Dominos Pizza Inc.

The Pizza Turnaround Case Study

By Ari Morris and Mike Gordon

Table of Contents

Content Pages
HistoryofDominosInc.

KeyFigures

SituationAnalysis 13

Researchconductedbycompany 46

Goals 7

Objectives 8

TargetAudience 9

Tactics 1012

Messages 13

Slogans 14

Execution 1518

Evaluation 19

MediaCoverage 2022

Personalanalysis 23

PRcontactinterview 2425

Currentinformation 26

Citations 2728

AppendixA 2930

AppendixB 3132

AppendixC 3334

AppendixD 35


History of Dominos Inc.

1960s

1960:TomMonaghanandhisbrother,James,purchase
"DomiNick's,"apizzastoreinYpsilanti,Mich.Monaghan
borrowed$500tobuythestore.

1965:TomMonaghan,thesoleownerofcompany,renames
thebusiness"Domino'sPizza,Inc."

1967:ThefirstDominosPizzafranchisestoreopensin
Ypsilanti,Michigan.

1980s

1983:Dominos1stinternationalstoreopensinWinnipeg,
Canada.

1983:The1,000thDominosstoreopens.

1989:PanPizza,thecompanys1stnewproduct,isintroduced.
History of Dominos Inc. (continued)

1990s

1990:DominosPizzasignsits1000thfranchise

1992:Dominosintroducesitsbreadsticks,thecompanys1st
nonpizzamenuitem

1995:DominosPizzaInternationalopensits1000thstore.

1996:Dominoslaunchesitswebsite,www.dominos.com

1998:Domino'slaunchesanotherindustryinnovation,
Domino'sHeatWave,ahotbagusingpatentedtechnology
thatkeepspizzaovenhottothecustomer'sdoor.

1999:DavidA.BrandonisnamedChairmanandCEOof
DominosPizza.

History of Dominos Inc. (continued)

2000s

2001:CinnaStixwereintroduced

2001:GettheDoor.ItsDominos.Advertisingcampaign

2003:DominosbecametheOfficialPizzaofNASCAR

2007:Dominosintroducedonlineandmobileordering

2007:DominoslaunchesitsYouGot30Minutescampaign
withCP+B

2009:Introducesnewpizzarecipe
Key Figures

DavidBrandon,FormerCEO

InDecember2007,DavidBrandonbecamechairmanofDetroit
Renaissance,sincerenamedBusinessLeadersforMichigan.Heserves
ontheboardofeconomicdevelopmentgroupAnnArborSPARK.Healso
servesontheboardofdirectorsatBurgerKing.Brandoncreatedthe
newcorepizzarecipeandsteppeddownfromDominosatacrucial
timeduringitsmarketingprocess.Hebecameanintegralpartofthe
company'smarketingstrategysincehewasthecentralfigureinthe
company'sTVadvertising,amovethatheightenedhisnationalprofile.

J.PatrickDoyle,CEO

PatrickDoyle'sroleasDavidBrandon'ssuccessorwasalreadyinplace
bytheDomino'sboard.ThecompanyhadpreviouslyidentifiedDoyleas
thecompany'snextCEO,ifBrandonchosetoleave.Doylesdutiesas
CEObeganinearlyJanuary2010.
Situation Analysis

Founded in 1960, privately held Domino's Pizza, Inc., is the largest pizza-delivery

company in the world, operating more than 9,000 units throughout the United States and

in 58 other countries. Domino's was built on simple concepts, offering only delivery or

carry-out and an extremely limited menu: for more than thirty years, the company

offered only two sizes of pizza, eleven topping choices, and--until 1990--only one

beverage, Coca-Cola. Domino's Pizzas vision illustrates a company of exceptional

people on a mission to be the best pizza delivery company in the world.

MISSION STATEMENT

Domino's Pizza strives to be the leader in delivering off-premise pizza convenience to

consumers around the world. As a team united throughout the world, this is accomplished

by the following:

1. Being fanatical about product quality and service consistency;

2. Providing product variety to meet all customer needs;

3. Placing team member and customer safety and security above all other concerns;

4. Creating an environment in which all team members feel valued, because they are;

5. Building and maintaining relationships that reward franchisees and other partners for
their contributions.

1
Situation Analysis (continued)
Dominos burst onto the scene in the early 1980s and saw a steady rise in popularity,

receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from the American public in its early years.

Its recipe was simple and streamlined. However, annual customer feedback reached a

plateau. The pizza was not bad, but it was not great either. When asked what the overall

image of Dominos Pizza was, most customers had the same sentiment: Your customer

service is the best in the business, but the pizza is just okay. The companys initial

advantage was its business model of pizza delivery. In the more modern era, this creates

little value and enthusiasm among customers. It was this sub-par feedback that prompted

CEO, Patrick Boyle, to make a change. It is important to note that there was no specific

instance that sparked the campaign, but more of a need to change the formula and the

way business was done.

The new strategy focused on the customer with regards to their wants and needs. This

resulted in a bold advertising initiative that significantly bolstered interest in the brand

and what it had to offer.

For our case study, we will be focusing on Dominos from 2009 to the present. In the end

of 2009, Dominos scrapped its 49-year-old pizza recipe for a totally renovated pizza

during the Pizza Turnaround campaign. Dominos launched the campaign with the

assistance of Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B).

2
Situation Analysis (continued)

Sam Crispin, who later became partners with Chuck Porter and Alex Bogusky, founded

CP +B in 1965. The agencys headquarters are located in Coconut Grove, Florida, with

additional offices in Boulder, Los Angeles, and London. Dominos selected CP+B as

their national creative advertising agency in September 2007. The company selected

CP+B because they are recognized for their breakthrough, category-changing campaigns.

CP+B has also worked for other companies such as Burger King, Volkswagen, Nike,

Miller Lite, and Coke Zero.

3
Research
The Dominos Pizza Turnaround campaign is unique due to the fact that there was no

concrete incident that led to the ultimately revamped pizza. As stated previously, Dominos

consistently received positive customer feedback in the customer service category in terms of

delivery, but struggled with the most important aspect of all: quality of the product. Years of

perfecting speed and efficiency eventually began to sacrifice the overall quality and taste of

Dominos pizza. Dominos fell behind its competitors essentially because customers felt that

its pizza tasted more like the box than pizza. This prompted the franchise to make a

significant change. In early 2008, CEO Patrick Boyle felt that something needed to be done

in order reshape the image of Dominos. The solution: start from scratch and make a brand

new pizza. Customers were the primary source of inspiration for the new plan. The majority

of the research conducted was through communication with customers. Dominos created

focus groups that allowed loyal customers to speak truthfully about their thoughts on the

pizza. Initial feedback was not positive. The following were the primary issues customers

had with the pizza:

The cheese used was not real.

The crust felt like cardboard.
Not enough tomato sauce was present on the pizza.

The objectives of the research were to gather substantial feedback from customers,

asking what the pizza currently lacks and what they look for in a pizza. Additionally,

how can the brand present the new pizza as being believable and an actual improvement

based off of customer suggestions without sounding phony. The latter was a primary

concern of the developers of the campaign. It is often difficult to persuade an audience by

simply claiming that the product is now better. The so-called new and improved ad

campaigns came across as clich to the public. This persuasion was done through the use

of various social media channels and focus group testimonials.

4
Research (continued)

Social Media

Dominos created a live Twitter feed, #newpizza, that allowed customers to

voice their thoughts on the brand and the pizza. Upon completion of the new

pizza, the page also gathered feedback from customers on what they liked or

disliked about the new pizza.

The Dominos Facebook page served as basically an extension of the Twitter

feed. It allowed for more in-depth feedback from customers, but also

gave Dominos an opportunity to promote and advertise the campaign

more extensively.

Focus Groups

Focus groups gave customers the opportunity to share their honest opinions
about the pizza. Dominos learned quite a bit from the direct feedback of loyal

customers. Pizza alone would not change peoples perceptions of the brand. The

term new and improved held little weight with customers. Wholesale changes

needed to occur. Dominos acknowledged that despite having confidence in the

new pizza formula, the damaged image of the company would struggle with

credibility of the new product. A new expectation needed to be created. The

majority of participants stressed that they wanted Dominos to be great again or to

be the pizza they used to be.

5
Research (continued)
CAMPAIGN

Upon completion of all the research and customer feedback, the implementation and goal

of the campaign needed to be set. Dominos was overwhelmingly successful with the

Turnaround Pizza campaign because of one crucial reason: they listened. Customers were

surprised to find that Dominos had actually taken into account their harsh criticism of

the pizza. Instead of taking it personally, they used the criticism to craft a better pizza

recipe based solely off of what the customers desired.

To prove its credibility, Dominos hired a documentary film crew to capture real focus

group participants voicing their honest opinions about the pizza. The footage was shown

to Dominos management and captured their responses. Dominos employees read

complaints about the product from online forums, twitter feeds and blog posts. Dominos

stressed the importance of showing that it had listened to its customers. This established

the brands credibility.

6
Goals

The overall goal of the campaign was to create an entirely new and innovative pizza

recipe from scratch that satisfied that wants and desires of customers. This was an

incredibly bold decision since it essentially reconstructed its core product. This included

changes to the crust, tomato sauce and cheese. From the beginning of the campaign,

Dominos strived to create a pizza that was truly of the people. Simply put, Dominos

guaranteed that by listening to its customers, it would produce a product that would

without question be enjoyed and successful.

Dominos also hoped to retain many of its lost customers. Buyers who previously made

the switch to another brand sited poor pizza taste as the primary reason they chose to

explore alternate options.

7
Objectives
Dominos Pizza Overall Campaign Objective:

Dominos Brand Tracking Study discovered that Speed and Best in Delivery were no

longer key factors for consumers when purchasing pizza and that Taste was now the

number one driver. Due to the change in key factors, Dominos wanted its consumers to

give Dominos a second chance by purchasing the new pizza. Dominos hoped enough

customers would give Dominos a second chance in order to have its same-store sales

increase by two percent by the following year.

In addition to improving its sales, the company wanted to change consumers views on

the companys product and overall brand. Dominos was asked to focus on brand

perception, especially in the areas of taste and awareness by market share. By introducing

the new pizza recipe, Dominos hoped to make consumers more aware of the new and

improved product. Dominos also wanted its customers to have confidence in the

company, which it was really lacking in 2009. After the campaign, Dominos hoped the

customers would know that Dominos is a quality pizza company who really cares about

their customers.

Research Objectives:

Dominos Pizza crafted their research with three specific objectives in mind. First, the

company wanted to understand its place in consumer and food culture. Dominos also

wanted to understand how people felt about the brand and product quality overall.

Finally, they wanted to figure out ways to make the new and improved pizza a believable

and persuasive product.

8
Target Audience

Dominos target audience for the campaign was its current customer base. Dominos

really wanted to focus on consumers who have tried Dominos pizza in the past and have

been disappointed. Dominos realized that its current customer base was slowly

diminishing due to its poor product and really wanted to retain loyal customers. The

Pizza Turnaround campaign was designed to convince people to give Dominos a second

chance.

Dominos target audience is very broad due to Dominos diverse consumer base;

however, they do focus on consumers between the ages of 18-35. In addition, they

focus on targeting couples where both the husband and wife are working because

Dominos provides a quick and easy meal for working individuals.

9
Tactics
Dominos used several different tactics throughout their Pizza Turnaround campaign.

These tactics included both changes to their actual product and their social media sites.

Product Change

The most important change that Dominos made was its complete product change.

Since the overall campaign objective was to change consumers views about the

product, they made key changes in their recipe.

Crust: Added butter, garlic, and parsley

Cheese: Shredded instead of diced mozzarella, with a hint of provolone

Sauce: Sweeter, with a red pepper kick (40% more herbs)

After spending two years testing dozens of cheeses, fifteen sauces and nearly fifty crust

blends, Dominos finally found a new recipe that they were ready to introduce to their

customers. Dominos wanted to make sure that their product was better than the majority

of new and improved products.

PizzaTurnaround.com

Dominos decided to launch a new website to jumpstart the campaign called

PizzaTurnaround.com. The website served as a reference point for all media related to

the campaign efforts. The website also helped to drive traffic to the companys Twitter

account by hosting a live Twitter feed on the right-hand margin.

10
Tactics (continued)

ShowUsYourPizza.com

Dominos launched a second website where the company allowed customers to submit

pictures of their delivered pizzas online. This tactic was used to increase two-way

communication between Dominos and its consumers. With the launch of this website,

Dominos hoped to build trust and a better relationship with its customer base.

Contests

Dominos created a contest entitled Green Graffiti Contest where they hoped to
draw traffic to their Twitter account.

In 2010, Dominos hosted a Pizza Proverbs contest at their third website,

PizzaProverbs.com. This contest was used to help pizza eaters partake in

Dominos company branding.

Twitter

Although the Dominos brand had previously been damaged through information spread

on Twitter and YouTube, Dominos decided to take this opportunity to re-establish their

brand through these social networking tools. Dominos took its Twitter account

(@Dominos) and used it to interact with its customers on a regular basis. Dominos

frequently replied to customers who mentioned them on Twitter in order to increase the

flow of two-way communication.

11
Tactics (continued)
YouTube

Dominos decided to use YouTube to their advantage instead of letting the website hurt

their brand. Dominos created various videos about the campaign to post on YouTube

which they also placed on their PizzaTurnaround.com website.

Advertising

Dominos took the same video footage from the YouTube videos and shortened them into

TV advertisements, to further spread their message. These television spots included

customers making negative comments about Dominos pizza as well as Dominos CEO,

Patrick Doyle, apologizing for Dominos lack of effort.

12
Messages

Dominos Pizza wanted their customers to feel that the company was capable of

embracing negative comments in order to improve their company. Dominos was

admitting to failure during the campaign yet wanted the customers to realize that they

actually cared and wanted to fix their pizza in order to have loyal customers.

Dominos tried to humanize their brand by focusing on the message We listened.

They wanted customers to realize that they are able to face their criticism head on

instead of running from it.

Dominos also wanted their customers to feel that their pizza had actually improved.

Typically, the public is skeptical when it comes to new and improved ad campaigns

so they wanted their customers to feel that they were being authentic.

13
Slogans

Did we actually face our critics and

reinvent our pizza from the crust up? Oh
Yes We Did.

Oh Yes We Did.

We Listened.

14
Execution
YouTube

Dominos set up a documentary-style YouTube video in December 2009 featuring

Patrick Doyle, Dominos Chief Executive Officer, acknowledging his companys lack of

success and vowing to make a better pizza for his customers. Patrick Doyle called this an

apologetic ad campaign, hoping to renew the trust between the company and its

customers. By admitting to the brands negative perceptions, Dominos was able to take

on a new start with its customer base.

In addition to the video featuring Patrick Doyle, the video featured real customers in

a focus group setting who complain about the poor tasting pizza. These clips of blunt,

honest feedback provided the basis to make the campaign believable.

The comments included some of the following complaints:

Had a few slices of Dominos Pizza, havent had it in a few years. It was

alright but the crust seemed a bit lacking.

Pizza was cardboard

Mass produced, boring, bland pizza

Processed cheese

Dominos tasted like cardboard. Microwave pizza is far superior.

Doesnt feel like theres much love in Dominos pizza.

Totally void of flavor

15
Execution (continued)
The campaigns focus was to be believable and credible. These values were the reason

that no actors or narrators were used in any part of the campaign. All aspects of the

campaign relied on real customers and real employees of Dominos Pizza. Specifically in

The Pizza Turnaround Documentary, we hear from Karen Kaiser, Marketing Director,

Meredith Baker, Product Manager, Brandon Solano, Head Chef, Phil Lozen, Public

Relations, and Roxane Swamba, Pizza Chef. The four and a half minute video could be

found on Dominos YouTube channel (dominosvids).

One-on-One Interaction

To follow up with the focus group participants, Dominos employees made surprise

visits to the group participants who had previously bashed the pizza. The reactions to the

customers new pizza tasting were filmed and shown in clips on the companys website

and seen on various TV ads. This tactic was to further assure customers that Dominos is

a company who is as responsive as they say they are. In December 2009, Dominos Pizza

chefs Sam Fauser and Brandon Solano visited participants and posted reactions to the

Pizzaturnaround.com website.

TV Advertisements

The TV ads were placed during times of high viewership in order to create mass

awareness about the campaign. The ads were shown during the NFL Playoffs, American

Idol, and Primetime premieres.

16
Execution (continued)
Internet Presence

Not only did the company launch its campaign on television, but they had a strong

Internet presence as well. Dominos created forums where customers could voice their

opinions and show pictures of the pizzas they received. Through constant feedback from

customers, Dominos was able to adjust their strategies based on the consumers

opinions. Complaints were sent to the forums as well as on Twitter feeds and blog posts.

All traffic about the campaign was directed to Pizzaturnaround.com. The website features

videos about the campaign as well as real-time feeds that show user comments about the

campaign from YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. The feeds are left unfiltered, showing

both bad and good comments. This tactic is to help Dominos support their honesty

efforts throughout the campaign.

Contests

Dominos held a Green Graffiti Contest where 60 Dominos Pizza logos were blasted

onto sidewalks in and around Miami with the help of a high-pressure water sprayer. Until

February 24, the first 250 people who submitted a photo of themselves with a

GreenGraffiti sidewalk Dominos logo, to Dominos Twitter account @dominos had the

chance to win a large, one-topping pizza.

Occurring later in 2010, Dominos Pizza Proverb Contest allowed customers to

submit 100 character words of wisdom for a chance to have it printed on the new

Dominos pizza box. Dominos gave participants examples such as:

Give a man a pizza and hell eat for a day. Teach him to order online and hell eat for a
lifetime.
Life is what happens between slices.

Nearly 8,000 proverbs have been submitted online as of October 2011.

17
Execution (continued)
ShowUsYourPizza.com

Dominos was also very responsive when they allowed customers to submit pictures of

their delivered pizzas online. The company ran a TV commercial showing a picture of a

delivered pizza that Bryce from Minnesota posted on ShowUsYourPizza.com. The

photographed pizza wasnt as beautiful as Dominos had wanted it to be so they

surprised Bryce at his house. The company delivered him two good-looking pizzas, $500

in Dominos gift cards, and a handwritten letter from Patrick Doyle. The company then

filmed Bryces reaction and placed the video on their YouTube channel in September

2010.

On the website ShowUsYourPizza.com, Dominos made three promises to

their customers:

We will only photograph real, honest-to-goodness pizzas. That means fresh

from our own ovens, with exactly the same ingredients we deliver to your

doorstep. Nothing else added.

Our employees will make the pizza we shoot. Not an art director or model maker

or food stylist. A Dominos employee trained to make pizzas the only way they

know how: by hand.

We will not artificially manipulate our pizzas when photographing them. No

tweezers, no steam guns, no model knives cutting perfect perforations in the

cheese. The only thing that will touch the pizzas we shoot is the pizza-

makers hands and a standard Dominos pizza cutter.

Each time Dominos set up a new assignment, they awarded eight winners with a

$500 check just for sharing a picture of their Dominos pizza.

18
Evaluation
Dominos monitored all of their online conversations through Burrelles Luce and Nielsen

BuzzMetrics. These tools were able to gain feedback from over 150 million blogs, user

groups, and social networking sites across the globe. Dominos then made sure social

media specialists were responding to all consumer feedback.

The Dominos Pizza Turnaround Campaign experienced tremendous results from their

efforts. In the first quarter of 2010, Dominos increased their sales by 14.3 percent in the

United States. This increase in sales what the highest ever-recorded jump in fast food

history. In addition to the companys individual improvement, it has also had higher sales

increases than their competitors. In the last two years, while Dominos domestic sales

have increased by 12.9 percent, Papa Johns has only increased by 5.7 percent and Pizza

Hut at 2 percent. As of May 2011, Dominos had yet another quarter of both rising

profits and revenues.

In the first month of the campaign, Dominos stock rose by 44% and rose 75% in the first

quarter of 2009 Their stock has risen over 150 percent since the campaign began.

According to Dominos Chief Marketing Officer Russell Weiner, more than two-thirds of

consumers have said theyll be back and the advertising itself has scored off the charts.

We are in a dramatically different place with our customers than we were prior to doing

it, said Patrick Doyle, CEO.

19
Media Coverage

In the second quarter 2010, Dominos Brand Tracking Study showed a 10% increase in

taste perception and a 45% increase in top-of-mind awareness. Also, Dominos copy

testing results were amazing. Millward Brown named the Pizza Turnaround campaign

among the most effective campaigns they had ever tested. Dominos was in the top one

percent of all ads tested in the last five years. According to Millward Brown,

breakthrough scores were 77% better than the QSR (Quick-service restaurant) norm

and Dominos persuasion was 176% better than before the campaign.

In terms of social media, Dominos Facebook page now has over 4 million fans, when

it had just over 400,000 fans in 2010.

Despite sales and social media improvements, there are still several customer

complaints seen on the Pizzaturnaround.com website. For example, there are complaints

saying that their delivered pizza is burnt, soggy, or greasy.

An independent taste test was held in February 2010 where Dominos swept the competition

with their new pepperoni, new sausage, and new extra cheese pizzas, beating Papa Johns

and Pizza Hut. The blind taste test consisted of nearly 1,800 pizza consumers from eight

different United States markets who chose Dominos pizza by a wide margin.

20
Media Coverage (continued)

The Pizza Turnaround campaign over 2 billion free media impressions including, CNN,

MSNBC, The Colbert Report, Huffington Post, Mad Money with Jim Cramer, ABC

World News, Fox News, Oprah Radio, The Tonight Show with Conan OBrien, Time,

and The New York Times.

In February 2010, Gayle King invited Dominos CEO, Patrick Doyle, to her Oprah Radio

show to share how impressed she is with the new pizza recipe. In the interview, Gayle

takes callers who agree with her opinions about the new pizza recipe. Gayle claims she

was sold on the new pizza once she saw the brush painting garlic on the crust.

Bazaar Voice, a social commerce site, held a Pizza Throwdown in February 2010. The

Pizza Throwdown was a taste-testing contest between Pizza Hut, Dominos and Papa

Johns pizzas. The pizza taste-test included participants who were first asked which pizza

they thought they liked the best. Papa Johns was the clear winner, with 60% of the vote.

The participants were then blindfolded and asked to give feedback on the pizzas sauce,

crust, cheese, and overall taste. Dominos won the taste challenge with 50 percent of the

vote.

21
Media Coverage (continued)
Below are the results based on a 5-point scale:

Dominos:
Sauce 3.9
Crust 3.9
Cheese 3.3
Overall 3.8

Pizza Hut:
Sauce 3.2
Crust 3.1
Cheese 3.1
Overall 3.2

Papa Johns:

Sauce 3.1
Crust 3.0
Cheese 3.0
Overall 3.0

Washington DCs local Fox news show also held a Pizza Taste Test in January 2010. The

taste test was between Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, Dominos, and a local pizza shop called

Potomac Pizza. The four news anchors from the show agreed that Dominos made great

improvements in their pizza recipe.

Jim Cramer of CNBCs Mad Money told its viewers in January of 2010 to buy

Dominos Pizza. Cramer admits to previous bashing the company, telling its viewers to

purchase Papa Johns pizza instead. At the time, Dominos was selling an average of one

million pizzas per day.

22
Personal Analysis

The Pizza Turnaround campaign was extremely ingenious in many ways yet also had its
weaknesses. Primarily, Dominos did an excellent job with its social media tools used
throughout the campaign. It is without question that the campaign would not have been
nearly as successful without the used of its PizzaTurnaround.com website, YouTube, and
Twitter. These sites were extremely vital to the campaign as they allowed for two-way
communication between Dominos and its customers. The two-way communication
throughout the campaign allowed Dominos to continually receive feedback and respond
to its customers in order to have an effective campaign.

In addition to being extremely involved and responsive with social media, the campaign
was a great example of turning a negative into a positive. It was very bold that the
company was able to publicly admit their flaws in order to save their business. Most
companies are hard at work trying to cover up their flaws while Dominos was able to
make an entire campaign out of theirs.

Dominos also did a great job of showing compassion for their customers throughout the
campaign. It was a brilliant tactic to show the Dominos chefs surprising the previous
focus group participants with the new pizza. Dominos also showed they cared for their
customers by replying to complaint tweets on Twitter. The company still appears to be
responsive on their Twitter account to this day.

Our main problem with the campaign is the lack of current information provided by
Dominos. Their PizzaTurnaround.com website has not been updated since the campaign
was in effect. The website does contain valuable information from when the campaign
was in effect, yet no current feedback about the new pizza recipe or its sales information.

23
PR Interview
PRContactInformation

ChrisBrandon
PublicRelations
Chris.brandon@dominos.com

ChrisBrandonattendedtheUniversityofKansasandgraduatedwithadegreein
Journalismin2002.

BrandonwaspreviouslytheaccountmangerforNASCARfromJanuary2003to
December2006inNewYorkCity.HehasnowservedastheDominosPublic
RelationsspokespersonsinceJanuary2007.

How do you think the company was handled overall , specifically, what aspects
of the campaign do you feel worked?

From its original concept all the way to implementation, I dont think it could have gone
much better. Everything we set out to accomplish with the new pizza was accomplished. I
think the very fact that we were so honest about our original pizza and showed we were
willing to listen were vital to the campaigns success.

When did it become apparent that Dominos needed to make a change?

There was actually no single incident that prompted us to really say, oh ok, we need to
do something here. The campaign actually started in early 2008. The CEO at the time,
David Brandon, just felt that a core change needed to be made. From that point
forward, it was all about doing the research.

What was the idea behind focus groups/surveys?

Along with social media, the focus groups definitely were a primary focus because we
could get instant direct feedback. We figured it would be a great opportunity to really
just let the public express their thoughts on how we can make a better overall product.

How did Dominos use social media to its advantage?

I think for the first time, you really saw a company reach out to its customers in order to
make a better product. We set up the Twitter feed specifically so that people could start
sending us their feedback on the new pizza and how it tasted. The results were
overwhelmingly positive. Facebook, too, served more or less the same purpose, but
definitely allowed people to elaborate a little more. In general, social media allowed us
for more of a two way communication with the customer. Without question, social media
will continue to play an active role in our brand awareness.
24
PR Interview (continued)
What was the most common form of criticism the pizza received and how did you
use it to your advantage?

The list goes on and on, but we definitely got fake cheese, and cardboard crust most
often. It was clear to us that if that many people are commenting about specific areas of
the pizza, then we should probably fix them. In developing the new pizza formula, a
significant amount of time was spent on what ingredients would be added to the crust.
As for the cheese, we decided to go with a whole variety of several different cheeses.

How do you think the campaign benefited Dominos overall and why?

I look at it in terms of two things: sales and the brand. In terms of sales, millions of
people tried the new pizza, and results showed that they continued to come back for
more, which is always a good sign. At the start of the campaign, we were slightly
concerned because we knew we were taking a huge risk. The plan to start from scratch
was so bold. It was basically a blow up the bridge type of strategy. In terms of the
brand, we really feel it did wonders for us. Many people hadnt tried our pizza so we
gained new customers, but I think more importantly, people rediscovered the brand and
pizza that they once knew and loved.

25
Current Information
Dominos continues to build off the tremendous success they experienced with the Pizza
Turnaround campaign. Tests done in 2010 ranked Dominos ahead of Papa Johns in taste
comparison. Three out of five people chose Dominos over Papa Johns nationwide. As
previously stated, the social media aspect of the campaign played a crucial role in its
success. Dominos still uses Twitter and Facebook to allow for honest comments and
feedback from customers on a daily basis, thus increasing the brands credibility and
integrity. As of February 2010, there had been 10,000 Turnaround related tweets and
over 80,000 new fans on Facebook.

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unknown suspect put 65 milligrams of cyanide into Tylenol capsules, 10,000 more
than what is necessary to kill a human. Officials believed the tampering occurred once
the bottles had reached the shelves. Immediately after the incident, Tylenols market
share dropped from 37% to 7%.

Johnson & Johnson was responsible for dealing with this crisis, in what is now considered
to be a textbook case. They first re-called the product. Despite not being the individuals
who tampered with the product, they still took ownership and responsibility for what
occurred. It is important to note that Tylenol acted quickly, but more importantly,
acknowledge that something had gone wrong and needed to be fixed.

While this example is much more serious than the Dominos campaign, each brand
executed swiftly and effectively upon recognizing that a problem occurred. In this
case, Dominos became aware that pizza sales were suffering and recognized the
customers dislike for the product. As a result, Dominos took action, acknowledged
that its pizza was not the best and acted accordingly in order to produce a better pizza.

26
Citations
Baertlein,L.(2011,May05).Domino'sprofituponnewpizz
arecipe.Retrievedfrom
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/05/us-d
ominos-idUSTRE7447KZ20110505

Capp,S.(2010,March07).Domino's'pizzaturnaround'
representsabout-faceinmarketingandproduct.Retrievedfromht
tp://www.dmnews.com/dominos-pizza-turnaround-represents-
about-face-in-marketing-and-product/article/164636/

Celebrating50thyear,domino'spizzagivesitselfamakeover.
(2009,December16).Retrievedfromhttp://phx.corporate-
ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=135383&p=irol-
newsArticle&ID=1366561&highlight=

Domino'snewrecipehelpspizzamakermorethandoubleit
sprofits.(2010,March02).Retrievedfrom
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/dominos
-profit-more-than-_n_483198.html

G r e g o r y, S . ( 2 0 1 1 , M a y 0 5 ) . D o m i n o ' s n e w r e c i p e : ( b r u t a l )
truthinadvertising.Retrievedfrom
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2069
766,00.html

F a r h i , P. ( 2 0 1 0 , J a n u a r y 1 3 ) . B e h i n d d o m i n o ' s m e a c u l p a a d
campaign.Retrievedfromhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp
-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/AR2010011201696_pf.html

Horovitz,B.(2010,May07).Newpizzarecipedidwondersfor
domino'ssales.Retrievedfrom
h t t p : / / w w w . u s a t o d a y. c o m / m o n e y / i n d u s t r i e s / f o o d / 2 0 1 0
-05-05-dominos05_ST_N.htm

Lippert,B.(2010,January03).Downondomino's.Retrieved
fromhttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding
/down-dominos-101211

M a g a r y, D . ( 2 0 1 0 , J a n u a r y 0 4 ) . D o m i n o s b o l d a d s t r a t e g y :
we'renolongerbad.Retrievedfrom
http://www.nbcmiami.com/the-scene/food-drink/Domin
o s - B o l d - N e w - A d - S t r a t e g y - We - S u c k e d - 8 0 6 2 0 4 7 7 . h t m l

27
Citations (continued)
McDevitt,C.(2010,January29).Dominoslearnstwitt
er,facebooklessons.Retrievedfrom
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35133794/ns/business-
the_big_money/t/dominos-learns-twitter-facebook-lessons/

Parekh,R.(2010,October18).Marketeroftheyearrunner-up:
domino's.Retrievedfromhttp://adage.com/article/special-
report-marketer-of-the-year-2010/marketer-year-runner-
domino-s/146494/

Solorzano,B.(2009,December17).Candomino'snewpizz
adeliverontaste?.Retrievedfrom
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/17/business/m
ain5989576.shtml

Stevenson,S.(2010,January11).Likecardboard".Retrie
vedfrom
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ad_report_card/
2010/01/like_cardboard.html

TheARF2011davidogilvyawardswinnersandcasestudies.
(n.d.).Retrievedfromhttp://www.thearf.org/assets/ogil
vy-11-winners

28
Appendix A
Dominos learns Twitter, Facebook lessons
When you change product and ask people about it, they actually tell you

By Caitlin McDevitt

updated 1/29/2010 7:51:32 AM ET

Domino's Pizza recently launched the Pizza Turnaround, a campaign in which

it sought feedback from customers on how to improve its pizza recipe. It was a
self-deprecating endeavor. The company paid to create a commercial featuring
someone who says, "Domino's pizza crust to me is like cardboard. But through
admitting that its product wasnt perfect, Domino's was promising to make it
better. The campaign got lots of attention, so on the PR front, it seemed like it
was relatively successful.

But posts on Domino's Facebook wall tell a different story. Heres a sampling of
many negative reviews that have been accumulating since Domino's changed
its recipe (all unedited):

Theres even an opposition group on Facebook called The New Domino's Pizza
Still Sucks. As TBMs C-Tweet blogger Bernhard Warner pointed out earlier this
month, when it comes to pizza, its hard to please everyone. And, to be fair, there
are positive posts on the Facebook wall praising the pizza as well. Bill Smoot
says: This is the biggest change in Pizzadom in centuries! I ordered two pies for
us to try, and they were both a huge hit. Way to go, Dominos. But the majority of
the wall posts about the new pizza are critical.

It seems that the most common gripe is that theres too much garlic on the new
crust. Others say that the new sauce is too spicy. Whats most unsettling for the
company is that these critiques come from the people who call themselves fans
of Domino's on Facebook surely some of its most loyal customers.

Domino's doesn't seem very worried, though. Tim McIntyre, Vice President of
Communications at Domino's, wrote over e-mail, "Please dont ignore the fact
that a lot of the feedback were getting is positive, and you cant judge our
success or failure just based on the tweets found on our web site or Facebook
posts." He contends that the campaign's effectiveness will be measured in order
counts and in-store sales, which won't be disclosed for a few months.

If the sales don't come through and the "Pizza Turnaround" backfires, it won't
be the first such campaign to flop. Companies take a big risk when they change
the fundamentals of their formulas. In 1985, Coca-Cola introduced "New Coke,"
inciting what the company history now refers to as "a firestorm of consumer
protest." Within months, an embarrassed Coca-Cola returned to its classic soda

29
Appendix A (continued)
formula. More recently, PepsiCo revamped the packaging of its Tropicana
orange juice, only to almost immediately change it back to the original design
after customers revolted. While an outright switch back to the cardboard pizza
that Domino's has already lambasted seems unlikely, it's possible that the chain
could bring some elements of the traditional variety as options on the menu if
the protests persist.

Another high-profile apology is the last thing that Domino's needs. Not too long
ago, its president regretfully addressed a YouTube fiasco that made a mess of
the company's public image. Nearly a million people watched a video in which a
Dominos employee put gross things on pizza he was making. While the video
prompted a lot of disgusted backlash, it didnt seem as though there were that
many customers complaining that Domino's was actually putting gross things
on every pizza that it delivered. Unfortunately, in response to the Pizza
Turnaround, now thats exactly what many customers are saying.
So Dominos finds itself playing defense once again. To its credit, the company is
very responsive to the negative feedback its getting on Facebook. Every few
hours, theres a post like this one: You can ask the store to leave the crust
seasoning off if you'd like, that might help. The companys Twitter feed is also
actively apologetic. Dominos tweeted recently, So sorry you're pizza wasn't
what you hoped for. Guarantee says 'If you're not completely satisfied...' "

Truly engaging in social media necessitates this kind of imperfect back-and-

forth. It requires that companies hand over some control over their brands to
their customers publicly. There are enormous benefits to doing so. Endorsement
of a product by a large group of strangers, or, better yet, people whom you know,
is arguably much more valuable than a one-sided advertisement. But with the
advantages of social-media engagement come the downsides. For example, when
a customer rants about what may be an isolated incident of lousy service on that
company's Facebook wall, everyone can see it. When a bunch of people don't like
a new product or policy, they can rise up against it together.

Dominos may not have anticipated the new pizza backlash, but it should have.
Customers have been using Facebook and Twitter as a customer-service forum
since companies first presented themselves there. If it took Dominos until now
to realize that, maybe its pizza wasnt so bad in the first place.

30
Appendix B
Dominos Bold Ad Strategy: We're No Longer Bad

Pizza chain admits it wasn't great before, but touts

new recipe
By Drew Magary
|Monday, Jan 4, 2010 | Updated 4:00 PM EDT

For the past few years, the fast food industry has taken its swipes for poisoning
the nations arteries and turning us all into giant blobs of profusely sweaty
humanity.

Dominos Pizza took it to a new level in the 1980s with a 30-minute or less
deliver policy that meant we did not have to move to get food that was bad for us.
Dominos was the first big chain to base their entire business off of bringing food
to your home. And it treated them well. Your scale? Not so much.

Of course, millions of other restaurants now deliver as well, so its not enough
for Dominos, these days, to merely be a convenient source of pizza. And many
frozen pizza brands, particularly DiGiornios, have taken the strategy of saying
their product is just as convenient as delivery, but hotter and better tasting. All
that has dug into Dominos market share. Now, if you want people to order from
you, your food has to be, you know, GOOD.

And thats what makes the new Dominos Pizza Turnaround campaign such an
intriguing development in the ad business. The chain realized that, in order to get
more customers, they had to change their product. Now, usually when a
company improves a product, they roll it out by saying, Hey! Its new and
improved! You loved this crap before! Now youll double love it!

Not Dominos. Rather than ignore the past, the chain has chosen to fully expose
the old flaws in their product. For a very long time, Dominos pizza has been

31
Appendix B (continued)
lousy, and theyre now ready to admit that. In the main video on their website,
they include feedback from customers savaging the taste of their pies.
Cardboard. Flavorless. Bland. All of this feedback is presented with stark
music, as if youre watching a war documentary. The head chef of Dominos
professes shock at the feedback. Apparently, he didnt realize that Dominos
was juuust a step below Totonnos.

The rest of the movie is typical corporate rah-rah stuff, with Dominos employees
gathered around in circles and cheering before heading out to deliver your pizza.

But the striking thing about this campaign is the stuff up front, where the
company lays the honest truth out there for all to see. Its striking to see a
company acknowledge the reality of how crummy their product was, and make
what appears to be a genuine effort to do something about it. So Dominos has
changed their pizza, and allowed customers to leave feedback on their site about
it. Most of this feedback appears to be unfiltered. Theres plenty of negative
comments about the new pies (many Americans, lest youve ever dined out in a
strip mall, LIKE their food bland and flavorless). There are also plenty of positive
comments as well.

It leaves you curious about at least giving Dominos new pizza a chance. And
thats precisely the point of the campaign. Maybe you will like it, maybe you
wont. But you need to know that its different. And hopefully an improvement.
Hey, there are SIXTY PERCENT MORE HERBS in the sauce! That has to mean
something! This kind of openness is welcome in this day and age. Its almost
enough to make me want to try the new Dominos myself. If there werent a
clearly superior Vace pizzeria right nearby.

32
Appendix C
Marketer of the Year Runner-Up: Domino's
Pizza Chain Sees a Gutsy Move Pay Off as Foes Become Fans and Store Profits
Reach an All-Time Industry Mark

By: Rupal Parekh Published: October 18, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- "I seriously hated Domino's in the past," wrote Kris
Johnson on the pizza chain's Facebook page. "Only had it a couple times and it
made my stomach upset and it was average at best. I recently moved and tried
Domino's again since there's not much for delivery where I moved to. We are
totally turned around by the taste! We have ordered again since 2 more times
and plan to order a lot more in the future. ... Way to turn things around Domino's,
keep up the fantastic work!!!"

The ability to persuade folks like the Facebook commenter to make the leap from
non-fan to repeat customer is precisely what Domino's was banking on in
December 2009 when it launched one of the boldest ad campaigns the
restaurant industry has seen in years.

Domino's stopped centering its ads solely on recessionary messaging, such as

two-for-one pizza deals, and passed the mic to its harshest critics -- and
permitted them to publicly condemn the taste of its core product. Then the chain
took it one step further and sided with the haters. Domino's admitted in its ads
that its pizza was gross. And it threw out its 49-year-old recipe, which had been
compared to cardboard and ketchup, and replaced it with a reformulated sauce,
new blend of cheese and a garlic-seasoned crust.

Many observers balked at the approach -- with some even predicting the
campaign would be brand suicide. But historic double-digit lifts in same-store
sales later, the lesson for all marketers is that it's OK to acknowledge when
something's broke so that you can assure consumers you'll fix it.

Two months into the turnaround campaign, validation came in the form of a taste
test that saw Domino's edge out the competition. Nearly 1,800 random pizza
consumers from eight U.S. markets did a blind test, and in head-to-head
comparisons participants selected Domino's pizzas as tasting better than both
Papa John's and Pizza Hut by a wide margin.

It didn't stop there. Rather than serve up the recipe change as a one-time stunt,
the effort spearheaded a new platform of transparency for the brand. Under Chief
Marketing Officer Russell Weiner and lead creative agency Crispin Porter &
Bogusky, Domino's has rolled out a host of efforts under the transparency
banner. Domino's promised that all national advertising would feature pizzas

33
Appendix C (continued)
actually made by its employees and vowed to never artificially manipulate pizzas
when photographing them.

In the wake of the makeover campaign, Domino's posted a 14.3% same-store-

sales gain -- a record for the fast-food industry, beating the highest-ever gain by
McDonald's of 14.2%. And in the most-recent quarter, the chain, which opened
its 9,000th store worldwide in March, saw revenue increase 14.5%, and quarterly
profit was up a whopping 55.7% to $22.6 million.

The majority of Domino's marketing efforts this year hasn't spoken at

consumers, it has involved them. With "Taste Bud Bounty Hunter," consumers
nominated people they know who haven't tried Domino's new pizza, and those
who converted the most taste buds won a year of free pizza. In the "Show Us
Your Pizza" effort, consumers could send in photos of real Domino's pies they
ordered for possible use in a national ad campaign. Winners received $500.
That every major media outlet, blogs and TV personalities have paid attention to
Domino's tactics hasn't hurt either. After all, who wouldn't want to have Stephen
Colbert taste-test their product on his show, only to say: "Is that pizza, or did an
angel just give birth in my mouth?"

34
Apendix D
Domino's profit up on new pizza recipe

By Lisa Baertlein
LOS ANGELES | Thu May 5, 2011 6:03pm EDT

(Reuters) - Domino's Pizza Inc (DPZ.N) posted higher-than-expected quarterly

profit on Thursday as its reworked U.S. pizza recipe drove sales, and costs for
cheese and meats rose less than feared.
Shares of the pizza delivery chain closed up almost 11 percent.

Sales at non-U.S. restaurants open at least a year were up 8.3 percent in the first
quarter. U.S. same-restaurant sales fell 1.4 percent from a year earlier, when
they jumped a hefty 14.3 percent on the popularity of a reworked pizza recipe.

The drop in U.S. same-restaurant sales was significantly less steep than
many analysts had expected.

"We certainly had a tall mountain to leap over," Chief Executive Patrick
Doyle said.

Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Domino's changed its U.S. pizza recipe last year to
make it more flavorful. Doyle said many of the customers who sampled it back
then continue to frequent the chain, expanding the company's domestic
customer base.

Doyle told Reuters that some analysts were expecting rising commodity costs
to hit margins despite company assurances that they would not.

"This level of commodity growth is not difficult for us to manage through, not
when labor is tame like it is now," he said, adding that the company would
not significantly raise prices if commodity costs stay in the current range.

Net income for Domino's first quarter ended March 27 increased 10.6 percent to
$27.1 million, or 43 cents per share, boosted by higher international royalty
revenue and sales at established restaurants.

Excluding gains from sales of restaurants to franchisees, profit was 42 cents per
share, beating analysts' average estimate by 8 cents, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S.

"We attribute virtually all of the upside to better-than-anticipated U.S. same-

store sales," said Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski, who had
expected U.S. sales at established restaurants to fall 6 percent for the quarter.
Revenue rose 2.1 percent to $389.2 million.

35