Providing customers with merely a product or service alone is no longer what interests consumers. Customers want to buy into an experience. This is what Eli Broad College of Business alumnus Omar DeMara (BA Hospitality Business ’04, Executive MBA ’13) has cultivated with Daddy’s Doughnuts.
Daddy’s Doughnuts in Utica, Michigan. Photo courtesy Daddy’s Doughnuts
Taking inspiration from a local doughnut shop he stumbled upon during his travels to North Carolina and his passion for people, DeMara founded Daddy’s Doughnuts in metro Detroit in 2017. The company, with the slogan of, “Where We Serve Up Happiness… One Doughnut At A Time!” embodies a customized, made-to-order doughnut concept.
When walking through the doors of Daddy’s Doughnuts in the Detroit suburb of Utica in Macomb County, customers are offered the experience of unleashing their creativity as they can create endless coating and topping combinations to customize a doughnut tailored directly towards their very own guilty pleasures.
Omar DeMara
DeMara credits the Broad College for preparing him for his entrepreneurial ventures.
“I have never learned anything by talking. Michigan State helped me become a great listener, teaching me how to think outside the box and how to think on my feet,” DeMara said. “Trial by error, learning from mistakes, and being resilient are invaluable.”
Over the next several years, DeMara hopes to open an additional five to six locations around the metro Detroit area.
“We want to get big enough to create economies of scale, but not so big where we lose sight of our mission,” said DeMara, “which is to make leaders of our employees, bring sunshine into the lives of customers, and bolster the local communities in which we serve.”
Customers at Daddy’s Doughnuts in Utica, Michigan. Photo courtesy Daddy’s Doughnuts
When communicating directly with consumers, DeMara wants to deliver three points:
- It’s all about YOU, the customer – please give us the chance to earn your business
- We are a Michigan company, serving Michigan products
- You don’t have to settle for stale doughnuts and poor service. You have a choice, that choice is Daddy’s Doughnuts
In recent years, metro Detroit has been said to be making a comeback. Daddy’s Doughnuts and the experience it provides to metro Detroit residents and beyond is helping to aid in that comeback.
Whether it is through coming up with new products and new ways to do things, or simply trying to make somebody’s day, DeMara and his team of employees have worked to build a haven from the ground up in metro Detroit for residents.
