according to Scott Hudler, vice president of brand marketing.

“(Iced coffee is) a great way to start your day and has a lot of the same qualities that an energy drink has, and it’s a lower price,” he said.

Dunkin’ appears to be seizing on consumers’ desire for energy boosts, using what’s in effect one of the original energy drinks, according to Gary Hemphill, managing director of Beverage Marketing Corp., a New York data and consulting firm.

“Coffee hasn’t been called an energy drink, but in reality that’s what it is for a lot of consumers, particularly the first thing in the morning,” Hemphill said.

And there are a lot of dollars for Dunkin’ to grab from the energy drink market, wholesale sales for which hit $4.2 billion in 2008. Red Bull dominates the industry with an estimated 41 percent market share.

“It’s a fairly significant category in terms of its size, and we still think there’s potential growth to come,” Hemphill said.

“It’s the one area in the beverage industry where functionality has really arrived. Companies have realized that consumers will buy beverages for reasons other than simple liquid refreshment. In this case, it’s a functional benefit of energy.”

Boston Herald

That vision simply isn’t so for Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee drinkers.

“There’s actually a hardcore loyal iced coffee fan base out there that drinks iced coffee year round … so we really wanted to celebrate those folks in kind of a fun way,” says Dave Tryder, director of interactive and relationship marketing for Dunkin’ Brands. January 11 marked the beginning of the “Twinter Games” and “YeDDi of the Week,” two social media strategies implemented by Dunkin’ Donuts this winter on Twitter and Facebook, respectively.

For the past two weeks, Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee fans have been signing on to Twitter to participate in the “Twinter Games,” where they have the opportunity to tweet their love for iced coffee. One $50 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card winner is chosen daily.

During week one, fans were asked to describe their idea of the perfect iced coffee in three words or fewer, marked by the hashtag #3WordAfterIcedCoffee. During week two, fans were asked to tell Dunkin’ Donuts how they like their iced coffee, marked by the hashtag #MyIcedCoffee. This week, the games continue, and fans have the opportunity to include an iced coffee reference within a song title, lyrics, a movie title, or a famous quote, marked by the hastag #IcedCoffeeLibs.

Tryder shared some of his favorite entries from week one of the “Twinter Games,” which included the phrases “my icy vice,” “stone cold greatness,” “fresh frigid fuel,” and “cold metal winter.”

“There certainly is always a business angle to it,” Tryder says. “We’re trying to support our iced coffee business at a season when some folks don’t think about iced coffee, but it’s an opportunity to turn it into something that’s really fun and engaging and speaks to a big audience out there.”

Dunkin’ Donuts’ other social media strategy, “YeDDi of the Week,” recognizes iced coffee fans who aren’t afraid to brave the cold. The title appropriately refers to the mythological Yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman. Participants can post a picture of themselves holding an iced coffee to the Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook fan page. The fan that is named “YeDDi of the Week” has his winning photo placed as the page’s main photo.

“We’ve gotten well over 100 photos,” Tryder says. “We’ve gotten people in bathing suits in the snow lying down making a snow angel with their Dunkin’ iced coffee, some people ice fishing with their Dunkin’ iced coffee, so just some really fun and entertaining ways that give some customers an opportunity to be creative on the site.”

For Dunkin’, Tryder says, the social marketing strategy has been a huge success. The company launched social media efforts 18 months ago, and since then, the Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook page has more than 10,000 fans, and the Twitter site is being followed by somewhere nearly 44,000 people.

“I think we’ve found a nice niche,” Tryder says about Dunkin’ Donuts’ place within social media. “It’s something, quite honestly, that’s working for us. We want to continue to use it, we want to continue to be innovative, let our customers have some fun, but also certainly figure out ways to help it measurably drive the business, because at the end of the day that’s the most important thing.”

QSR Magazine