Domino’s Pizza Turnaround Case
Domino’s is a well-known global pizza brand. They have been operating franchise operations since the 1960s and expanded internationally in 1983. Today, Domino’s operates thousands of stores in more than 90 countries worldwide (Domino’s, n.d.). They have been leaders in rapid and reliable delivery, number of franchisees and employees, technology adoption for online orders, and expansion into sandwich delivery (Crawford, 2021).
Despite their impressive growth, they were not always regarded as offering quality pizza products, which is their core business. In fact, prior to 2010, Domino’s had a notorious reputation for selling poor pizza. This was formally acknowledged by Domino’s leadership team who admitted consumer research revealed the product was far below consumer expectations (Crawford, 2021). Nothing was more damning than when consumers described the pizza as cardboard-like, boring, bland, artificial, and flavorless. This was something the Domino’s team could no longer ignore.
Although they had shown leadership in other areas, like 30-minute delivery, they realized that improving the taste of the product was a priority. Around 2008, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Doyle announced drastic steps to change the company’s reputation by reinventing the brand in what would be known as “the pizza turnaround.” The primary strategy of this reinvention was to improve pizza taste without sacrificing other benefits the consumers enjoyed, like rapid delivery and affordability. This meant that the reinvented pizza could not take longer to make, and the costs had to be at parity with the current costs. Furthermore, even if these challenges could be overcome, simply improving the flavor profile of the pizza was not sufficient. The leadership team vowed to provide a better pizza than those products offered by competitors, and they would only be satisfied when improvements were validated through blind taste tests (Githens, 2010). This was a bold goal since the competition in the pizza category was fierce, and Domino’s was positioned as fast-food pizza, which did not inspire a lot of confidence in quality and taste.
In December 2009, 2 years after concept testing and development had begun, the reinvented pizza was launched using the pizza turnaround promotional campaign. The campaign and the product development steps taken to reinvent the pizza was a huge success as evidenced by a majority of customers preferring the taste of Domino’s to competitors’ pizza, a 30% increase in new sales, and 65% increase in repeat purchases (Crawford, 2021).
Please follow the assignment instructions below:
I. Read the following article by Greg Githens:
Githens, G. (2010, December). The pizza turnaround: The story-behind-the-story of Domino Pizza’s new product launch , Visions, 34(4).
II. Watch the following video:
Domino’s Pizza. (2009, December 21). Domino’s Pizza turnaround [Video]. Cielo24. https://c24.page/rhzvagx4wnsjy4dsgggcv2mhpc
III. Respond to the following questions:
Describe Domino’s product offering using the total product concept. Include core product, generic product, expected product, augmented product, and potential product.
Using Ansoff’s product-market matrix, describe the pizza turnaround strategy as either market penetration, product development, market development, diversification, or a combination. Provide your rationale.
CEO Patrick Doyle directed the reinvention of Domino’s Pizza. Which steps in the new product development process were necessary to ensure success of the pizza turnaround? Please provide specific examples from the case.
Which stage of the product life cycle was Domino’s Pizza in when the pizza turnaround reinvention began in 2008? How did the launch of the pizza turnaround campaign change the sales curve? Provide evidence.
Explain the importance and benefit of new product portfolio management during the years leading up to the pizza turnaround campaign launch.
What were some of the challenges the new product development team faced in selling the pizza turnaround internally? How did they overcome these challenges?
Additional Instructions:
Your case study response should be at least two pages in length.
Academic work should always be supported with credible sources. Please be sure your submission includes at least two credible sources in addition to the case study article, one of which should be from the CSU Online Library.
Please use APA formatting and style guidelines (i.e., indentations, spacing, font, citations, references).
Please use section headings and subheadings that align with the assignment questions. This will serve as an outline to ensure you complete all requirements.
Finally, please review the grading rubric so you are aware of all the grading criteria.
References
Crawford, C. M. (2021). New products management (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Domino’s. (n.d.). Domino’s 101: Fun facts. https://biz.dominos.com/web/public/about-dominos/fun-facts
Githens, G. (2010). Domino’s Pizza reinvents itself: The story-behind-the-story of the new product launch. Visions, 34(4).
