Turnaround Story of Domino's

To be honest, I never was a big fan of Domino’s. Neither did I like their pizzas very much. However, it impresses me most that Domino's has engineered an incredibly impressive turnaround. The company is growing incredibly fast, thanks to its improved pizza and very reasonable prices. Dominos took transparency to new heights in the Pizza Turnaround campaign. By simply admitting that their pizza "sucked," they gained the credibility needed to show that their "new and improved" pizza was actually new and improved. It sparked one of the most notable corporate rebounds in history, one of the most successful new product launches in history, and a campaign that's still being talked about years after it ran.

1, Transparency Let Us Face It

The ensuing years saw Domino’s take these negative comments head on and reinvent themselves.

1. They recreated their pizza, ingredient by ingredient. They went back to the basics of putting the best ingredients in their primary product and recommitting themselves to first-rate customer service in bringing their pizza to the masses.
2. They even took on as their marketing message the truth that they had not done a very good job of serving people or creating a quality product to deliver to folks in their homes and workplaces.
3. And while they admitted their mistakes, they simultaneously invited the world to give them another try, to celebrate their return to the basics, to offer up their new commitment to getting it right for people, and to indeed return to their core value that all people deserve a hot delicious pizza in less than thirty minutes.

2. Domino’s Re-orient themselves

1. Focused, simple messaging. Our old product was bad, Domino’s is a transparent organization that listens to its customers, and our new product is awesome. That simple… and that effective.
2. Be authentic: the tone and style of the idea might not be everyone’s taste, but it is clearly authentic, and therefore believable.
3. Consumers were increasingly unhappy with the product, which they said had "crust like cardboard", "tasted of processed cheese" and at best was "gooey, greasy…. but fast!". The product reputation had become a total roadblock.
4. Transparency. Doyle admits he was hesitant about the negative messaging. They did thorough testing before coming up with the right balance of positive and negative in the Turnaround Campaign.
5. Domino's admitted that its pizza wasn't the greatest, and touted a new-and-improved product, helping to drive sales.
6. With rising customer dissatisfaction evident not only through surveys and word-of-mouth but also in sales numbers.
7. Though it was an incredibly risky move, especially in the eyes of marketing pundits of the time, Doyle’s decision to completely revamp the company’s image proved highly successful. The company spent 18 months and millions of dollars to create a completely new recipe for its pizzas, update its online ordering system to become more efficient and user friendly, and roll out a brutally honest and interactive ad campaign that actively utilized the internet and technology.
8. Doyle knew that Domino’s biggest weakness was the taste of its pizzas. The core recipe had not changed for decades and consumers were starting to leave the chain for other brands that provided fresher, healthier, and better-tasting pizzas.

3. Re-invent With New Features

1. Domino’s Pizza launched its mobile application in 2008 and has been steadily making enhancements since. A popular feature is the “Pizza Tracker” that can show the progress of your pizza in real time and you can send messages to the crew crafting your pizza.
2. This move allowed Domino’s to maintain its leadership for delivery speed, to give customers more direct control over pizza ordering and to increase transparency for its customers, who could now see when their pizza was being made, cooked, boxed and delivered via The Pizza Tracker app.
3. Improving the menu has helped Domino's succeed over rivals like Pizza Hut and Papa John's.
4. Having a better core product was necessary for business to turn around.

4. Domino’s Overseas Business

1. Domino's has opened 1,800 new stores in 10 countries in the past four years, Doyle told investors. Domino's is thriving in emerging markets like Brazil and China because it is a relatively inexpensive luxury. The company said it is currently seeing growth in India, Turkey, and Japan.
2. Domino's has also innovated its sandwiches, pastas, and side dishes.
3. Reinvented pizza helped business.

5. Talk back and challenge consumers

1. It continues to engage customers in discussions across social media—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp—as well as directly. And these interactions and discussions have helped to buoy a once-great brand back into the spotlight.
2. The Battlefield is in the mind: Most consumers impressions about product was happening online, so online was the key medium for Domino’s to talk back and challenge consumers. They are doing a great stuff over Domino. It's really amazing one.
3. To protect its core competence, management began revamping the company's online tracking system to minimize delivery time. The results were astonishing a 14 percent increase.
4. And Domino’s leads among top restaurant franchises—including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Brands, Yum! Brands and McDonald’s—in international store growth, growing 43% since the end of 2008. All of this by taking harsh customer feedback seriously and committing to making improvements? That is a brand story worth taking a closer look at.

.Customers are returning to the brand, resulting in huge store growth—in Q3 of 2014, the company added 160 stores. And its financial turnaround has been remarkable: profits are up 16% this year, and stock shares have risen 13% in late 2014, hitting an all-time high in October. Domino’s boldly stated a goal of turning things around, and it has delivered , aided by a re-dedication to product quality and customer engagement.

Domino's amazing turnaround was a result of extensive efforts to improve the company's pro-cesses and menu offerings by introducing new recipes, using mobile technology to attract new customers, and improving supply chain management. As a result, the company not only improved its top line performance but also became the fourth largest e-tailer in the U.S. Today, Domino’s has some of the best growth figures in the food industry. And it achieved this success by tackling the criticism head-on with its "Pizza Turnaround" campaign. The Domino’s turnaround is one of the great marketing stories of our time. It was unique, widespread, and told a story that resonated with consumers. Perhaps the most crucial aspect to all of the changes was the way Domino’s decided to handle its marketing. It could have easily gone the way of many other companies and merely pushed a basic advertising campaign that promoted “new and improved” pizzas. However, the team decided not to spin the matter around and, instead of just promoting its new pizzas, it also apologized profusely to its customers and admitted that its old pizzas were awful. By rejuvenating and pushing onto emerging markets overseas, the company will be in a prime position to grow rapidly over the next few years and gain greater market share, with the potential of catching up to Pizza Hut and beyond.