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<keyword id="868697" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="plum" source="Orion">Plum</keyword> – India’s first 100% vegan &amp; cruelty-free beauty and personal care brand, today announced that it has signed actress <keyword id="3063728" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mithila-palkar" source="Orion">Mithila Palkar</keyword> as their brand ambassador. Being one of the most vivacious and spirited actresses, Mithila exemplifies the-girl-next-door image and will appear in key Plum campaigns across digital media. This will be the first time that Plum is getting a brand ambassador on-board. One of the fastest growing BPC brands in the online space, Plum has carved a mark for itself in the retail market as well. Not only is it among the top brands on key ecommerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa and Purplle , but the brand also is today available in over 250 towns and cities in India, through 900+ assisted retail outlets, and over 10,000 unassisted outlets – growing month-on-month. Recently, the brand also won the Best Vegan Cosmetics award at the PETA India’s Vegan Fashion Awards. Starting her acting career in 2014, Mithila is known for a wide variety of roles that she has portrayed in movies and web series such as, Chopsticks (A Netflix Original film), and <keyword id="2719583" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="karwaan" source="Orion">Karwaan</keyword>. She rose to fame after her roles in popular web series Little Things and Girl in the City. She is also a popular singer. In 2016, a YouTube video featuring her performing the popular Marathi song Hi Chal Turu Turu (sung originally by Jaywant Kulkarni) in the cup song style went viral with more than 6 million views. Commenting on the announcement, Shankar Prasad, CEO and founder at Plum, said – “Plum is a youthful brand that resonates with the confident woman of today. So, onboarding a millennial youth icon like Mithila Palkar seemed to be a natural fit. She reflects Plum’s values of being honest and real. Our association with her is a step towards strengthening the connection with our customers and reaching out to millions of more women who will emotionally associate with our brand and love using our products. We are confident that her voice will inspire them to be comfortable in their skincare and beauty choices and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have her as the face of Plum.” On being the brand’s first ambassador, actress Mithila Palkar shares, “I’m really excited to be the face of a brand like Plum that believes in spreading so much goodness around the world. I deeply resonate with the philosophy of the brand and their unique approach towards creating products which are truly good for your skin. In Plum, I have found my partner, which provides an authentic, dependable, efficacious, and delightful experience in skincare. I am truly glad to be associated with them.”

D2C brand Plum ropes in Mithila Palkar as brand ambassador

<ul><li>In the last few years, Indian skincare start-ups and conglomerates have been focusing on ‘Clean Beauty.’</li><li>Plum was one of the first boot-strapped home-grown start-ups to bring veganism to the beauty and skincare industry in India.</li><li>As the focus on sustainability, clean beauty and veganism increases in our country, we speak to Shankar Prasad, CEO and Founder at Plum about upcoming trends in the skincare and beauty industry, and Plum’s goals for 2022 in India.</li></ul>The ‘clean beauty’ and skincare industry has seen the entry of several new brands. Mamaearth, Taavi, Wow Skin Sciences, Clovia Botaniqa and Lotus Botanicals. One of the first start-ups to bring veganism to the beauty industry in India was Plum. Launched in 2014, boot-strap start-up Plum caught consumers’ attention for its Kajal in a year and last year, the D2C brand launched its first Exclusive Brand Outlet (EBO) in Mumbai. It now reaches over 225 towns and cities in India through 850+ assisted outlets and over 10,000 unassisted outlets. The new-age beauty brand has been focusing on bolstering its product portfolio and brand expansion in India and across US, Middle East and South Asia. It recently launched bath and body products and added new products to its skincare line. Based on this new portfolio and existing product range, the brand is aiming to achieve Rs 300 crore annualised revenue run rate by the first quarter of FY23. A lot of the brand’s growth has come from word-of-mouth and Performance Marketing. However, now after onboarding Mithila Palkar as its first brand ambassador, the brand will start focusing on traditional B2C marketing. Advertising and marketing get about 30-45% of its annual revenue share, which was Rs 225 crore-plus in December 2021, with digital continuing to take the bigger chunk of the pie. In recent times, consumers have started looking for clean-beauty products that are made using natural products and brands that make a case for sustainability, whose growth is further fuelled by Direct-to-Consumer channels. Globally, as per Brandessense Market Research, the Clean beauty market was estimated to be $5439.6 Million in 2020 and is expected to reach $ 11558.5 Million in 2027, growing at a CAGR of 12.07% from 2020 to 2027. And in India, as per a Statista report, the Natural Cosmetics segment amounts to US$853.9m in 2022. The market is expected to grow annually by 2.90% (CAGR 2022-2026). As Plum further drives the vegan movement in the beauty segment in India, we speak to Shankar Prasad, CEO and Founder at Plum about upcoming trends in the skincare and beauty industry, and Plum’s goals for 2022. Excerpts: Q. From performance marketing to B2C communication, how has your marketing strategy changed over the years? Initially, like all brands, we also started with performance marketing. We only bothered about how much we were selling through the ads that we were running and the communication was completely product-focused. Then, as we evolved, we looked at influencer marketing, launch marketing, launch events, social media marketing, creating a buzz around the brand with fresh new ideas and content marketing. Now, a very important piece is also being added, which is community. I think Plum is one of those few brands which stands for something more than just a product to people, it's almost a way of thinking about being good as a philosophy. And we want to leverage that to build a community of like-minded people who are here not just for the deals, offers and products but also are united by a certain view of life. That’d be one of our focus areas this year. Q. What does your media plan look like now? How has your marketing budget changed this year? As a percentage of revenue, marketing spend varies anywhere between 30% to 45% of the overall revenue. While that percentage stays constant, as we continue to grow and scale the absolute number being spent on marketing is going up. There, we are finding a new mix to deploy the budget. Traditional media will get included now as part of our plan, as early as this quarter or early next quarter. But we continue to be overweighted on digital media because the majority of our sales is still online and a majority of our customers are also online. Also, the measurability of it is very attractive. Therefore, we will continue to focus on digital media first, and then non-traditional media. Slowly, as distribution expands further, we will start looking at more traditional media. Q. You were one of the first platforms to bring veganism to the beauty industry. How important do you think veganism is to consumers of today? The popularity of veganism has picked up in the last decade and a half. To us, veganism is an interesting subset of our overall philosophy. When we go out and ask people, ‘What do you think Plum is about?’ The answer is almost unanimously that it stands for real goodness. And veganism is a subset and I feel people make a lot of hue and cry about it. In my understanding, veganism is a simple philosophy where you can get by without interfering with other living beings. That to me is the most simplistic view of veganism. And when it comes to beauty, for example, what you will realise is that compared to foods where it's more difficult to let go of dairy or eggs or meat, in the case of beauty, it is relatively easy to do so. Therefore, I am not saying being vegan as a skincare brand is a technical challenge. It's more sort of a philosophy, a way of life, that is a subset of our overall message of Be Good as a brand. And along with that, veganism, particularly in beauty is a no-brainer to be following. And because vegan formulations are modern formulations, by default, they end up being clean, which is avoiding some ingredients that are not completely safety clear, or where there are doubts about. So, in effect vegan also becomes a proxy for clean in many ways. Q. Has the trend caught on in Tier II and III markets? It is very popular in Tier II and III. I was surprised at some of the numbers. The top six metros or cities account for less than 30% of our overall sales. I would have expected that number to be closer to 50. The remaining 70% is a very, very long tail of cities and towns. So there is no particular concentration in any of these geographies. If any, the skew is very profoundly towards the smaller cities and towns. Most of the early adopters tend to come from large cities. But I also noticed that even five-six years ago we were getting orders from places where none of the couriers are available. So to service them, we used to speed post it to them. Now, of course, we have courier services to most cities and towns. Q. Are more brands taking the cruelty-free movement seriously? Today, by sheer market pressures that have come on brands, most brands are cruelty-free. Also, from a regulatory perspective, it has become mandatory to be cruelty-free. So by definition, almost everybody in the market uses cruelty-free products. Having said so, vegan is still a subset of the market. I think about less than 10% of the market today talks about being vegan or care about being vegan. But the good news is that the remaining 90% of people who may or may not care about veganism, understand that it is a good thing. So, overall, it's a good place to be. And one can only see the concern for clean beauty or any form of conscious beauty, growing. It is only going up and that is a definite trend that we’ve seen. Q. What kind of changes are you bringing about to make your business more eco-friendly? Sustainability is sort of baked into our core values. So to begin with, 1% of every sale goes towards wildlife protection. As habitat shrinks, and as we continue to develop as a nation somewhere, I think it's important for us to understand that we are also willy-nilly destroying the biodiversity that has naturally existed, which sustains a lot more species than we can imagine. Second is your recycling program. We are, in fact, the first brand in India to have started a online recycling program, wherein we pick up empties for free and for every bottle empty bottle that you send us, we'll give you shopping credits. The program has been quite successful. The third thing is minimizing the use of packaging; where we don't need a mono carton, we don't put them on a carton, where we can do glass we do glass. See, plastic at the end of the day is a useful material, but one has to be careful with its use. One has to make sure that it is as recyclable as possible, enable that recycling and make it as circular an economy as possible. It's not possible to make it entirely so. But as a brand, we are doing everything we can to make it as sustainable as possible. Sustainability is a journey. It's not as if anybody can raise their hands and say I'm totally sustainable. At the end of the day, we all consume resources. It's really about how thoughtfully and how frugally you consume the resource, and how much you put back into what you're consuming. To that, end of this year, we not just want to do things ourselves, but involve our customers in this quest for sustainability. And the packaging task is ongoing. Until and unless you're able to completely get into recycled mode -- for every single piece of plastic that we use, we can't also say that we are being very sustainable. So that's another thing that's going to be done. Lastly, in terms of the shipping of our DTC orders, that consumes quite a lot of paper and a lot of cushioning material. So efforts are being done there so that we are able to reach order safely to people yet minimize the usage of resources. Q. Considering that your online recycling program has done well, do you think a brand's ecological footprint is a big decision-making factor for consumers today? What else are consumers expecting from brands of today? Sustainability in India is not that big on people's minds right now. It is there for a very small subset of people. But it's growing thankfully. Most people today are worried about what ingredients are we using and how proven are those ingredients. Simply saying it is natural is not cutting ice with a lot of people nowadays. So they need proof that it works and is safe. They need somebody trustworthy to come and tell them that this is good on your skin, and it does good things for you. So India is still on this journey toward ‘clean beauty.’ I think sustainability is the next horizon topic. Again, we are a little ahead of our time in talking about sustainability. But believe it or not, it's going to dawn on people sooner than later that it's in our own larger interest that we move towards sustainability. Government regulations, and evolving sort of landscape there is also going to have an impact on how brands and consumers look at sustainability but that to me is some time away. Q. What do your expansion plans look like? Are you planning to go deeper into the country since a majority of your revenue comes from Tier II and III towns? So we are currently in about 250-270 cities which we expanded from around 200 at the beginning of the year, so 50% growth there. Not only are we looking to expand this to 320 to 350 but more importantly, deepen our presence in these cities because in most of the cities, I'll probably have one or two outlets whereas the market can support many more. In terms of the number of outlets, we are present at close to 850 assisted points of sale and close to 10,000 unassisted points of sale, we want that number to increase to about 1200 assisted points of sales and about 15,000-20,000 unassisted points of sale sooner than later this year. EBOs, we have one operational and three under fitout. I think by December, we should be looking at at least 15 to 20 operational EBOs. So, there's a good flow of properties that we see and we're moving fast wherever we find a good fit with the brand or the demographic. Q. What are some of the trends that you're expecting to see in the beauty and skincare industry? Number one, the movement towards cleaner formulations. Number two, I think I'm expecting consolidation to pick up this year. It already started last year, it will pick up this year, where many more smaller brands will become part of larger agglomerations of brands. Also, from a consumer point of view, people will start gravitating towards more established and proven concepts rather than too much experimentation. I think 2020, as well as 2021, led to a lot of experimentation with people. But at least the top layers of the crowd that have been experimenting a lot, I'm expecting them to start a little bit more of consolidating around fewer brands and fewer concepts as opposed to wildly experimenting. And therefore that will further accelerate this process of consolidation. All the categories that we operate in, whether it is skin, makeup, hair, bath, and body, male grooming, all of them are going to see good growth prospects. Q. What is your larger vision for the brand? The larger vision is to be India's most loved, and globally recognized Clean beauty brand.

This year, we want to involve consumers in our quest for sustainability: Shankar Prasad, Plum

'm very excited about this new collaboration. <keyword id="868697" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="plum" source="Orion">Plum</keyword> has been one of my favourite brands - it does what it says," states actress <keyword id="3677061" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rashmika-mandanna" source="Orion">Rashmika Mandanna</keyword> who joins the joins vegan skincare brand Plum as an investor and brand ambassador. Adding, "I am excited to represent and also invest in a brand that is passionate about adding genuine goodness to the world we live in! Plum has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, and I am confident that the brand will soon become the "go-to" vegan brand. The brand creates no-nonsense products that our skincare desperately needs right now, given our hectic lifestyles and exposure to sun and pollution. I've been using Plum's products for a while now and I absolutely adore them. I am beyond thrilled to bring some skincare love and goodness into everyone's homes!" Plum is one of India's leading vegan, cruelty-free, and toxin-free beauty and personal care brand. This collaboration between the Pushpa: The <keyword id="6405795" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rise" source="Orion">Rise</keyword> star and one of the fastest-growing beauty and personal care brands is expected to further solidify the brand's position as a fan favourite and open up new channels for customer acquisition, particularly among India's <keyword id="159493" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="gen-z" source="Orion">Gen Z</keyword> and millennial audiences. It has grown 15x since its first funding round in late 2018, thanks to a strong leadership and investor team focused on creating value for - People, the Planet, and Profit-sharing participants. Because of its high-quality product lines, lovable brand personality, and strong Omni-channel presence, it remains one of the fastest-growing brands in the new-age beauty space. Commenting on the announcement, <keyword id="232375" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shankar-prasad" source="Orion">Shankar Prasad</keyword>, CEO, and Founder at Plum said, "We are delighted to have Rashmika on board as we look forward to reinforcing our brand connect with consumers. She is a popular youth icon and fits very well with the brand ethos of Plum, with her real, approachable persona. This partnership is an important milestone as we continue to build Plum into a lovable brand that stands for keeping things clean, real and good." Rashmika's investment comes after A91 Partners' $35 million funding round in March 2022. Plum has raised over $50 million from consumer-focused institutional investors to date, indicating its future growth as the category leader in the new-age, direct-to-consumer beauty space. ALSO SEE <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/google-invests-in-indian-fintech-startup-progap-which-provides-credit-to-smes/articleshow/92509038.cms">Google invests in Indian fintech startup Progap which provides credit to SME</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/employee-exodus-at-trell-which-is-struggling-to-pay-its-influencers/articleshow/92483791.cms">Employee exodus at Trell which is struggling to pay its influencers</a>

Rashmika Mandanna invests in vegan skincare brand Plum

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div>APMatthew Barzun, left. </div><keyword id="15962" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Barack-Obama">Barack Obama</keyword>'s chief fundraiser, who claims descent from a Puritan pioneer, has emerged as the overwhelming favourite to be the next United States <keyword id="2722" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="ambassador">ambassador</keyword> to London.
The White House is expected to officially unveil Matthew Barzun as the US President’s choice for the plum diplomatic job within weeks. Louis Susman, the current ambassador and a former fundraiser himself, will leave his post in early April.
Mr Barzun, 42, still has to pass through a vetting process and be approved by the Senate. But he is expected to clear those hurdles, having served as ambassador to Sweden from 2009 to 2011.
His selection will be seen as further evidence of the role money plays in high profile US ambassadorial appointments.
The Court of St James, with residency in the splendour of Winfield House in Regent’s Park, will be his reward for acting as national finance chairman of the successful 2012 Obama campaign. He also personally “bundled” an estimated $1 million from various donors.
As Mr Obama's most trusted fundraiser, he was able to see off a challenge by Anna Wintour, the British-born editor of Vogue, for what is regarded in Washington as the most coveted posting in the president's gift. Ms Wintour was regarded as an early contender for London or Paris, but may have been damaged by the fact that her boyfriend, J Shelby Bryan, owes the US government more than $1.2 million (£760,000) in taxes.
Mr Barzun made his money at the gadget news and reviews website CNET. Raised in Massachusetts and educated at Harvard, he joined the company as its fourth employee in 1993 and stayed for 11 years, rising to chief strategy officer before starting his own consultancy for internet media firms.
He became involved with Democratic Party at an early age, acting as a student intern in 1989 for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, and working on fundraising for the senator’s failed 2004 White House bid.
During Mr Obama’s 2008 campaign, Mr Barzun broke new ground by using his online know-how to galvanise small-scale contributors, who were crucial to the young senator’s historic victory as the first black US president.
Mr Barzun's forebears include John Winthrop, a wealthy English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement after Plymouth Colony.
Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, serving as an early governor of the colony. His writings and vision of the colony as a Puritan "city upon a hill" heavily influenced New England colonial thinking and development. He is credited with popularising the phrase, from the Sermon on the Mount, which helped give rise to the belief that America is God's country.
Mr Barzun has three young children and is married to Brooke Lee Brown, a scion of one of the world’s biggest drinks companies, Brown-Forman. The Kentucky-based company has 4,120 employees worldwide. Its brands include Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort and Finlandia Vodka.

Barack Obama's Chief Fundraiser Is Expected To Score An Enviable Job As UK Ambassador

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="597891" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dunkin">Dunkin</keyword>' took over social media in 2020, from its collaboration with trendy candle brand Homesick to a drink named after TikTok star Charli D'Amelio. </li><li>Drayton Martin, Dunkin's vice president of brand stewardship, told Business Insider that the chain wants to do things that made people say: "Wow, I didn't expect that from Dunkin'." </li><li>"We have made an extremely focused effort on puncturing perceptions of Dunkin'," Martin said.</li><li>In late October, Dunkin' reported that US sales were up 0.9% in the third quarter. For comparison, <keyword id="6377922" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="starbucks">Starbucks</keyword> sales in the US were down 9% in the quarter. </li></ul>Who would pay $34 for a candle that smells like a $2 cup of Dunkin' coffee?A lot of people, Dunkin' discovered in 2019 after releasing a candle collaboration with Homesick. In fact, the candle was so successful that Dunkin' launched a second collaboration with the trendy natural candle brand this fall. Dunkin' superfans have also snatched up Dunkin' scrunchies, mini fridges, and even bedding over the past year. "One of our aspirational things is to have people see something - whether it's a food product, a merch products, one of the relationship we have - and say to themselves: 'Wow, I didn't expect that from Dunkin'," Drayton Martin, Dunkin's vice president of brand stewardship, told Business Insider. <div type="image" title="dunkin candle" height="1200" width="1600" msid="80013664" hostid="261"></div>This year, Dunkin' took over social media by doing the unexpected. On Twitter, Dunkin' merch prompts countless celebratory tweets. Scrolling on TikTok quickly produces videos of star Charli D'Amelio holding her namesake cold brew. New drinks like the Sugarplum Macchiato act as Instagram bait that rivals the ever-viral Starbucks. The unexpected is paying off. In late October, Dunkin' reported that US sales were up 0.9% in the third quarter. For comparison, Starbucks announced the same day that its sales in the US were down 9% in the quarter. "Dunkin' has outperformed Starbucks in many ways," industry expert John Gordon said. "This Charli thing that they have got going - that was brilliant," Gordon added. "Starbucks has just been just very slow to react." <h2>Dropping the 'Donuts'<div type="image" title="Dunkin bag" height="1667" width="2222" msid="80013665" hostid="261"></div></h2>Dunkin' kicked off a massive rebrand in September 2018, when the chain announced it was dropping "Donuts" from its name. According to Martin, Dunkin' needed to honor its roots while avoiding becoming "encased in amber like a fossil." Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dunkin-pandemic-leadership-strategy-david-hoffmann-2020-10?r=kt-sub">How Dunkin' CEO Dave Hoffmann led the beloved coffee company through a massive rebrand - and now a $11.3 billion acquisition</a>"We have made an extremely focused effort on puncturing perceptions of Dunkin'," Martin said. "There are people who grew up with Dunkin, but then Dunkin is almost trapped in time. ... Our brand has grown up. Our offerings have grown up." While Dunkin' has expanded - and continues to expand - out of the Northeast, many people still see the chain as a New England brand, according to Martin. The breadth of its menu has also been a point of confusion. Part of the reason for Dunkin's rebrand was to emphasize it sells more than just donuts. <div type="image" title="Matcha+Dunkin'_6c96379a 5a99 40e4 a8cd 847a1ab6ee55 prv" height="764" width="1529" msid="80013666" hostid="261"></div>Building out the menu was a first step in changing customers' perceptions. Dunkin' has built up its espresso-based drinks business, previously a category that Starbucks dominated. The chain leaned hard into certain trends, rolling out a line-up of matcha beverages and Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches. This fall, Dunkin' added an oat milk option, beating Starbucks' planned spring 2021 roll out. "We're about democratizing trends," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dunkin-beyond-meat-ceos-explain-faux-meat-breakfast-sandwiches-2019-7">Dunkin' CEO David Hoffmann told Business Insider in July 2019. </a>Menu items and social media are also increasingly linked at Dunkin'. Take two of the chain's most notable launches of 2020: the Sugar Plum Macchiato and The Charli cold brew. <h2>Dunkin' is winning over Gen Z by dominating on TikTok </h2><div type="image" title="drinks" height="632" width="843" msid="80013668" hostid="261"></div>Starbucks has long been the king of brightly colored, Instagram-ready drinks. Can anyone forget, for example, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-unicorn-frappuccino-review-2017-4">the days of the Unicorn Frappuccino?</a>Now, drinks like the purple Sugarplum Macchiato help Dunkin' take a page out of Starbucks' playbook. These beverages essentially provide free advertising, as they beg to be photographed and posted on Instagram.However, Dunkin's biggest viral menu success is rooted in TikTok. In September, Dunkin' debuted The Charli, a cold brew drink named after TikTok star Charli D'Amelio. D'Amelio, a long-time Dunkin' fan, promoted the drink to her millions of followers on TikTok. According to UBS, The Charli drove a 57% increase in app downloads compared to the previous 90 days and significantly boosted cold brew sales. <div type="image" title="Dunkin and Charli D'Amelio" height="1125" width="1500" msid="80013669" hostid="261"></div>"Certainly, the drink had a lot of popularity with Gen Z, which obviously is super important," Martin said. "You need to continue to bring younger people into the brand family if you want to stay healthy.""Also, the younger generations are actually bellwethers that then cascade to the loser Gen Xers who are still desperately clinging onto coolness - not that I'm describing myself or anything," Martin added. The chain's TikTok strategy extends beyond The Charli. In June, the chain had users compete to become the fifth account that Dunkin' would follow back with the "Dunkin' follower campaign," growing its follower count by 37%. Starting this fall, the chain enlisted employees to post TikToks on the job <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brands-like-dunkin-hire-workers-post-tiktok-videos-marketing-2020-10">as part of the "crew ambassadors" program.</a>Dunkin's efforts are paying off in concrete metrics. The brand has 2 million followers on TikTok, more than any other fast-food chain. For comparison, Chipotle has 1.4 million followers, Starbucks has 1.2 million, and McDonald's has roughly 590,000. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dunkins-tiktok-strategy-includes-charli-damelio-partnership-and-ugc-2020-9?r=kt-sub">Dunkin's TikTok marketing strategy includes paying employees to post videos at work and it's part of a growing trend</a><h2>The new and improved Dunkin' comes with an $8.8 billion pricetag </h2><div type="image" title="Dunkin' Apron" height="1874" width="2500" msid="80013670" hostid="261"></div>Four years ago, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dunkin-donuts-snl-sketch-reveals-brands-biggest-problem-2016-12">Saturday Night Live ran a sketch that encapsulated Dunkin's reputation problem</a>. In a fake Dunkin' ad, disheveled Massachusetts native Casey Affleck disrupts the coffee shop's attempt at projecting a polished image. "You want to talk real Dunkin' customers? That's me. I'm like the mayor of Dunkin' right here," Affleck says in a thick Boston accent as he smokes a cigarette half inside the store, half outside.This was the old Dunkin': lowbrow, slightly grimey, and distinctly Boston-based. Then, we have 2020 Dunkin': TikTok dominance, Instagram-ready drinks, and trendy candles. <div type="image" title="Dunkin' Customizable Merch" height="1875" width="2500" msid="80013671" hostid="261"></div>Beyond marketing, Dunkin' had the added edge over Starbucks in 2020 simply because it kept its locations open, according to industry expert Gordon.While Starbucks temporarily shut down all company-owned locations without drive-thrus early in the pandemic, Dunkin' shuttered far fewer stores, with most franchisees emphasizing to-go orders while staying open. This allowed Dunkin's marketing to hit its groove, despite one of the restaurant industry's most destructive years in modern history. The strategy is already paying out. Earlier in December, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dunkins-potential-acquisition-by-arbys-inspire-brands-explained-2020-10">Arby's parent company Inspire Brands closed its acquisition of Dunkin' in a $8.8 billion deal.</a> According to Martin, Dunkin's efforts to push the brand in unexpected directions is not over yet. "It's an ongoing project. As we make more and more inroads, we're learning and then we're expanding our offerings and the way we engage with people," Martin said. "Dropping 'Donuts' from the name - obviously was like a shot in the air and letting everyone know that Dunkin' is different," Martin added. "And we just keep proving that over and over and over again."

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D2C brand Plum ropes in Mithila Palkar as brand ambassador

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