With plummeting stocks in the late 2000’s, Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer, Russell Weiner, recognized that the brand needed a major marketing overhaul if it was going to survive the 21st century. And an overhaul was exactly what the brand needed to gain a foothold in the booming digital age. Over the course of five years, from 2009 to 2014, Domino’s has seen a stock price increase from the low teens to the current (June 2, 2014) stock price of $72.71 per share.
The driving force behind Domino’s significant success over the past five years is digital transparency. The brand has always strived to have transparency in their products, from what the pizza dough was made of to the freshness of the toppings. Weiner and the marketing team realized that the best channel to broadcast transparency was through digital tools. So rather than spending millions of dollars creating one-off TV ads or outdoor ads that say Domino’s is transparent, the brand chose to operate transparently through digital tools.
With the introduction of more online tools, Domino’s quickly learned that digital is the preferred ordering method for their customers. Domino’s business is, in fact, ordering pizza. The brand learned that digital ordering encourages a higher repeat customer rate, with higher spending, higher customer satisfaction, and customers are twice as likely to try new products. Plus, the brand was able to learn more about their customers with the plethora of data collected during the ordering process.
The Digital Tools
Domino’s outsourced their digital tool design to CP+B, a full-service integrated advertising and digital agency. The agency designed digital tools that would facilitate customer engagement, help collect data from Domino’s customers, and project company and product transparency to the public. With online tools such as the Think Oven, the Pizza Tracker, Live Stream, and the Pizza Builder, Domino’s was able to engage their customers and significantly increase revenue at the same time.
The Think Oven, the Pizza Tracker, and Live Stream are digital tools that Domino’s can use to promote the brand’s philosophy of transparency and customer service. The Think Oven is a tool that Domino’s uses to listen to consumer’s feedback and collect data on consumer behavior in an effort to better serve them in the future. The Domino’s Tracker allows customers to see the progress of their pizza order with steps one through five and detailed time markers as to when each step was reached. The Live Stream (although not available at every location) even lets customers see the pizza making process in real time (surely, it is riveting). All of these tools help the brand appear honest and open, and help the brand interact on a more personal level with each of its customers.
The Data
Digital tools saved Domino’s, and they have the data to back it up. The first quarter the digital overhaul was introduced, Domino’s saw same-store sales rise 14.3%, which was the largest quarterly same-store sales increase ever recorded for a major fast-food chain. Domino’s generated $2 billion in annual global sales in 2013, 35% of which was generated via mobile devices.
Domino’s successful adaptation to the digital market was thanks to three main concepts. The brand was able to detect and understand the demands of their customers, create a roadmap to their goal, and then track the data that was collected as a result of customer interactions with their digital tools. If a pizza company can embrace digital, surely you can too!
