Market Analysis of Dunkin’ Donuts Locations in the Milwaukee Area Blake Johnson

Research Question Businesses have a strategy when selecting locations to build new establishments. This is based on the attributes of existing Dunkin’ Donuts locations. The analysis deals with the demographics that are keyed on by the Dunkin’ Donuts brand and how this can help to propose locations for new establishments. Where are the suitable locations for new Dunkin’ Donuts establishments in the Milwaukee area?

Spatial Geographic Tradition The retail locations and the road network data that are being used for this analysis fall under the spatial tradition of geography because of their contribution to understanding movement within a market system.

Research Data There are several different data sets that will need to be obtained to make the completion of this project successful. For creating a service layer road networks, business locations, and area shapefiles will be used. For location allocation demographic, road network, and business locations will be used.

Creating the Service Layer This process was done by using the ‘Service Layer’ Network Analyst extension in ArcMap. Using the road network, service areas for each Dunkin’ Donuts location were able to be created by focusing on a drive time of ten minutes.

Creating the Location Allocation Layer This process was done using the ‘Location Allocation’ Network Analyst extension in ArcMap. Demographics were analyzed for the existing Dunkin’ Donuts locations, then a number of new suitable locations were recommended. Using the street network data, the original Dunkin’ Donuts, their competitors (Starbucks), and the recommended new locations were inputted into the Location Allocation tool. The results were the best five of the recommended new locations to maximize coverage over the Milwaukee Area.

Conclusion All of this information is what helped me to get to the point in my project where I can start the analysis phase. This phase includes the actual tools and functions that will be run using the data I have collected to follow through with answering my research question. I will be running both a service area and location allocation tool to answer where, are the suitable locations for Dunkin’ Donuts establishments in the Milwaukee Area?

References American FactFinder. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2015, from Cui, C., Wang, J., Pu, Y., Ma, J., & Chen, G. (2012). GIS-based method of delimitating trade area for retail chains. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 26(10), For Our Fans. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2015, from Pattison, W. (1964). The Four Traditions of Geography. Journal of Geography