Domino’s Pizza, also known as Domino’s, is an American pizza restaurant chain and international franchise pizza delivery corporation, with its headquarters at the Domino Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan, United States, near Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was founded in 1960 by Tom Monaghan and his brother James Monaghan. Domino’s Pizza is currently spread over 73 countries. It has its stores in 5,700 cities worldwide (2,900 international and 2,800 in the US). By the first quarter of 2014 Domino’s had approximately 11,000 stores, with 774 in the UK, 4,986 in the US, and 1010 in India.
In 1960, Tom Monaghan and his brother, James, purchased DomiNick’s, a small pizza store in Ypsilanti, Michigan, close to Eastern Michigan University. The deal was secured by a $500 down payment, and the brothers borrowed $900 for the store. The brothers planned to split the work hours evenly, but James didn’t want to drop his job as a full-time postman to meet the increasing demands of the new business. Within eight months, James exchanged his half of the business with Tom for the Volkswagen Beetle they used for pizza deliveries. By 1965, Tom Monaghan had purchased two more pizzerias; he now had a total of three locations in the same county. Monaghan wanted the stores to have the same branding, but the original owner forbade him from using the DomiNick’s name. One day an employee returned from a pizza delivery, with a suggestion that the stored could be named as Domino’s. Monaghan immediately loved the idea and the business was officially renamed to Domino’s Pizza, Inc. in 1965. The company logo originally had three dots, signifying the three stores in 1965. Monaghan planned to add a new dot with the addition of every new store, but this idea wasn’t implemented, as Domino’s experienced rapid growth.
From its founding until the early 1990s, the Domino’s Pizza menu was kept simple relative to other fast food restaurants, to ensure efficiency of delivery. Historically, Domino’s menu consisted of only one pizza in two sizes (12-inch and 16-inch), 11 toppings, and Coca-Cola as the only soda option. The first menu expansion occurred in 1989, with the debut of Domino’s deep dish or pan pizza. A market research on the newly introduced pizza showed that 40 percent of pizza customers preferred thick crusts. For this new product launch around $25 million were spent, of which $15 million was spent only on new sheet metal pans with perforated bottoms. Domino’s introduced extra-large size pizzas in early 1993, starting with the 30-slice, yard-long “The Dominator”.
Objective of the campaign
Domino’s aimed to boost its lunch time orders with a Twitter campaign that reduces the price of a Pepperoni Passion pizza each time someone tweets the hashtag #letsdolunch. Domino’s said the campaign is to remunerate its 471,000 Facebook fans and 20,000 Twitter followers, but it will also help drive orders this Monday lunchtime which one is normally a quiet period for the pizza retailer.
Approach
Domino’s UK ran a clever Twitter campaign that got fans involved with them, all in the name of cheap pizza. The ‘Tweets For Treats’ campaign ran from 9am to 11am and followers could the buy the cheaper pizza between midday and 3pm.
People had to include the hashtag #letsdolunch in their tweets to bring down the price of a large pepperoni pizza. For every tweet sent, a minimum of £0.01 would be cut off the price of the pizza. Then the specially priced pizza could be ordered at the Tweet for Treat Facebook tab between 12-3pm GMT, but only by those who followed Domino’s UK on Twitter and liked their Facebook page. Also, the Terms and Conditions stated that the price will not drop below £6.59 regardless of the number of tweets.
Results
Around 825 tweets were sent. This led to fall in the price of Pepperoni Passion pizza from £15.99 to £7.74. This was a clever, one-off campaign that got the Domino’s name out there by people essentially advertising Domino’s by tweeting about it, and the order mechanism meant that more people had an incentive to like or follow the brand. Also, pretty much everyone will be happy a quick, easy bargain that you can have in your hands in minutes.
Learning
This was a clever, one-off campaign that got the Domino’s name out there by people essentially advertising Domino’s by tweeting about it, and the order mechanism meant that more people had an incentive to like or follow the brand. This sort of social media campaign is relatively a cheap setup, so the company stands a chance to gain a decent PR win if it can start trending on Twitter. Domino’s has been swift to embrace digital media and achieved a 43 percent increase in the online sale last year, which contributed to a 14.6 percent overall jump in profits to £43.6 million. Last month it was reported that 13 percent of its digital sales came through a tablet or smartphone, with the iPhone app alone generating £10 million in sales.
Photo Credits: brandsoftheworld
