Pork Doughnuts, LeBron James on the Menu For Dunkin’ in China

Although pork doughnuts sound like the internet’s next or perhaps even previous fevered bacon imagining, the product is not slated to hit prime time in the US any time soon.

However, Chinese Dunkin’ Donuts outlets could be seeing pork doughnuts on their menu sometime in the near future- and LeBron James could be shilling them. Today, Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. announced a multi-year partnership with the NBA star, and specifically mentioned the odd, savory pork doughnuts as a new initiative. Dunkin’ CEO Nigel Travis hinted at other exotic, not-sweet donut products for outside US markets as well when addressing the pork doughnuts:

“Donuts are a very flexible product. You can do savory donuts, you can do donuts with shredded pork- that’s in China… We also have a range of other savory products that we have been testing and introducing country by country.”

According to MSNBC, chief global marketing and innovation officer for Dunkin’ brands John Costello said that the company is “developing milk tea and bagels with pork floss topping to cater to tastes in China” in addition to the pork doughnuts. Costello said:

“While we compete in very competitive markets, I think the key is to focus on the consumer, to understand their needs better than anybody and deliver on that… We think the best strategy is to execute on brand differentiation.”

Costello also commented on last year’s rising commodities prices and how he feels the issue will play out in 2012. Costello indicated that the “spike in coffee that we saw last year seems to have subsided,” and that overall, the company believes 2012 is “going to be a much better commodity year than last year.”

Would you sample pork doughnuts if they hit US Dunkin’ menus?