Update 9/1/21
Hey, I just released my new book, The Creative Catalyst: How to Creative Better Marketing by Asking (and Answering) Better Marketing Questions. It’s a book written by a marketer, for marketers!
This blog was originally posted as an excerpt from Chapter 1, but because I’m very excited about my new release, and because this is one of my favorite marketing stories of all time, I wanted to keep it up just for you!
So, how would you like to hear an incredible marketing story?
Doubling Down on Dinner with Domino’s - An Excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Creative Catalyst Marketing Book.
Did you know there was a time when the marketing team at Domino’s Pizza didn’t sell pizza?
Sure, you could always call a Domino’s and order a large pizza with Pepperoni, Ham and Sausage. But for a substantial period of time, the company’s communications strategy communicated very little about the quality or cravability of that Meat Lover’s pie.
In the final quarter of the 20th century, Domino’s primary competitor Pizza Hut, the nation’s largest pizza chain, had the pizza that the majority of consumers regularly agreed ‘tasted best’ among chain restaurant options. Domino’s, the then No. 2 pizza chain, had a product that was viewed overall as inferior, and adjusting that perception seemed like a monumental task too great to undertake. The two companies were already substantially comparative when it came to price, leaving Domino’s with little room to strategize based on promotional value.
Instead, the marketing masters attempted a different strategy: convenience.
Americans, at the time, were extremely stressed…often about time. More households had dual workers than ever before, and with families spread out across offices, schools, and clogged roads in-between, anything that could be done to save a few moments of hassle was a victory.
To help save families a few precious steps, Domino’s Pizza introduced their famous ‘30 minutes or it’s free’ delivery guarantee in the mid 1970s, and almost immediately the market saw a shift.[The New York Times, “Pizza’s Home-Delivery War,” Sep. 1986] Overnight, manic mothers and frantic fathers could suddenly simply make a quick call, and in the same length of time as a sitcom the family would be eating dinner, no mess and no hassle. For these customers, Domino’s had solved their day, and thus had earned their business.
The insight was a success, and the company rode ‘convenience’ as the crux of their marketing through the turn of the century, all the while selling a pizza everyone agreed was inferior in flavor to Pizza Hut.
In the early 2000s, however, convenience began to be less and less of a differentiator. The majority of competitors had since adopted faster service and delivery, and over time Domino’s quality was called more and more into question.
As Russell Weiner, head of marketing for Domino’s, summarized the scenario, “we’ve always been viewed as providing good value to the consumer. We were not given credit for great quality food.” Finally, it was time for the company to make that shift.
Reinventing a product that’s literally the core of a brand can be a challenge, but Weiner and his team chose to tackle it head on. They spent time retooling the recipe, and identifying a trend in consumer preference for better ingredients, even working with national suppliers and the company’s franchisees to arrange for fresher dough, toppings, cheese and more.[Harvard Business, “Domino’s Pizza,” Dec. 2011]
The real challenge, however, was how to market the new product. The company had a stigma of a poorly-flavored pizza, and attracting taste-focused customers who already held that belief was going to be a challenge.
Rather than shy away from the reality of the quality of their previous product - which then had been described as “tasting like cardboard” and having a sauce “that resembled ketchup” - they embraced the sad reality as part of their mass messaging - by asking their audience to tell them the truth.
Advertising, featuring real customers unknowingly enjoying Domino’s new recipe while simultaneously explaining their distaste for Domino’s, were proudly displayed across commercials and billboards, surprise and delight of the new pizza flavor evident. The promotion continued through public relations and grassroots efforts, featuring local news and celebrities across various markets enjoying the revised recipe, and even extended into storefronts, where employees were trained to openly compare the new delicious recipe to the old.
In short, Domino’s embraced the poor quality of their previous product in order to better demonstrate the total u-turn they’d actively taken.
Just like the power perceived in the Pepsi Challenge’s resulting customer testimonials, which defied conventional wisdom (that Coke might not be inherently better than Pepsi), Domino’s suddenly had the same assets: real people expressing genuine taste-bud delight and challenging conventional wisdom (that Domino’s might not be so horrible).
Domino’s desire to reinvent themselves proved fruitful. The company’s launch campaign for the new recipe started a global resurgence for the brand, and at the end of 2017, the company finally surpassed Pizza Hut to become the world’s largest pizza chain.[AdAge, “Domino’s Unseats Pizza Hut as Biggest Pizza Chain,” Feb. 2018]
Domino’s embraced self reinvention by continuously asking their customers to give them the truth about their brand - something they still do today. The company continued to question customers as to what would make them more likely to purchase a Domino’s pizza, and as a result have continued to make flavor and convenience changes, even launching a mobile app that was later named the most popular food delivery mobile app in the nation[The San Diego Union-Tribune / Cheetah Lab, “The Most Popular Food Delivery App in the U.S. Is…,” Jun. 2017.] (just ahead of then newcomer UberEats).
Over the past several years, Domino’s has also phased out the word “Pizza” from their company name. Now acting solely as Domino’s, they actively market a menu that encompasses much more than pizza and wings, catering to changing taste preferences and their customer base continues to share with them their desire for more options.
The moves demonstrate a company dedicated toward customer-centric innovation, backed by audience questioning. Together, these strategies are helping Domino’s pull even further ahead of the pack. And yet, at their core, these myriad marketing tactics also represent an important emphasis from the original 1970s marketing team: to give families a simpler solution to come together over a meal.
What did you think?
I’d love to know your thoughts on this short snippet, which just so happens to be one of my favorite marketing case studies of all time.
If you have a moment, feel free to drop a few comments in the message box below. I can’t wait to hear your feedback!
Like the excerpt? Then you’ll love the rest of the book! Check it out on Amazon!
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