Domino’s Pizza has taken an interesting approach to promoting its ‘new and improved’ recipe, and it seems they are seeing some success, but have room to grow. For those of you who haven’t seen the new ads, Domino’s basically acknowledged that customers are not happy with the quality of Domino’s pizza. Domino’s shares some of the negative comments, such as the pizza tasting like cardboard and the sauce tasting like ketchup, and does a decent job of showing how they are working to fix the problems.
At first the approach made me feel a bit apprehensive, but I quickly saw they executed the strategy pretty well. What I like about the execution is that Domino’s commercials show concrete examples of what they are doing in response to the comments (new cheeses, new sauce, etc.), not playing lip service to what they intend to do. In the era of too-late corporate responses, it was somewhat refreshing to see a company air a problem (granted it was one most of us didn’t really worry about) and then ‘fix’ it. If the customer perception was accurate and Domino’s hadn’t intervened to bolster its brand, given time Domino’s brand image would have degraded to a point where it would have not been able to recover. With a decade of experience in marketing and advertising, I know how easy it is to mold focus groups responses to a particular end, but to be honest I hadn’t eaten Domino’s in years so I can’t say how much I agree with what was presented. But assuming that what was presented was representative, I think Domino’s was smart to respond.
Of course this is a very risky proposition, but one that Domino’s management should be commended on having the confidence to initiate. There have been a lot of comments about the importance of the Super Bowl to pizza delivery sales. I would argue, however, that while that single night probably represents the highest one-day volume for pizza delivery, it pales in comparison to the entire college and pro football seasons leading up to the Super Bowl. Taking this approach during this crucial timeframe is very risky, and I would have started it the summer if possible. But it seems that Domino’s has seen some stock price success with this strategy.
I also think the campaign has been successful in creating buzz. Many of us who haven’t even thought about Domino’s in years started looking at Domino’s again. But that buzz must be backed up with results. I was so intrigued that I actually ordered pizza from Domino’s this weekend. I was happy to find out that I could order online, and ordered two two-topping pizzas and breadsticks. The quality was ok, but not really all that noticeably different from what I remembered. They got most of the order right, but the extra breadstick sauce I requested in the online text box didn’t show up. No big deal, but part of me was disappointed because I felt that behind the hype would have been some really great pizza (I live in NYC, so ‘good’ pizza is a given). Instead I got something that was just ‘ok.’
But this new attention highlighted other problems Domino’s is having. What was really disappointing was the delivery service. I waited over an hour for the pizza to be delivered, and because I ordered a couple of pizzas and breadsticks I was shocked to see a delivery charge attached to the order. Now I understand a delivery charge if a customer orders below a minimum, but an automatic delivery charge with no clear indication that the customer will be charged that fee seems greedy to me. I would have been fine paying the small fee (I think it was only $1.99), but I feel Domino’s should have been more transparent about the charge. Their failure to do so creates an impression that they are trying to nickel and dime their customers; not the impression they want to create when they are trying to persuade their customers that a return to quality is their utmost priority.
But what disappointed me the most was their online tracker. In theory it’s a great application. Once you place your online order it tracks the status of your order and lets you know where it is (prep, bake, etc.) and gives you a delivery time frame (BTW, I was disappointed to find out that Domino’s 30-minute guarantee has long been discontinued). The problem I experienced with my order, however, was that the store I ordered from indicated the order was further along in the process than it really was. My order was shown as ‘delivered’ according to the tracker, and after waiting 15 additional minutes I called the store since I was a bit apprehensive that the online ordering may not work as easily as I hoped. I thought the pizza may have been delivered to another address, but after getting through to the store I was told that the delivery person was just about to leave. When I mentioned that the online tracker said it was delivered, the Domino’s employee gave me an excuse that was vague at best. I waited another 20 minutes, and the delivery guy showed up as I was about to hit redial to figure out where my pizza was. This may have been an isolated case, but created the perception that store managers are incentivized to record faster deliveries. The tracker, which has the potential to generate some serious positive word-of-mouth buzz, instead created disappointment and a sense that Domino’s is concerned with superficial appearances. This is not the impression they should be creating when working to clean up their brand.
All in all, while Domino’s campaign is a good execution of a good strategy, I think there are components of their value chain that management needs to focus on before they make any further promotional pushes. Perhaps management fully intends to tackle these issues, but had their hand forced due to the Super Bowl just a few weeks away. But given the real risk of calling attention to their previously poor quality in hopes of replacing that perception with better quality in consumers’ minds, it would have been smarter to make sure all their pieces were in place before launch. If Domino’s management is unable to quickly fix these issues, they will have caused the brand to fall on its own sword (at least in the short term).
