Domino's Pizza turns 2 years of recipe research into successful product overhaul
It was a feat of cheesy proportions.
Domino’s Pizza, risking its international reputation, secretly spent 18 to 24 months researching, testing and tweaking a completely new pizza recipe in 2008 and 2009.
"This is not a slight tweak. We changed everything on our pizza from the crust up," then-Domino's USA President J. Patrick Doyle told AnnArbor.com when the new recipe was announced in December. "We changed the crust, we changed the sauce, we changed the cheese."
Chefs at the Ann Arbor Township-based international chain’s headquarters got it right. Domino’s backed its new recipe with a major marketing campaign, which the company described as the biggest in its history, and a warm reception from customers fueled sales increases in the first three quarters of 2010.
Domino’s is AnnArbor.com Business Review’s 2010 “Deals of the Year” winner in the research category.
The new pizza, according to Domino’s, boasts a "garlic seasoned crust with parsley baked to a golden brown.” The sauce is “sweeter” and “bolder” with a “red pepper kick” and 40 percent more herbs. The mozzarella cheese is "flavored with just a hint of provolone” and shredded instead of diced.
Domino’s, eager to avoid the pitfalls of Coca-Cola’s New Coke disaster in the 1980s, conducted extensive market research before introducing its new recipe - all in an effort to ensure its success. The firm also monitored social media Web sites and influential bloggers to tailor changes.
"I'm excited, not nervous," Doyle said when the product was introduced. "We have done an unbelievable amount of consumer research over the past two years."
AnnArbor.com Content Director Tony Dearing accepts the Research award on behalf of Domino’s from Larry Freed of ForeSee Results.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Domino's research showed that the percentage of consumers who said they would "definitely purchase this pizza in the future" improved 25 percent with the new product.
"That's a landslide in the market research world," Doyle said. "It's unheard of. We're absolutely convinced we've got it right."
He was right. Domino’s sales have been on a continuous upswing since the new pizza was introduced.
Sales at Domino’s stores open at least a year rose 14.3 percent in the first quarter, 8.8 percent in the second quarter and 11.7 percent in the third quarter. In a hypercompetitive industry, sales increases of that size are considered significant.
"We're pleased that people love our reformulated pizza, the value of our offer and our honest and straight-forward communication of our brand values," Doyle said in a statement last month. "We're a new Domino's.
“ … Despite these tough economic times, we continue to outperform the majority of the restaurant industry due to our energized domestic business and our powerful international division."
Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.
Comments
B1
Sun, Nov 7, 2010 : 5:23 p.m.
Sure tastes better tahn before though!
glacialerratic
Sun, Nov 7, 2010 : 10:11 a.m.
This is deceptive, sloppy and irresponsible journalism. The real story is on the front page of today's NYTimes--that this so-called "research" was underwritten by a non-profit partner of the USDA which contributed $12 million to the development of this new product. And why did the USDA give Domino's this slice of corporate subsidy? To boost consumption of cheese! "Dominos Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies. Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Dominos to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign. Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. This partnership is clearly working, Brandon Solano, the Dominos vice president for brand innovation, said in a statement to The New York Times. But as healthy as this pizza has been for Dominos, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a days maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories. And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.......On Oct. 13, Dominos announced the latest in its Legends line of cheesier pizza, which Dairy Management is promoting with the $12 million marketing effort. Called the Wisconsin, the new pie has six cheeses on top and two more in the crust. This is one way that we can support dairy farms across the country: by selling a pizza featuring an abundance of their products, a Dominos spokesman said in a news release. We think thats a good thing. A laboratory test of the Wisconsin that was commissioned by The Times found that one-quarter of a medium thin-crust pie had 12 grams of saturated fat, more than three-quarters of the recommended daily maximum. It also has 430 calories, double the calories in pizza formulations that the chain bills as its lighter options. According to contract records released through the Freedom of Information Act, Dairy Managements role in helping to develop Dominos pizzas included generating and testing new pizza concepts. When Dairy Management began working with companies like Dominos, it first had to convince them that cheese would make their products more desirable, records and interviews show. It provided banners and special lighting for the drive-up window menus at fast food restaurants, recalled Debra Olson Linday, who led Dairy Managements early efforts in promoting cheese to restaurant chains before leaving in 1997." The dairy industry and the taxpayer paid for this "research," and the bill will include the impact on the nation's health. What this award celebrates is not research, but deceit. Annarbor.com's award recognizes clever marketing acumen, nothing more. Business celebrating business--it's simply more marketing.