Entrepreneurial Management – Group Assignment 4TH July 2020

DOMINO’S CASE ANALYSIS

Submitted by: Sanam Rana, Bishow Shrestha, Shruti Sharma and Samjhana Shrestha
Submitted to: Module Leader, Ms. Charu Sharm (Thapa)
Case:
DOMINO’S
As a delivery company, no one outdoes Domino's. Its reputation for delivering hot pizza in 30 minutes or
less is ingrained in customers' minds. But not long ago, Domino's begin hearing negative comments from
its customers about its pizza; basically, they felt it was horrible. As a company that has long focused on
solid marketing intelligence to make decisions. Domino's went to work on changing customers'
perception of its pizza.
Based on its marketing research, Domino’s soon realized that it had to take a very risky step and
completely recreate the pizza that it had been selling for more than 40 years. This video illustrates how
research not only enabled Domino's to come up with a winning recipe but laid the foundation for a
successful promotional campaign that has made fans appreciate Domino's pizza as much as its delivery
service.
After viewing the video featuring Domino’s answer the following questions:-
1. What role did the marketing research play in the creation and launch of Domino’s new pizza?
2. Could Domino’s have gone about its research process in a more effective way? Explain.
3. Why did it take so long for Domino’s to realize that customers did not like its pizza? Did the
company come to this realization accidentally?
Entrepreneurial Management – Group Assignment 4TH July 2020

Case Analysis
A brief review of Domino's videos:
In the year 1960 Tom Monoghan with his brother James started DomiNicks Pizza in Ypsilanti
Michigan near Eastern Michigan University. Later in 1965, Tom changes its name to Domino’s
Pizza 1965. It is now popular with the name of Dominos’ only since 2012. In its 60 years of
history now in 2020, it has over 17,000 stores in more than 85 countries. From earlier in 1973,
Domino's Pizza offered a guarantee to customers their pizzas would be delivered within 30
minutes of placing an order or they would receive the pizzas free.
With success, Domino’s started to get negative feedback from its customers. The comments were
so horrible that they even said "Domino's teste like a Cardboard". There were comments on the
website stating "Domino's tastes like cardboard, Microwave pizza is far superior", the crust
seemed a bit lacking, pizza was cardboard, Mass-produced, boring, bland pizza, processes
cheese, etc. In 2009 they carried out the Customer Satisfaction Survey. Through Focus Group
Discussion (FGD) they could not only hear but also see the dislike on the costumers' faces.
People didn't find the love in it. The flavor, the crust, the sauce, the cheese, every integrand were
criticized. As said by President Patrick Doyle in the Video, Domino's Pizza Turnaround, "Such
negative comments could let you down or you can use them to excite and energize your process
of making better Pizza.
Domino's announced plans to entirely reinvent its pizza. The negative comment fire the Dominos
to make a better pizza. In the video Domino's Pizza Turnaround, it began a self-critical ad
campaign in which consumers were filmed criticizing the then-current pizza's quality and chefs
were shown developing a new pizza. The chefs started to make a better recipe for pizza from
scratch. They changed everything, the sauce, the crust, the cheese, everything. It tests great from
first of bite to the last bite of its slice. In the second Video Clip - Domino's Pizza At the Door of
Our Harshest Critics the two Chefs start visiting the critics home from FGD. They make the test
of their new pizza at their doorstep and assured them quality and test with New Domino's pizza.
Those critics who gave negative comments suddenly started like more than before as it meets
their expectations of Domino's Pizza. There were lots of cheese,
Carlos who said Domino's pizza crust is too rubber, after testing new pizza said it's really good
and fantastic. Marc who commented on its tests like cardboard with sauces and cheese said it is
delicious. These videos show's the importance of customer feedback for the success of the
Entrepreneurial Management – Group Assignment 4TH July 2020

company. The decision to reinvent its pizza enabled Domino's come up with a winning recipe but
laid the foundation for a successful promotional campaign that has made fans appreciate
Domino's pizza as much as its delivery service.

1. What role did the marketing research play in the creation and launch of Domino’s new
pizza?
Marketing research is the process of gathering information, analyzing and interpreting the
information about product or services to be offered in the market. Marketing research helps to
learn about the past, present and potential customers for the product or service. Marketing
research is also research into the characteristics, spending habits, location and needs of your
business's target market, the industry as a whole, and the particular competitors we face.
Marketing research consists of consumer research, advertising research, product research,
distribution research, sales research and environmental research. Marketing research can be
conducted from primary and secondary information. The primary information can be collected
through a qualitative and quantitative method. Where are secondary information can be collected
from the available resources like online platforms, the government published data, magazine, and
other reports.
The focus group discussion and key informant interview help in a collection of qualitative
information. Such information is subjective. While quantitative information is used to quantify
the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable
statistics. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than Qualitative data
collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys –
online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face interviews,
telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic
observations.
In the case stated above, Domino's conducted marketing research on its consumer's satisfaction.
They carried our qualitative research on the consumer's satisfaction. Here the focus group
discussion was conducted with few consumers and critics who showed dissatisfaction with the
Domino's Pizza. The finding was horrible than expected. The social media and online consumer's
feedback information also reviewed as secondary data information which was more serious and
important for Domino's reaction. are primary data collection through The result shows the
Entrepreneurial Management – Group Assignment 4TH July 2020

dissatisfaction of the consumers towards the pizza of Dominos’. The comments like “Domino’s
tastes like cardboard, Microwave pizza is far superior”, “the crust seemed a bit lacking, pizza
was a cardboard", etc. we’re not so motivating.
The survey helps to learn why the costumers are so dissatisfied. Was customer service bad? Was
the delivery not on time? Was the price to high? The survey helps to learn that customers have
started to be dissatisfied with the pizza itself. From the crust, the sauces, the cheese, and
everything missed the quality and the love for pizza. Domino's started to collect the costumer's
feedback posted online. They also conducted a focus group discussion to learn more from the
customer perspective. This helped them to collect their feedback and also provided them
opportunities that they want from Dominos' Pizza.
Dominos took the negative comments as an opportunity to rethink their pizza-making process
and this helped them. They started developing new recipes of pizza that show Domino's love for
Pizza and they valued their costumer's feedback. The research didn't only help to learn what the
customer wants but also help in creating a better pizza. This couldn't have been possible if they
didn't know what the actual problem was in Dominos' pizza. Domino's® Pizza Turnaround and
Domino's Pizza at the Door of Our Harshest Critics is a perfect example of how an organization
should negative feedback and turn them into a positive one.
Smartly, Dominos also tested their new pizza with the same critics of focus group discussion.
This helped them to validate their new pizza with costumer satisfaction. Those who gave
negative feedback turned to a positive one. The process helps them to learn that consumers liked
their new recipe. For an entrepreneur, consumer feedback is important for a successful business.
The feedback help entrepreneur to grow and also helps to make their customer loyal.
Marketing research for the organization like Dominos is important to keep themselves in
competitive advantage. The organization should carry out product development based on
customer satisfaction. Since the consumer's test and market competition in unpredictable, the
organization like Dominos should conduct market research and development of new products
and services time and again to gain large market share and competitive advantages.
Entrepreneurial Management – Group Assignment 4TH July 2020

2. Could Dominos’ have gone about its research process in a more effective way? Explain.

In the above case, Dominos performed their market research based on concerns & reviews from the
customers. Domino's pizza understands the importance of retaining customers. Dominos have valued the
feedback and suggestions given by the customers in terms of making pizza. They somehow handled the
situation effectively and I don't think there was any other effective way to do so. It accepted the criticism
as truth and understood that the pizza could no longer compete. They did address the problem at hand and
tried to find a desirable solution. They admitted that their product has something missing and that it could
not please its customers. Thus with the help of the proper market research, Dominos showed America that
it is highly in tune with the voice of the customer, aware of its shortcomings, and willing to go to great
lengths and spend millions of dollars to correct them. It created a new marinara, upgraded its cheese, and
added an herb butter brush to its pizza crusts. Dominos went door to door to their valued customers for
the pizza tasting campaign, the feedback was amazing and customers were happy with all the
improvements in the pizza. In its research process, every customer's opinions were taken in note and
dominos worked efficiently to make the better pizza and serve their customers.
Dominos’ could do more with more questionnaire survey and carried out in-depth marketing research.
The whole process was a part of being reactive form frequent negative comments received from the
costumers. To have a competitive advantage they should have been proactive rather than reactive. We
can say that by the end of the day they did best to handle the current crisis. Otherwise, it could have been
worse for such a big profile retail organization
Entrepreneurial Management – Group Assignment 4TH July 2020

3. Why did it take so long for Domino’s to realize that customers did not like its pizza? Did the
company come to this realization accidentally?

Domino's is one of the companies who own the highest market share in the Pizza Industry. With its Pizza
Quality and customer service, it is known worldwide. It has over 17000 stores in the whole world as
Franchises. In late 2009, Domino's faced a major turnaround with many criticisms questioning the quality
of Domino's Pizza. But Domino's faced the criticisms head-on for a consumer to be happier and love the
Pizza they served.
I think that Domino's took very long to realize that the customers did not like its pizza. Domino's moved
to take the company public and it went on the stock market in 2004. But by 2009, the shares were down at
$8.76 and the public perception was that Domino's made some of the worst tasting fast food in America.
With marketing and social networking research, the marketers found that Domino's found that it had more
criticisms than expected. The public perception was that Domino's made the worst tasting food in
America with comments like the Pizza's taste was forgettable with the crust being rubbery, the pizza
tastes like cardboard with tomato ketchup and pepperoni and so on. Domino's came with a strategy of "30
minutes fast or free". The whole idea was that if the hot Pizza didn't receive within the consumers'
doorsteps within 30 minutes, they would get it for free. No one including the consumers and chefs didn't
pay much attention to the quality of the Pizza. Later the Pizza market was caught up by competitions and
people found that they could get good service elsewhere and get a better pizza. Therefore, it was
accidental as the crisis was to be expected as the chef had the mindset of making the Pizza quickly which
lacked quality but prioritized speed. The real problem of losing sales woke Domino's up.
Domino’s should have done proper test marketing as it allows how a product performs in the market
before a full-scale release. Even though it is a slow and expensive marketing technique, it will prevent the
company from suffering further losses.