Dutch Bros needed a way to evolve its messaging strategy to maximize opportunities to connect with its devoted fanbase. As customers are at the heart of everything it does, it was important that Dutch Bros could tailor content to each individual at scale. The CRM team also wanted to simplify their tech stack to reduce costs and ensure consistent, customer-centric experiences across all of the company’s marketing channels.
With Braze, Dutch Bros was able to build scalable, impactful, and cohesive campaigns across SMS, email, push notifications, and in-app messaging. It launched a more personalized messaging strategy that allowed it to speak to users at a 1:1 level with highly relevant content.
With more personalized, easy-to-scale messaging, Dutch Bros was able to improve the customer experience, leading to higher engagement and retention rates. It was also able to drive more revenue from its CRM program, thus improving ROI. Additionally, by switching to Braze, Dutch Bros eliminated the need for multiple software subscriptions and reduced overlapping functionalities, leading to a more cost-effective software stack.
Although Oregon-based Dutch Bros sells a wide range of handcrafted beverages from coffee to refreshing energy drinks all over the United States, it considers itself, first and foremost, to be in the “relationship business.” Customer engagement defines the Dutch Bros experience, and fans can find community at any of the brand’s 800+ locations.
For Dutch Bros, customer engagement is central to its brand goals. Its app isn't just a service tool, it's a continuation of the conversation with a “broista” (aka barista), and should be as dynamic as that interaction. If two people open their app while in line at Dutch Bros, they should have a completely different experience with content that is relevant to them.
To help Dutch Bros continue to revolutionize its digital customer experience, the company turned to Braze.
Dutch Bros sought to make its app experience as unique and memorable as in-person interactions to foster loyalty and a personal connection to the brand. Before Braze, fragmentation across channels and platforms hindered consistent messaging, increased costs, and created suboptimal customer experiences. These challenges prevented Dutch Bros from achieving the genuine connection crucial to its brand.
Dutch Bros decided it needed to source a unified, cross-channel platform in order to succeed. The company needed to be able to:
Manage the user lifecycle from acquisition to retention by engaging users at critical points with relevant messaging.
Create dynamic audience segments based on real-time data integration.
Monitor and analyze the performance of campaigns in real-time.
Manage cross-channel interactions with intuitive journey orchestration.
Dutch Bros has found significant value in partnering with Braze Technical Account Management (TAM) and Support Engagement Lead services. The specialized support enhances marketing efficiency and flexibility, offering strategic and technical guidance tailored to Dutch Bros' unique needs. TAM's solution design and implementation guidance ensure marketing initiatives are impactful and well-executed, while Support Engagement Lead services provide rapid, reliable technical assistance, streamlining troubleshooting and solution implementation.
Furthermore, Dutch Bros chose Braze for its integrated partner ecosystem, which offers a wide range of pre-built integrations and APIs. This ecosystem facilitates seamless data exchange and enhances the functionality of the Braze platform. Through the Braze platform’s integration with Segment, Dutch Bros can feed a wide variety of data and data sources from its CDP into Braze, where it can manage offers, understand its customers better, and drive insightful analytics.
Dutch Bros sought to evolve its cross-channel strategy to fully leverage all customer interaction channels. This led to a messaging flow centered around delivering personalized, product-based messages tailored to individual preferences. By leveraging customer data and insights—such as purchase history and app interactions like tipping, loading stored value, and digital badge engagement—Dutch Bros ensures that its communications are relevant, timely, and aligned with each customer's interests, boosting engagement through ongoing, meaningful conversations.
Dutch Bros hypothesized that by coupling a unified, cross-channel approach with personalized product-specific messaging, it could not only improve the customer experience but also boost incrementality and drive repeat behavior. To test this hypothesis, Dutch Bros focused on sending tailored messages based on customer preferences. One example was offering blended products to one group of customers while promoting iced products to another, both selected based on individual taste profiles and purchase history.
Key components of the strategy include:
Unique messaging across multiple channels using Braze Canvas
Engaging customers 1:1 at their preferred interaction points
Featuring Products Informed by Customer Preferences and Location
This approach has allowed Dutch Bros to operationalize campaigns across teams, reducing communication silos and ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned with the campaign's objectives and progress. It also can easily experiment and refine components of campaigns right in the platform, allowing it to adjust and improve campaigns based on customer insights.
Switching to Braze allowed Dutch Bros to streamline its software stack, reducing costs and eliminating redundant functionalities. The improved campaign management process enhanced team coordination, enabling faster decision-making and agile responses to market dynamics. With Braze, Dutch Bros can now focus on strategic initiatives instead of operational logistics. The new personalized campaigns have improved customer experience, driving more app engagement and revenue.
Go where your users are. When looking to make messaging more personal and effective, Dutch Bros started meeting their guests where they are at by messaging customers to channels where they engage with most.
Your customers are individuals—speak to them that way. By focusing on 1:1 personalization, Dutch Bros is able to drive more customer loyalty and increase retention rates.
Your tech stack should work for you. Prior to Braze, Dutch Bros used several separate systems to message its customers, leading to broken and inconsistent experiences. By switching to Braze, it was able to consolidate its tech stack, which not only improved messaging but also saved money and time.
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